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Newington board hears detailed review of curriculum development, assessment and implementation
Summary
Assistant Superintendent Kristen Freeman outlined the district's multi-stage curriculum development process, describing how standards, assessments and lesson plans are aligned, a five-year review cycle, and teacher-led curriculum work. Board members and residents asked about pacing, program selection and how rigor and differentiation are provided.
At a special Sept. 24 meeting, the Newington Board of Education received an extended presentation from Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Kristen Freeman on how the district develops and implements curriculum, aligns assessments to state standards and supports teacher planning.
Freeman told the board the process starts with standards and works backward to assessments and daily lessons: "The destination is our standards," she said, adding that the district builds a pacing guide, identifies priority versus supporting standards and creates summative and interim assessments tied to scoring guides.
The presentation explained why the district writes unit-level summative assessments before planning lessons, how scoring rubrics (rated 1'4) are used to define mastery, and how lesson sequences give students multiple opportunities to engage with new content. Freeman said the typical school-year planning window is 181 instructional days and that curriculum teams prioritize standards and time allocation accordingly.
Board discussion focused on several recurring themes: how curriculum differs from programs and…
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