Curriculum Compacting

 Name it. Prove it. Change it.

Curriculum compacting is an intervention that ensures students don't have to cover areas of learning they have already mastered.

The reasons why curriculum compacting is a popular intervention for gifted students are:

• Some students already know most of the curriculum covered in school.
• Few textbooks provide for the needs gifted students have.
• Compacting frees time for more demanding or more fulfilling activities by reducing redundancy in practising.
• Compacting guarantees educational accountability.

There are several steps in curriculum compacting:

• Decide what a student has to learn (core curriculum).
• Identify students who have probably mastered part of the curriculum already.
• Test, whether this is actually the case.
• Depending on the outcome - how well the student has done on this pretest - take appropriate measures: streamline instruction and either provide alternative work or give the student time for individual studies.
• Document the process for further reference.

Renzulli and Reis developed a special form to document compacting done for individual students: The Compactor.

In the first column the teacher names what area of the curriculum could be compacted for a certain student. The second column documents how the teacher made sure, the student already knows the material. The third column contains suggestions for alternative work or describes how instructions for the student could be streamlined.

Further Information

• Learn more about Curriculum Compacting (PDF, 1.8 MByte) and Curriculum Compacting: A Systematic Procedure for Modifying the Curriculum for Above Average Ability Students at the Schoolwide Enrichment Model web site.

Sources

• Renzulli, Joseph S. & Reis, Sally M.: The Schoolwide Enrichment Model - Second Edition; Creative Learning Press, Mansfield 1997, p. 89-113
• Reis, Sally M. & Burns, Deborah E. & Renzulli, Joseph S.: Curriculum Compacting - The Complete Guide to Modifying the Regular Curriculum for High Ability Students; Creative Learning Press, Mansfield 1992

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Matthias Giger, April 2006 (Update: 16-12-2007)
www.gigers.com