Considering how quickly things are changing in the modern world, it’s important for schools to ask themselves, “Does our curriculum need an update?” Frequently, while the answer is a resounding yes, the changes that actually get implemented are underwhelming. Maybe a few new elective courses get developed, and maybe some new books are added to reading lists, but odds are that the curriculum changes fall well short of anything that could be considered transformative. Inevitably, within a year or two, the school finds itself asking once again, “Does our curriculum need an update?”

At Trey Education, we’ve been working with schools to break this frustrating cycle. By identifying the common obstacles to transformative curriculum change, we’ve been able to help schools develop plans that work past those obstacles and reach their goal: program, content, skills that are truly aligned with their vision and that genuinely prepare students for the world they’ll be entering.

Common Obstacles

When schools settle for little steps instead of big leaps, we’ve found that the following obstacles are often at the heart of the problem:

• Fears around reductions to “core” content and foundational knowledge for students
• Doubts about faculty/staff capacity for change
• Lack of clarity/consensus about what the new curriculum should be
• Nervousness about potential impact on college applications and/or standardized test scores
• Worries about reactions of current and/or prospective families, leading to enrollment issues
• General overwhelm around the work required to successfully deliver transformative changes
• Belief that there’s nothing so wrong with the current curriculum
• Concerns about student response to a new curriculum

This is a good moment to pause and reflect on your own school’s recent curriculum work. Have you taken little steps or big leaps? If you’ve only taken little steps, which obstacles from the list above might have prevented you from making more meaningful changes?

We’ve developed strategies to help schools clear each of these hurdles. What misconceptions need to be addressed? What questions will generate productive discussions? How can you energize your team through inspirational and hopeful precedents? Let’s take a closer look at the first obstacle, and we’ll walk through some of the ways in which we help schools get unstuck. 

Fears around reductions to core content and foundational knowledge for students

This may be the most pernicious of the obstacles. While, on the surface, it’s grounded in concerns about preparing students for the next step in their academic journeys, in practice, it becomes an excuse to continue teaching what was taught in the past. Schools might say, “We’d love to devote more time to media literacy and global citizenship, but it would be irresponsible to cut time away from the fundamentals! We need to prepare them for college! And we’re already struggling to cover all of the existing content; there’s no way to cram in even more!” If this sounds familiar, consider posing the following groups of questions to your team:

How is our understanding of “core content” evolving?

• What content was most valuable to students in 1925? Why?
• What content is most valuable to students in 2025? Why?
• What content will be most valuable to students in 2035? 2050? Why?
• How do we think about foundational knowledge vs. foundational skills vs. foundational experiences vs. foundational mindsets? How might we define, balance, or prioritize what’s “foundational”?
• In what ways is our curriculum evolving—or not evolving—to meet the changing needs of our students and the world they’re entering?
• Information that was reasonable for students to memorize in the past is now easily accessible. What does that mean about the role of core content?
• Choose a random student at your school. Find out what content they will be assessed on this month. How valuable do you expect that content to be to that student in 5 years, 10 years, 15 years?

Which aspects of our curriculum are truly valuable?

• To what extent is our curriculum shaped by the demands of college admissions, and how might that be influencing what we prioritize?
• How much of the content is actually being retained by our students after a course ends? After they graduate? What evidence do we have for students transferring and applying knowledge and skills beyond the confines of the course in which they were delivered?
• If we asked a well-adjusted, successful adult how much of the content that they learned in school they still remember and value, what might they say? How might their answers challenge our current assumptions about which elements of our curriculum matter most?

Which skills and habits will best prepare our students for the future?

• Should our curriculum place greater emphasis on enduring skills—like critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and empathy—rather than primarily on factual recall? Why or why not?
• With the rise of AI, how dramatically will the focus shift from absorption of facts to discernment of truth?
• What tasks are we asking our students to (temporarily) master that adults are rarely asked to perform?
• How could we give our students an equally robust brain workout through learning activities that have more practical application?

At a school that’s reluctant to let go of core content, engaging with these questions can unearth the underlying assumptions and fears that are obstructing meaningful change. As schools interrogate their beliefs about foundational knowledge, they’re likely to see that the truly risky move would be to forgo big leaps and settle for little steps. We’ve found that discussions centered around these questions generate neither shame nor hand-wringing about the ways in which the current curriculum is failing to meet the evolving needs of students; instead, schools typically feel liberated and energized to finally turn their big ideas into a reality.

Getting Unstuck

For schools who are getting stuck on other obstacles from our list, we offer different prompts and strategies to help them untangle their hesitations and break the annual cycle of underwhelming curricular tweaks. With clarity, courage, and discipline, you can make transformative changes to your program. If you’re embarking on a curriculum redesign project, we’d love to partner with you and share more of our experiences getting over the common hurdles. While the prospect of truly transforming your curriculum may feel daunting, it has the potential to be the most impactful work you’ll do. Reach out to us at Trey Education for guidance and support.