Curriculum Development within a Mastery Learning Framework.

This paper analyzes mastery learning as an alternative to curriculum planning and discusses implementation of the strategy in a prekindergarten through eighth-grade school district in Red Bank, New Jersey. The paper briefly describes district schools and circumstances affecting the school board's decision to implement mastery learning; discusses program assumptions; and reviews how curriculum tools ensure increasing congruence among curricular, instructional, student, and organizational outcomes. Curriculum is defined to include all consciously-written plans influencing student outcomes. Assumptions about the learner, teacher, purpose of schooling, and nature of knowledge are explicated. Mastery learning assumes that students become similar to one another in learning ability under favorable conditions. Because most children master the curriculum, reform aspires toward a unified curriculum. Knowledge is transmitted in small increments. The structure of knowledge lends coherence (Piaget 1970); therefore, students apply learned generalizations to diverse contexts. The study presents a model developed at Red Bank with incremental instructional units and a "generic" cycle with corrective activities. As student achievement increases, revised unit objectives accommodate those entering grade levels with more of the skills necessary for mastery. Curriculum committees link budgets with improved student outcomes; personnel policies are reviewed for congruency with goals. Nineteen references are appended. (CJH)