Family and Consumer Sciences Curriculum and Resources
The development of a local curriculum that helps students acquire critical thinking skills to solve everyday, practical problems is one of the most important processes in family and consumer sciences education program development. The curriculum is the basis for all program activities and operations.
Listed on this page are up-to-date resources and links to other resources that will assist Missouri family and consumer sciences educators in developing a local curriculum.
For more information related to Missouri family and consumer sciences education curriculum, contact Debbie Pohl.
Quick links:
National Standards for FCS Education
Curriculum Resource Guides and Other Development Resources
Comprehensive Family and Consumer Sciences
Curriculum/Course Competencies
National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education
The National Association of State Administrators for Family and Consumer Sciences Education (NASAFACS), an affiliate of the Family and Consumer Sciences Education (FACS) Division of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), first began development of national standards for family and consumer sciences in May 1995. The project to develop national standards created an atmosphere that celebrated the variety that exists among state philosophies and blended multiple approaches to standards and educational delivery systems. The resulting work became a powerful tool for showcasing the movement from home economics, with an emphasis on technical homemaking skills, to Family and Consumer Sciences Education, with its focus on broader family and society issues, and provided significant new direction for the field.
In May 2005, NASAFACS initiated a project to update the national standards, utilizing a highly participatory process to collect recommendations from a wide variety of stakeholders. Over 1,000 reviewers, including FACS educators and subject matter specialists from all states along with representatives of external organizations, business and industry, agencies with direct connections, and other stakeholders, reviewed the National Standards and provided recommendations for the second edition.
Personal Finance Competencies
On October 6, 2005 the State Board of Education approved an increase in the minimum high school graduation standards that includes a required half-unit course in personal finance. The competencies for the approved course in personal finance have been developed and are available for to districts to use in guiding the personal finance course.
The competencies were developed by an advisory committee of business representatives; higher education officials; the Centers for Economics Education; and teachers from the areas of family and consumer sciences, business education, and social studies. Personnel from the Missouri Center for Career Education (MCCE- http://missouricareereducation.org/) assisted the Department in developing the competencies.
As a starting point, teachers reviewed the personal finance standards from the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. They also reviewed the recommended content standards and benchmarks from the Missouri Council on Economic Education's Towards Economic and Financial Literacy: A Final Report. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
All are PDF files
Curriculum Resource Guides and Other Development Resources
These guides and resources are available for purchase from the Instructional Materials Laboratory at the University of Missouri-Columbia. An on-line catalog and information can be found at: http://www.iml.missouri.edu.
Call toll-free in Missouri: 1-800-669-2465.
These guides and resources are also available on free loan to Missouri educators only from Resources @ MCCE located at Central Missouri State University - Warrensburg. An on-line directory and information can be found at: http://resources.mcce.org
Call toll-free in Missouri: 1-800-392-7217.
"Implementation Handbook for Family and Consumer Sciences, 2001": The Handbook contains information about designing an approved family and consumer sciences program; developing instruction and assessments that support the content, critical thinking, implementing the program and evaluating the program to determine strategies for improvement. Includes competency lists for all courses in the Missouri family and consumer sciences curriculum and cross-references to state and national standards. This document is a must for all Missouri family and consumer sciences educators.
Comprehensive Family and Consumer Sciences
"Exploring Family and Consumer Sciences-Enrichment Modules-1994": Four Missouri-developed instructional modules supporting the student competency areas outlined in the Missouri Exploratory Family and Consumer Sciences student competency list.
"Child Development Care and Guidance (Advanced)-Using Process Skills and Content Modules that Feature Critical Thinking and Practical Problem-Solving Skills-1998":
Missouri-developed curriculum resource guide addressing an advanced level of instruction in the area of Child Development, Care and Guidance. Incorporates the use of process skills to help students address content through practical reasoning and critical thinking.
"Family Relations Resource Guide-1995": Ohio curriculum resource guide for teaching family relations. Incorporates the use of process skills to help students address content through practical reasoning and critical thinking.
"Parenting Resource Guide-1995": Ohio curriculum resource guide focusing on parenting. Incorporates the use of process skills to help students address content through practical reasoning and critical thinking.
Nutrition and Wellness
"Family and Individual Health: Using Process Skills and Content Modules that Feature Critical Thinking and Practical Problem-Solving Activities-1999": Missouri curriculum resource guide to support instruction in the Family/Individual Health semester course. Incorporates the use of process skills to help students address content through practical reasoning and critical thinking.
"Food Science: Content Modules for Food Science Featuring Problem-Solving Activities in Family and Consumer Sciences-1998":
Missouri-developed resource guide for implementing food science into the family and consumer sciences curriculum.