Teachers develop high quality, engaging curricular units and assessments based on the California Content Standards. These units, assessments, and student work have been published in the Lesson Study: Language Arts Handbook Integrating Standards, Curricula, and Assessment, Volume 2. Higuchi’s recent research focuses on teachers working collaboratively to develop rigorous standards-based curricular units and assessments, aimed at increasing student learning.
She has taught students in a number of programs: general, special education, bilingual, physically challenged, gifted, Title 1, college, pre-school to college. She first taught reading and special education classes at John Adams Junior High School in South Central Los Angeles. Her last classroom was an ungraded primary, K to 3, at Farmdale Elementary School in East Los Angeles. Her passion is creating lessons that excite student curiosity and firmly focus the mind on resolving complex tasks. During this time, she received a $30,000 grant from the American Federation of Teachers to support her research on language arts and mathematics performance assessments
In 1989, The National Center for Research, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) at UCLA documented her work in a video production called Assessing the Whole Child. To read her article, click here.
In 1992, she authored a $660,000 Language Arts Project (LAP) grant that was funded by the Stuart Foundation. This grant partnered United Teachers Los Angeles, Los Angeles Unified School District and CRESST at UCLA to develop language arts content standards, standards-based lessons, performance assessments, rubrics, analysis of student work. This was before any state or national standards existed. As project director, she gathered teachers, administrators, parents, and members of the community (business, university, local activists) to work together. After four intense years, the LAP published The Language Arts Handbook. It contains: LAUSD’s first language arts content standards, the Lesson Design Study process, interdisciplinary language arts and history standards-based units, performance assessments, rubrics, and assessments for grades 3 (English and Spanish), 7, and 9.
In 1998 she wrote a grant for $600,000 funded by the Federal Department of Education to establish the Institute for Standards, Curricula, and Assessments. As a result, ISCA published the Lesson Study Language Arts Handbook: Integrating Standards, Curricula, and Assessments, Volume 2. It has a step-by-step description of the Lesson Design Study process, interdisciplinary language arts and social studies standards-based units, performance assessments, rubrics and assessments, grades 3, 7, 9, 11. For publication details, click here.
Since 2000, she continues ISCA’s work with support from grants from Washington Mutual, State Farm, California Teachers Association, and school contracts.
Education
M.A. B.A.
Human Development, Pacific Oaks College History Major, English Minor, University of California at Los Angeles
Credentials
Credentials: Early Childhood, Life Elementary and Secondary, Administration in Instruction, CLAD
Publications:
Lesson Study Language Arts Handbook: Integrating Standards, Curricula, and Assessments (2000), Volume 2, pp. 763. It details the Lesson Design Study process for designing writing and reading comprehension standards-based lessons, performance assessments, rubrics, student anchor papers, anchor analysis, student revision notes, grades 3, 7, 9, 11.
Language Arts Handbook: Integrating Standards, Curricula, and Assessments (1998). A Handbook on how to develop writing curricula and performance assessments, pp. 617. It contains Lesson Design Study process, standards-based lessons (Spanish and English), performance assessments, rubrics, student anchor papers, anchor analysis, student revision notes for grades 3, 7, 9.
"The Third Year," (1994). Educational Leadership. Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development. An article on ungrade primary.
"Understanding Begins with Us," (1993). Educational Leadership. Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development. An article on multicultural education.
"Teachers as Researchers." (1992). The CRESST Line, UCLA.
"Literature and Classroom Dialogues: The Evolution of a Thinking Community," (1990). The Power of Context. UCLA Writing Project.
