Fidelity tools and learning

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Data-based Decision Making School-Wide. Suggested Citation:. Evaluation Briefs. I see lots of you are already using the chat box. But since we're talking about curriculum today, Joe and I thought it might be interesting to have you all start with just entering a word or two in the chat box about what you think of when you hear the term "curriculum.

Go ahead and have a minute there to chat that in. And while you do that, I'll explain the visual on the screen, sort of two prompts there. We've got a written plan all the way over on the left side of the vector diagram, and over to the right, everything that happens, right? And so — Oh, folks are jumping in already.

So, we are seeing things like planned learning, teaching and learning, educational guide, guide to help with planning, intentional teaching. So many great responses. And the reality is, when you think about where you are on this continuum, lots of folks might think a curriculum, big "C," is that written plan I purchased.

I convinced my fiscal office that I had to have the manual, the fidelity tools, and all the activity cards to go with it. So, you'd think about that. And then you'd think about what, you know, sort of happens in practice, which is that, in between routines and at your morning meeting and as you're handling transitions, that curriculum happens there, too. And so the continuum is a little bit of a falsity, right? Because what we know is that curriculum is all of these things.

It's your written plan, it's how you're thoughtful about what you're going to be doing in any given day. And it's also things that happen where you extend learning, during a diaper change with a baby, for instance, and having language back and forth or as you're waiting in a transition line to go to outdoor play and you decide to do a finger play or a song.

So, curriculum is all of these things, and it also includes all of the things that you're all entering in the chat box. So, thanks for sharing. And we just wanted to get kicked off today with this definition because we know that sometimes it's confusing to staff. It can be confusing to a home visitor, what her curriculum is. It can be confusing to a teacher to know whether a curriculum is something rigid, like following a script, or something much more emergent as you go through the day.

And as I said, it's a bit of both. So, let's talk a little bit about what curriculum fidelity is. And so you can see the definition up here, and it's a fairly straightforward and simple one. It's the extent to which a curriculum, including its content and processes, are implemented as designed by the developers. So, what that means is that fidelity as implementation occurs when teachers use the instructional strategies to deliver the content in the same way that they were designed to be used and delivered, okay?

And so one of the things the research gives us around this topic is sort of three main aspects of implementation fidelity, the first being differentiation — so, the extent to which the critical features that distinguish the curriculum are present.

So, we could sort of think about that as the — sort of the way a curriculum — What sets your curriculum apart, you know? Why did you choose the HighScope curriculum? Why did you choose the Creative Curriculum? Why did you choose Opening a World of Learning? There were critical things. There were unique things that you thought were a good fit with your program. And so that's one aspect of implementation fidelity. The other aspect is program adherence — so, the extent to which program components are delivered as described in your curriculum publication manuals — so, thinking about, you know, whether or not you're really following the different components of a day that are outlined and thinking about whether you consistently skip one piece of the curriculum because maybe a teacher is not quite sure how to do it.

So, those types of things. And then probably the most important piece is the quality of delivery, right? So, the extent to which teachers feel prepared to implement the curriculum.

How confident are they that they understand the components of a curriculum and how to implement them with fidelity? So, those are some of the key aspects of curriculum fidelity. And I want to invite you — I see folks are still in the chat box, but I do want to invite you to also use the question-and-answer box or the chat box to jot down or collect questions as we go along. The next piece here is, why is curriculum fidelity important, you know, aside from the fact that it's now in the new Head Start Program Performance Standards, which of course, makes it important?

But why else is it important? So, when we think about the overarching reason to pay attention to curriculum fidelity, it's, of course, about the children, right, as so much of what's important about our work is.

So, ensuring the best and most positive outcomes for children means that we implement the curriculum to fidelity because research tells us that when teachers implement curriculum and instructional strategies in ways that are faithful to what was intended, children do better, right? And from the research from, you know, Bridget Hamre and Barbara Wasik, folks that — you know, names that we're all familiar with — their research really shows that that fidelity makes a difference in terms of children's outcomes.

And so when we think about wanting, really, to achieve some of the same results that were achieved by those researchers, we have to think about curriculum fidelity to ensure that we're optimizing those outcomes. Here's another reason to think about curriculum fidelity. This house framework for effective, everyday practice is really familiar to all of you, I'm sure, right?

And what we know is that these four components, when pulled together, sort of define what we mean by effective practices, effective teacher practices that really lead to the types of outcomes we want for children and families. Now, if you look to the left pillar on your screen, research-based curriculum and teaching practices, and you think about all that that pillar is doing in this house, right?

It's holding up highly individualized teaching and learning. It's, in a cyclical way, informing your interactions, the way you set up your environment. It's informing the types of things you assess, and those assessments, in turn, are informing your curriculum plans.

And all of those inform how you individualize and modify your curriculum in response to individual children. And so that pillar needs to be strong because it's holding quite a bit of information that's important in this house metaphor.

And so when we think about research-based, that means that we chose these curricula because somewhere in the research, we found that there was maybe a good fit for the children and families in our program and that there was perhaps some evidence or implementation data that we have that says that it's going to be helpful for children and families.

And so that pillar is only as strong as that curriculum. And that curriculum is only as strong as the extent to which we implement it with fidelity, right?

So, again, just thinking about, you know, if you make changes in a curriculum, it can be unclear what effects the curriculum will have on children.

It can be unclear about how efficacious teachers feel about implementing the curriculum. So, again, really just thinking about making sure that we shore up that pillar of the house by making sure that we're following the curriculum and implementing it in the way it's intended. So, some more pragmatic benefits, which probably mean more to those of us who work with teachers regularly because it's why it's important to teachers. It gives teachers — it gives all of us — information about how to improve practices to ensure that all children progress as planned, right?

So, if a child isn't progressing as planned and you have some concerns, it can be helpful for teachers or a home visitor to really examine how the teaching was implemented, how the curriculum was adhered to, and where there was effectiveness of instruction and where maybe there wasn't, right?

It's almost like triaging. You sort of go through all of the systems that are in your control, all the things you can control in terms of supporting children, and then if what's left is something more organic about the child, then you have great information to move forward with a referral or other options. But if, in fact, there's data that tells you that maybe you haven't really been attending to the mass pieces of your curriculum, then so it's perhaps no wonder children are struggling to understand a concept.

And that's good information to go back and change how we're implementing curriculum, what our practices are, to try to support that child. Similarly, you can think about the implementation issues across a program or even across several programs within an agency to strengthen your curriculum implementation. So, if you bring all of your teaching staff together or all of your home visitors together, and there's, you know, a shared concern about how to implement a piece of a curriculum, you can problem-solve, and you can — teachers can share with one another how they have solved some of those problems.

You think about a curriculum that might have an element that can be challenging. It makes me think about sort of the OWL curriculum. And one of the components of that curriculum is a Let's Find Out About It, which happens at morning meetings.

Probably lots of you are familiar with that approach. And maybe that teacher has children who just really can't attend or she feels like she's losing children halfway through that and it's not really having the effect that she wants or that is intended. So, teachers can come together.

And maybe they've got another teacher who's really experiencing quite a bit of success who can offer some advice. And so in that way, collecting information about curriculum fidelity can really be helpful. It can be diagnostic, to a certain extent, for a program.

And then of course, as I said earlier, we know that curriculum fidelity is important because our Head Start Program Performance Standards really outline this as a key factor in high-quality early-learning programs, as defined within the Head Start Standards. And so what — This is taken directly from those new Standards. And it basically says that a program has to support staff to effectively implement curricula and, at a minimum, monitor curriculum implementation and fidelity.

And really that's about ensuring that teachers are getting and all staff are getting support, feedback, supervision for continuous improvement. And those things should be tied to another part of the performance Standards around professional development and making sure that there is a place for teachers or home visitors to really get one-on-one feedback and supervision and mentoring around the use of the curriculum.

So, I'm gonna turn now just to sort of outline some of the features from the research again that are critical to successful implementation of curriculum. So, we'll talk here a little bit about, again, fidelity of implementation, those processes. We'll talk about professional development support and the ongoing assessment of child learning, okay? So, all of these things are really critical to ensuring implementation with fidelity.

And let's start with fidelity of implementation. And when we think about fidelity of implementation here, we're talking about two aspects, really — global fidelity and individual lesson or activity fidelity.

And I'm gonna start with global fidelity. Global fidelity is really key because it provides information on how consistently and regularly staff implement the key elements of curriculum over time, right?

So, programs that are committed to ensuring fidelity have processes in place to ensure that, over time, things are happening in a consistent way. And that information is really helpful to program leadership, such as education managers, such as yourself, As you think about what supports are needed to sustain curriculum implementation.

For example, maybe there are certain components of the curriculum that are implemented less frequently or with less fidelity by the majority of classrooms. You know, that's a. All of us who've been teachers have been there, right? I love, you know, maybe the literacy component of a curriculum. I love using stories to do, you know, different types of acting out of plots and things. But maybe I really stay away from the science pieces of a curriculum because I'm not really as confident there.

Or maybe I don't have the materials I need to do some of the pieces in a curriculum. So, those are the types of things you really want to track over time. And I want to emphasize the "over time" and its importance here because what we don't want curriculum fidelity to be is a scripted response to curriculum implementation. Skip to main content Official Government Website.

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