The Board of Education shall expect its professional administrators and staff to initiate, design, and implement instructional programs and courses of study that shall enhance the educational goals of the school district.
All course offerings shall be reviewed by the Superintendent of Schools, who shall make recommendations regarding their adoption to the Board prior to implementation. All courses shall meet or exceed guidelines established by the State Department of Education and/or the Commissioner of Education.
The criteria by which the Board shall judge the acceptability of new course offerings shall include, but shall not be limited to the following:
- the direct relevance of the course to the educational goals of the district;
- whether the behavioral objectives of the course have been clearly specified;
- whether the course has been thoroughly studied and/or tested by the staff;
- whether a curriculum guide has been completed;
- whether the textbook for the new course has been adopted by the Board;
- whether the cost of implementation has been reviewed;
- if the proposed course replaces an existing program, whether it has been shown what deficiency in the previous program the new course is designed to overcome; and
- whether there is a clear and reasonable plan for periodic evaluation built into the proposal.
Ref:
- Education Law §§1709; 1711; 1804
Adoption date: May 27, 1997
Reviewed: May 22, 2017