About Curriculum21

Curriculum 21 is the outgrowth of the work of a dynamic group of educators worldwide attempting to help colleagues transform curriculum and school designs to match the needs of 21st century learners. The impetus originated from the Curriculum Mapping work developed by Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacobs. As we examined maps emerging across the United States and internationally.  Too often, curriculum and instruction remains dated although both students, parents, teachers and administrators recognize the need to become current and forward thinking in our planning.

Leading-New-Literacies-smallConcrete and practical models for updating your school programs appear in her most recent books, Curriculum 21: Essential Education for a Changing World, (ASCD, 2010),  Mapping to the Core: Integrating the Common Curriculum Into Your Local School Curriculum, (SINET, 2012), and Leading the New Literacies: Dgital, Media, Global, to be released (Solution-Tree, 2013).

Curriculum 21 is a division of Curriculum Designers whose goal is to provide a full range of resources and services to all educators and schools involved in the journey of Curriculum Mapping. Although the process of facilitating Curriculum Mapping as a curriculum tool began several years earlier, Curriculum Designers, Inc. was officially created in 1997. We know that Distance Learning works because we live it every day. We are a 100% virtual company and go back to seeing a satellite dish on a truck parked in front of Heidi’s home  twenty years ago to carry a state-wide conference.  Today access makes flexibility and flipped professional development to client groups with ease.

Heidi’s work in the area of curriculum integration and rigorous discipline based and interdisciplinary studies was the basis for Curriculum Designers first wave work. When Heidi introduced modern Curriculum Mapping with the publication of her second book, Mapping the Big Picture: Integrating Curriculum and Assessment K-12, (ASCD, 1997), the field expanded. Software solutions emerged to support her model. Since that time she has traveled the world delivering keynotes, sponsoring regional workshops, and working directly with teachers on the mapping journey. Since that time, with her books on mapping and active literacy services from Curriculum Designers has expanded.

In addition to her own work, Dr. Jacobs has developed a faculty of experienced national, international, and regional consultants.  Many of these consultants have published books and actively appear at regional workshops. They are available to work with individual schools, school districts, state education departments, media groups, and education organizations both nationally and internationally. Each consultant has in-the-field, on-the-job experience which has proven valuable in implementing projects.