Main Responsibilities Of A Senior Curriculum Development Manager At Code.org
Amy, a Senior Curriculum Development Manager at Code.org, oversees the development of online computer science curricula, collaborating with engineers, educators, and external partners to ensure alignment with educational standards and a commitment to social justice. This involves "a lot of high-level work, a lot of cross-functional work, and then a lot of deep work" in content creation, while also addressing the "inequitable opportunity gap" in computer science education.
Curriculum Development, Educational Technology, Data Analysis, Project Management, Social Justice
Advizer Information
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Amy Berkhoudt Woodman
Sr. Curriculum Development Manager
Code.org
Point Loma Nazarene University - 2009
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - MA in Education Policy & Leadership
Creative Writing, Journalism
Technology
Product / Service / Software Development and Management
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Student Athlete, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Amy's role involves managing curriculum as a product, encompassing development, data gathering, and metric creation for online learning.
2. She collaborates with engineers, educational program specialists, and external partners to ensure alignment in the curriculum's vision and adherence to educational standards.
3. Amy emphasizes the importance of equity in computer science education and incorporates social justice considerations into curriculum development, aiming to bridge the opportunity gap among different demographics
Transcript
What are your main responsibilities within your current role?
I'm a Senior Curriculum Development Manager. It's a role where I'm in charge of the curriculum as a product for students.
Given that our product is mostly online, it's not just about developing the curriculum itself, but also gathering data, creating metrics for success, and making modifications. I work across the team and multiple functional areas to ensure we're unified in our vision for what we're creating for students.
I work with engineers to develop the platform students will be using. I also collaborate with Ed programs folks who focus on the teacher experience and the data teachers need to see about student learning and achievement of learning objectives.
We learn from external partners through our advocacy team to understand the education landscape, specifically computer science policies adopted by different states and our adherence to those standards. Another significant part of the role is staying current with research from thought leaders in the CS education space.
It's an exciting and innovative field because people believe it's important, yet it's not yet in every school. There's an inequitable opportunity gap in computer science education, with current access largely benefiting white and Asian males, while underrepresented minority groups are excluded. A major focus of my work is ensuring our efforts are equitable and contribute to our social justice mission.
I lead a team of curriculum developers who actualize our vision. I create a strategic plan, and we all work towards building it. This involves high-level, cross-functional, and detailed work in actually creating what we aim to produce. The content development is an iterative process that takes a lot of time.
That's the work in a nutshell. It's a lot of different things, but it's fun.