In a blog post that I co-authored for Larry Ferlazzo’s Classroom Q&A EdWeek blog, I criticized mandates that require teachers to adhere to a curriculum without modification. Such “fidelity” mandates, such as New York City’s current mandate that all Algebra I teachers follow the Illustrative Math curriculum exactly, ignore teachers’ professional expertise and ignore the systemic problems that overload teachers while depriving them of resources.
We don’t force doctors to follow mandates from drug companies. We trust their expertise to make the best decisions for their patients. Why do we treat teachers differently?
The full article is here: https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-teachers-have-to-endure-plenty-of-short-sighted-mandates-here-are-3-of-them/2024/10.