Michael Wint

2/18/17

EL 560

Feiten

Curriculum Director Interview

I had the chance to interview our district’s Curriculum Director, Stephanie Nimene. During the

interview, we spoke about Crescent Academy’s recent history, where we currently stand, and where we

are planning to go in the future. We also talked about Ms. Nimene’s career path, what she likes most

about her job, and some of the job responsibilities of a Curriculum Director. Our conversation lasted

about 45 minutes and gave me a lot of insight into an important job that gets very little credit.

We began our conversation by going over the path that her career has taken to get to where she

is now. After moving from Ohio to Michigan to pursue her teaching career, she quickly realized that her

passion was in curriculum. After attaining a Master’s degree in Curriculum Instruction and Assessment,

she decided to leave the private school she had been teaching at to pursue her love of curriculum. After

a few stops at different programs including “two years of hell” in Detroit Public Schools, she finally

landed a position as a Curriculum Coordinator for 6th – 12th grade at Marvin L. Winans Performing Arts

Academy. Here she was part of a team of six, each responsible for specific campuses. She really

enjoyed the team aspect of this position, rather than working in isolation as she is now. She then moved

to Hamilton Academy as a turn-around leader. Hamilton had been labeled a “high priority school”, and

slated to close if things didn’t turn around. All of the leadership staff had been let go, and they were

down to around 25% of the teachers that had been there the year before. She then came to Crescent

Academy. At first, she was the principal of the middle school, but decided to transition to Curriculum

Director after dealing with parents for a year. This is her first year at Crescent Academy as a curriculum

director.
 We then talked about her responsibilities. She separated her duties into two categories:

curriculum and instruction. Researching and visiting textbook companies are filed under curriculum, as

is checking lesson plans to make sure they align with state standards and that lessons include the

necessary components (explained objectives, opening, closing, assessment etc.). She is also working

with all teachers K-8 to create pacing guides for each subject. Everything else falls under instruction.

She is responsible for the K-12 assessments, so she spends a lot of time organizing and analyzing that

data. She also writes grants, including one for a literacy coach that has been in our first-grade building

for the past few weeks. She also conducts walkthroughs and formal observations when they are

needed. She focuses specifically on procedures, classroom routines, and evidence of Marzano strategies

being used.

Our conversation transitioned into talking about the recent history of our district, where we are

right now, and her hopes for the future. In 2012-13, our student achievement and growth took a

nosedive. In that year alone we took on over 300 new students, mostly due to the fact that many

nearby schools had closed their doors. Our district grew too fast, and we weren’t prepared for the

problems that resulted from that growth. During the 2014-15 school year, the MSTEP was introduced

and scores dropped once again. In less than 5 years Crescent Academy went from being recognized as a

“high achievement school” to being labeled a “priority school”. When asked about our most pressing

needs she quickly gave two answers, as if these two issues have been at the forefront of her mind ever

since she took over as Curriculum Director. The first, we need to put ourselves in a competitive place to

hire highly qualified teachers. Crescent is typically a landing place for teachers fresh out of college, or

teachers who were not able to land a public-school job. This doesn’t mean that these teachers are

never able to find success with us, but they are usually unproven and looking to leave after a year or

two. Our second need identified by Ms. Nimene was that would school needed to undertake a
curriculum audit. She mentioned that we had not purchased curriculum resources since 2009, and we

really need to have up to date materials to become successful.

After talking about these serious topics at great length, we ended our conversation on a lighter

note. I asked Ms. Nimene, “If money were no object, what would you choose to implement

immediately?” She responded with two answers, one which surprised me. Her first, which did not come

as a shock, was curriculum coaches in each building. She added that she would choose to have one

coach for ELA and one coach for math. The other, more surprising answer, was that she would choose

to have 1:1 technology for every student. The reason this took me by surprise was that our district is

severely lacking in technology. At the time, I wasn’t sure if this is because of a lack of interest or a lack

of money. Now I know. My next question was met with a small chortle and a brief moment of

contemplation. “If you could go back and give one piece of advice to your former self before starting

this job, what would it be?” She responded, “I would go back and warn myself that you have to pace

yourself. You can’t let every single thing that comes across your desk be an emergency. You have to

have a balance. You have to take care of you.”

I really enjoyed speaking with Ms. Nimene. Curriculum Directors are often the unsung heroes of

successful schools. Like coaches, they usually receive more than their share of the blame is something

goes wrong and less than their share of the credit when things go well. Ms. Nimene has a lot on her

plate. She is the lone person in charge of the curriculum for the entire district, and with the middle

school being labeled as a priority school, she certainly has her work cut out for her. During our brief

conversation, I got a sense of the weight that comes with this responsibility. She is so invested in the

curriculum, yet it’s almost completely out of her hands. She can coach, train, observe, and analyze data

until she’s blue in the face, but at the end of the day it’s up to the teachers to deliver the instruction.