David A. Squires has written a book about the Balanced Curriculum process entitled, Aligning and Balancing the Standards-based Curriculum, published by Corwin Press and available on Amazon.com.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Dr. Fenwick English

This is a book whose author has walked the walk so the reader can find comfort and credibility as David Squires "talks the talk." The Squires "balanced curriculum" is what is known as a "front loaded" approach to curriculum development. That is, Squires has one enter the curriculum development process by thinking about what ought to be in the curriculum first, and then thinking about assessment second. This approach has a long history and tradition, not the least which is Ralph Tyler's 1949 course syllabus at the University of Chicago which asked curriculum developers to think about the "needs" of children and the "needs of society" as a locus for creating goals and objectives to design learning experiences for children in classrooms. However, Ralph Tyler never had to worry about national and international standards and current forms of assessment and accountability were not in place.

David Squires has created a logical, step by step, curriculum development process that is web-based and which can lead to not only the creation of a platform of consensus regarding what ought to be in the curriculum, but one which is highly interlaced with a broad based foci of standards contingent upon selection by the creating teacher.

The Squires model continues the tradition of centering on the teacher as the major defining agent within the curriculum development process, ensuring that the curriculum is not "teacher proof" but "teacher contingent." Curriculum alignment is also part and parcel of the Squires approach, within a broad band of standards selected by the teacher at the outset. This model also includes continuing attention to updating the curriculum, ensuring that the curriculum "is a living document" continually incorporating change.

In the kind of national assessment approach dominant today, a consistent, logical, and incremental curriculum model is best suited to deliver the kinds of "results" defined and embedded in those assessments. Questions of what is "best" are subordinated to demonstrating results within these assessment systems. David Squires' approach assumes that schools and school districts will retain some forms of independence and autonomy within emerging national networks. As long as curriculum is delivered locally, this assumption remains valid. The teacher will always represent a major independent variable in curriculum delivery.

Finally, the work that Dr. Squires has done in moving the curriculum development process onto the web has removed some of the tedium involved in crafting curriculum, making it "user friendly" and open to the kinds of on-going changes which make the promise of continual renewal of curriculum a reality. That in itself should ensure the reader that his or her time will be well spent in coming to understand what Dr. Squires means with the concept of "balanced curriculum."

Fenwick W. English
R. Wendell Eaves Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership
School of Education
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill