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District outlines new curriculum document and five-year roadmap to align instruction, assessments and professional development
Summary
The district presented a revised curriculum template and a five-year cycle linking eligible content, learning intentions, success criteria, aligned assessments, and data meetings. Administrators said the goal is clearer lesson planning, better-aligned common assessments, and professional development tied to measurable needs.
At the March 4 committee meeting, district administrators presented a revised curriculum document and a five-year curriculum cycle the district plans to use to align instruction, common assessments and professional development. The presentation walked board members through how a concept becomes learning intentions, success criteria and aligned assessments, and how that work ties to data meetings and targeted in-service training for teachers.
Administrators showed examples (grade-level and secondary algebra) to illustrate how curriculum content will be specified with concrete success criteria (for example: add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers with sums up to 1,000,000; multiply up to a 4-digit by a 1-digit whole number; divide up to a 4-digit dividend by a 1-digit divisor). They said the goal is to turn broad standards into specific, assessable learning targets so teachers can design lessons and assessments that match what is tested.
The roadmap described two types of data meetings: grade-level meetings to compare performance across teachers and identify curriculum problems and individual meetings to pinpoint interventions and small-group instruction. Administrators said the district will compile benchmark and diagnostic data (including Firefly and existing diagnostics) in a data warehouse and use that information to identify professional-development priorities and targeted supports for teachers.
The presentation also referenced McGrath training (six hours completed with six more to go and additional summer training planned), and administrators said they will use in-service days and the March in-service as a springboard for summer training that supports the curriculum rollout.
An administrator summarized the practical effect: "If you look at the curriculum document and what we're recommending, what you're going to have is you're going to have ... concepts, learning intentions and success criteria" and said that better specificity will let teachers write lesson plans that align to assessment and standards. The board did not take formal action on the curriculum document at the meeting; the item was moved to discussion on next week's agenda.
