Since its inception in the High Middle Ages, the western university has been the one societal institution that provides certification of intellectual and educational quality. Possessing a college or university degree is a universally recognized indicator that the holder has undergone a stringent, in-depth, high-quality educational process, a process that was devised and overseen by a group of experts who possess the highest levels of expertise. That educational process, the means by which we determine who has the right to hold society's only official certification of intellectual quality, is the curriculum. As such the curriculum is the #1 indicator of quality in our educational institutions.

General Education: The Core of Common Learning

• At the center of any effective curriculum there should be what Ernest Boyer, an internationally renowned educator, called "a core of common learning" wherein students are exposed to the basic elements of our cultural and educational tradition, and are encouraged to make connections between ideas, concepts and bodies of knowledge. As Ernest Boyer wrote:
  
  

  "General education should be the study of those experiences, relationships, and ethical concerns that are common to all of us simply by virtue of our membership in the human family at a particular moment in history."
  

• The core of common learning must stress not only the acquisition of knowledge and exploration of ideas, it also must be deeply committed to the development of the skills, abilities and attitudes that will enable the graduate to function effectively in the real world he or she must live and work in.
• The core of common learning must be integrated, coherent, well-organized and based on measurable learning outcomes.
• Example: Five of the 10 General Education Goals at Longwood College -

• Goal 1: The ability to write and speak logically, clearly, precisely, and the ability through accurate reading and listening, to acquire, organize, present and document information and ideas.
• Goal 4: An understanding of mathematical thought and the ability to conceptualize and apply mathematical logic to problem solving; the ability to use computers for acquiring, processing and analyzing information.
• Goal 5: The application of the methods of science to the acquisition of knowledge and an appreciation of the major contributions of science to our cultural heritage and to the solution of contemporary problems.
• Goal 6: An understanding of the foundations and history of western civilization, and of the past as a mode for understanding the present.
• Goal 10: The ability to make informed, ethical choices and decisions, and to weigh the consequences of those choices.

The Effective Curriculum

• It must be understood that curriculum is not limited to the classroom and spans the entire living and learning experience of the college student; the curriculum must be viewed as an all-encompassing human growth and development experience.
• Example: In a residential environment like Longwood, we pay close attention to linking classroom instruction to life in the residence halls to volunteer activities in the community.
• An effective curriculum must connect students with our cultural past while at the same manifesting a relevancy and timeliness that will permit the graduate to apply his or her learning in a manner that will allow them to live productive, secure and beneficial lives.

• Example: The recently completed Strategic Plan of Longwood College calls for all of our students to have an internship experience. We believe every academic discipline has a practical worth and can provide students with skill sets that are directly applicable to the world of work. Through internships we require that our students apply their disciplinary knowledge in a real life work environment.

• Indeed, the greatest responsibility and the greatest challenge of the curriculum is to transmit to our students the knowledge and values accumulated over thousands of years of human existence, while at the same time creating the opportunity for that knowledge to be actively applied to the real life conditions of the modern world.
• An effective curriculum must be flexible and responsive to the needs of its constituents. With the extremely rapid rate of change that characterizes our world today, we must have the processes and mechanisms in place that will allow us to react rapidly and offer a product that meets the needs of all our constituents - students, employers, parents, etc.
• The highly diverse nature of the population we serve - i.e., age, culture, language, economic background, social background etc. - mandates against a one size fits all solution to curriculum development. Each of Virginia's institutions has a unique mission and serves a unique population. It is the responsibility of the institution to develop a unique curriculum that meets the needs of its constituents and it is the responsibility of the state to recognize the benefit to be derived through the institution doing so.

• Example: there are over 200 languages spoken in Northern Virginia, with no less than 65 being spoken in one high school alone. When you combine this with the fact that each of these languages indicates the unique cultural, historical and sociological background of the speaker, the implications for educators are clear: they must have the flexibility to design and develop curricula that are suited to their unique circumstances.

The College of Character

• One very important aspect of the curriculum has to do with the civic and ethical development of our students. We cannot forget or ignore our responsibility to transmit our society's core values; it is not enough to merely transmit facts and to teach skills that can lead to gainful employment - we must combine them with a transcending emphasis on right conduct, personal responsibility and civic duty.

• Example:The Longwood College Mission Statement (1st Sentence)- Longwood College is an institution of higher learning dedicated to the development of citizen leaders who are prepared to make positive contributions to the common good of society.

The Longwood College Honor Code (in effect since 1910) forbids lying, cheating, stealing and plagiarism, and "represents the standards of integrity and moral responsibility that all students are expected to exemplify in their lives."

The Blue Ribbon Commission and the Curriculum

• Perhaps the most important thing I can say to this group today has to do with the BRC's involvement in curricular matters: when examining curricular issues, the BRC should not focus on defining the processes that will lead to curricular quality - we should instead define the end product
• Through the By-laws of every institution in the Commonwealth we empower our faculty to develop and recommend the curriculum to their Boards of Visitors. The faculty are our curricular experts, those whom we pay to make sure our institutions offer the best possible educational programs. This is, in effect, a bottom up process.
• The most beneficial contribution the BRC can make is to work with the public institutions to define the core performance measures that should characterize an educational institution in the Commonwealth of Virginia - i.e. the end product. The design of that curriculum is left to our experts, the faculty, who recommend their programs to Boards of Visitors for approval.
• The performance measures must reflect the uniqueness of Virginia's individual institutions and should be the result of a collaboration between individual institutions and the state.
• It is indisputable that Virginia has one of the finest systems of public education in the world. In the final analysis, the Commonwealth's greatest educational strength lies in the diversity of its institutions and the diversity of their curricula. All of us who are involved in the educational enterprise must now join together and find the means to ensure that we will continue to offer a relevant and high quality education well into the next millennium. The citizens of the Commonwealth deserve nothing less.

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Posted: December 14, 1998
By The Educational Policy Institute of Virginia Tech
sjanosik@vt.edu