Curriculum development is an integral process that often involves systematic and meticulous planning to enhance the system of education. A curriculum guides what is taught in schools, starting from preparation and guidance of teachers to setting of benchmarks to be attained by both teachers and learners. In the modern world, the education curriculum needs to be in tandem with modern development and emerging issues. For instance, the incessant growth of technology calls for technological aspects to be incorporated within the education curriculum. Additionally, local community needs and issues need to be included in the education curriculum to ensure that students are aware about what is happening around them, and consequently, how they can address, shape, and even solve issues affecting them. Therefore, this paper recognizes social issues and forces that affect curriculum planning. In retrospect, this paper reviews the top five social issues that shape curriculum planning, delves into detail regarding how the issues were selected as well as how curriculum planning can address them.
Demographics of Prince George's County School District vs. Maryland State
Prince George’s County had 208 schools and centers and a student population of 131,657 as of 2020. Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) district is one of the nation’s 20 th largest school districts in the U.S and the second largest school system in Maryland ( Prince George’s County Public Schools, n.d ). The majority of the student population is Black at 55.32% against the state’s 35%. The graduation rate is at an average of 74% against the state’s average of 87%. Regarding age, the students are distributed from Kindergarten to Grade 12 with Grades 9 to 12 having one of the highest numbers of students in the state of Maryland. Looking at the graduation rates within Prince George's County and comparing them with the state’s average, the general attitude of students towards school and learning can be said to be positive. Nevertheless, there is still plenty of room for the county to improve and move closer towards the state’s average.
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Prince George’s County Local Demographics vs. Maryland State Demographics
Prince George’s County in Maryland state 864,029 people against Maryland State at 6.046 million people according to population estimates of July 1, 2019. The median household income between 2015 and 2019 was at $84,920, which is almost equal to the state’s $84,805 during the same period. Poverty levels in the county were at 8.7% which is slightly lower than the state’s average of 9.0%. The land area of Prince George’s County covers about 482.69 square miles compared to the state’s 9,707.24 square miles (United States Census Bureau, n.d). Regarding crimes rates and safety challenges within the county, Prince George’s County is said to have a higher than average crime rate, especially within the metro area, and consequently has the most police shootings compared to any other county in the United States. Nevertheless, like in most places in the United States, most of the worst crimes happen between individuals who are already acquainted.
Some of the prominent social issues facing the state of Maryland and consequently Prince George’s County include racial tensions, a high crime rate, drug abuse, teen pregnancies and resource allocation. According to Raheela Ahmed, who is the elected representative for the Prince George's County Board of Education, District 5, students at the margins need to also learn in an environment that assures them of success and equal opportunities just like students from stable and advantaged backgrounds. Raheela’s rallying call is “creating environments for student success”. In this call, Raheela recognizes all students as being equal regardless of their racial, cultural, economic, social, and religious backgrounds. Raheela is also an avid supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, which she hopes helps to demonstrate her keen focus on ensuring that every student’s learning outcomes matter regardless of their background.
Five Social Forces
Conventionally, the school curriculum is supposed to enable and prepare students to use skills and knowledge acquired from the classroom in daily life situations, including aspects from their immediate environment as well as realities in the world. However, most school curriculums focus only on the academic aspects and fail to address external issues which might equally impact learners. This means that a learner may pass all the academic tests but fail to establish a connection between school work and external factors. Additionally, a school curriculum that only focuses on academic work or excellence in class may fail to recognize factors that may impact learners’ educational outcomes, and as such, place some groups of students at a disadvantage. While students from privileged backgrounds may excel, those from poor backgrounds may lag behind. For instance, a transport problem may affect some students, particularly those from a low income background. In such a situation, students from wealthy backgrounds may be driven to school, but those from low income families may go to school late or even become absent, or contemplate dropping out of school because of the hustle and bustle of trying to go to school.
A school curriculum that has a fixed time-table to be observed when transportation services are not provided will certainly jeopardize the learning outcomes of students from disadvantaged backgrounds. In light of such issues, this paper addresses five social issues that are believed to have significant impact on the learning environment of schools in Prince George’s County school district, Maryland. The five issues were derived from the demographics of the student population in Princes George’s County as well as from the views of elected officials from the recently concluded elections.
Racial Tensions
Racial tensions are quite prevalent in public schools in the United States. Racial harassment mostly affects the education outcomes of minority students, and mostly, black or African American students. Firstly, students of color are likely to face physical and verbal abuse, which may adversely affect their emotional wellbeing. Secondly, racial harassment may lead to school dropouts from those affected especially blacks or African American students (Banks & Banks, 2020). The fear caused by the racial intolerance may leave some students with no option but to drop out if they do not have alternatives. The overall issue is that racial harassment leads to unequal education outcomes between especially the white majority and minority groups.
Crimes and Violence
Prince George’s County, as a consequence of the high rates of police shootings, particularly in the metro areas depicts a school district with significant crime rates. The high crime rates may affect learning as students may fear going to school because of the unsafe neighborhoods. Secondly, violence may be taken to schools as some students may be influenced and inspired to join criminal gangs. Students may drop out of school to join the gangs, therefore, having poor education outcomes. Lastly, crimes and violence may cause trauma among students, subsequently affecting their concentration and learning outcomes (Espelage et al., 2018).
Drug Abuse
Quite often, violence and drug abuse go hand in hand. For Grade 2 students, drug and substance abuse may not affect them directly (scant data shows they abuse drugs). However, they may be affected indirectly. For instance, the use of drugs by their parents may cause violence and consequent emotional toll on the children. The children may not receive all the emotional support from their parents. Secondly, some children may not receive basic needs such as food and learning materials to support them. Nevertheless, some learners as young as those in Grade 2 may start using drugs out of curiosity especially is adults leave them in places they can access.
Teen Pregnancies
Although the United States is a developed nation, teen pregnancies are still prevalent. Early pregnancies will certainly affect the education outcomes of young girls. Teen mothers will likely drop out of school to attend to their children (Paton et al., 2020). Secondly, pregnant girls who decide to remain in school will definitely face numerous obstacles ranging from verbal abuses and even bullying from their peers to the need to have special healthcare services. Thirdly, the inability to complete school because of pregnancy will affect such students later in life. For example, they might face problems finding jobs, and if they do, they will receive lower wages.
Resource Allocation
The democratic nature of the U.S society usually comes with many expectations from the public. For instance, special groups within the education realm constantly agitate for representation and special consideration in relation to resource allocation. For instance, students with learning disabilities, those from low income backgrounds, and those from minority groups may agitate for more resource allocation. As such, resource allocation may be a source of conflict among various groups (Willis et al., 2019). Also lack of proper resource allocation may adversely affect the learning outcomes of some groups, particularly those at the periphery, while placing others at an advantage.
Using Curriculum Planning To Address These Social Issues
Evidently, various forces affect the learning outcomes of students, and the curriculum can either perpetuate inequalities in learning or it can be used to abolish or curb some of the social issues that affect learning. Therefore, to enhance and foster equality in learning outcomes, the curriculum needs to be shaped to address and accommodate some social issues.
Racial Tensions
Curriculum developers need to develop an anti-racism curriculum. Children as young as those in Grade 2 need to be taught to exercise racial tolerance by collaborating on school activities. Educators should also not shy away from correcting students when they observe racial harassment or intolerance (Banks & Banks, 2020). The benefit accrued from such a curriculum is that learners will grow and develop into adults as tolerant and advocates of racial justice because of being molded from an early age.
Crimes and Violence
The curriculum needs to teach crime and violence as social vices. Children need to learn that crime and violence is wrong, and that whenever they encounter them, they need to report to the relevant authorities. The school curriculum should also provide support resources where students can report and be assisted (Espelage et al., 2018). The benefit of incorporating this in the curriculum is that students will learn to be responsible citizens and probably become prominent advocates of social justice.
Drug Abuse
Similarly, the curriculum needs to incorporate education on drug and substance abuse, where students learn about the detrimental effects of drug abuse. The benefit is that students know the adverse health and emotional effects of drug abuse especially from examples, and refrain from engaging in drug abuse.
Teen Pregnancies
Sex education needs to be taught in schools, firstly to prevent early pregnancies. Secondly, teenagers who are pregnant or have already given birth need to be encouraged to go back to school (Paton et al., 2020). The benefit is that girls will be encouraged to continue with their studies because the curriculum apart from teaching them to avoid early pregnancies, they are also given hope that pregnancies cannot stop their education.
Resource Allocation
To counter resource allocation, the curriculum should enhance aspects such as talents and experience. For instance, the curriculum should not just tie teachers to academic outcomes; rather, teachers can use their talents and experiences to teach more skills with minimal resource addition (Willis et al., 2019). Also, the curriculum can allow volunteers from the community to help students develop their skills and talents at no cost.
Conclusion
In any learning environment, various social issues may affect the learning process, and consequently, curriculum development. In the United States, various learning environments share the same social issues, for instance, racial tensions, resource allocation, crimes and drug abuse. In this paper, the top five social issues which affect Prince George’s County have been reviewed, as well as shaping the curriculum to address them. The benefits of shaping the curriculum to address them have also been illuminated.
References
Banks, J. A., & Banks, C. A. M. (Eds.). (2020). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives . John Wiley & Sons.
Espelage, D. L., Merrin, G. J., & Hatchel, T. (2018). Peer victimization and dating violence among LGBTQ youth: The impact of school violence and crime on mental health outcomes. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice , 16 (2), 156-173.
Paton, D., Bullivant, S., & Soto, J. (2020). The impact of sex education mandates on teenage pregnancy: International evidence. Health Economics, 29(7), 790-807
Prince George’s County Public Schools. (n.d). Facts and figures. https://www.pgcps.org/facts-and-figures/
United States Census Bureau. (n.d). Quick facts; Maryland. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/MD
Willis, J., Krausen, K., Caparas, R., Taylor, T., & Center on School Turnaround at WestEd. (2019). Resource Allocation Strategies to Support the Four Domains for Rapid School Improvement. The Center on School Turnaround Four Domains Series. Center on School Turnaround at WestEd. 1000 G Street Suite 500, Sacramento, CA 95814. e-mail: cst_info@wested.org; Web site: http://centeronschoolturnaround.org.
