The Curriculum Compactor Assessment Form (See below) was developed to assess the quality of teachers’ implementation of the curriculum compacting. The following procedure was used to provide an estimate of the instrument’s reliability. First, a ten-item checklist for assessing completed compactors was developed. The items on the checklist reflected the elements of quality compactors advocated by curriculum compacting experts (Reis, Burns, & Renzulli, 1992).
Each item is given a score of 1 if the teacher has integrated it into the compacting process.
In order to become better acquainted with the compactor form and process complete the activity below. The time you spend on this will be worth the effort because you will develop a good sense of how to complete a compactor form for your student or group of students in Lesson 9.
- Are curricular strength-areas of the student(s) clearly identified (e.g., language arts, mathematics)?
- Are pretests, or general assessments of student strength areas provided (such as language arts pretests or achievement test information)?
- Are specific areas of content to be eliminated or modified listed?
- Are various types of skills assessment to prove evidence of proficiency (i.e., passed various level tests) documented?
- Are alternative activities listed for students?
- Are the activities based on alternative enrichment activities, i.e., not extensions of regular curricular exercises?
- Do the alternative activities listed appear to have taken into account the students’ interests (e.g., independent study options, specific types of alternative reading assignments)?
- Is it apparent that various pieces of information have been taken into account, regarding students’ curricular strengths, the documentation of proficiency and the replacement of more appropriate enrichment and/or acceleration? In other words, is there a clear connection between Columns 1-2-3 on the compactor?
- Does the teacher appear to have completed the form with care and attention to detail, and does the compactor form reflect appropriate time spent by the classroom teacher?
- Does the completed compactor form reflect the overall quality expected in the curriculum compacting process?
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