Longhorn Curriculum Corner

In today's ever-changing world, it's best practice to review the district curriculum in an ongoing, systematic fashion to assess for alignment with district goals and determine possible revisions. This allows our curriculum to maintain our tradition of academic excellence while providing flexibly in order to respond to changes in standards, mandated content, and our students' collective needs. Take a look at the visual outline below to get a sense of the process!

At this time, we are gathering feedback from stakeholders regarding their experience with our current curriculum and instructional processes.

We've also formed curriculum committees at both buildings to drive these evaluation and revision processes. These committees are in the process of analyzing the survey data and our current curriculum to prioritize areas of concern.

As we fire up the engines on the Curriculum Evaluation and Revision Cycle, it's important to distinguish between the terms curriculum and program.

Curriculum:

• What we want our students to learn/be able to do
• The essential knowledge and skills our students should acquire in their time with us
• The destination of achievement for our students

Programs:

• Specific materials and resources to teach students skills and knowledge
• Can be textbooks, online programs, etc.
• The "vehicles" we use to travel to the destination (curriculum)

As we review our curriculum, we may determine that elements of the programs we currently use do/do not sufficiently meet our curriculum goals. Those that do will be sustained and built upon while those that do not may be subject to replacement via methodical piloting of new offerings.

We are also currently in the process of selecting an efficient platform for storing and continually developing our new curriculum maps and other resources. The platforms in question will allow parents and the community an opportunity to see, at a glance and at their leisure, what students in our district will be learning grade by grade, unit by unit. Additionally, these platforms provide a collaborative space for our curricula to continually evolve as the cycle rolls from year to year. An example of one such platform is shown below.

Simultaneously, we are gathering a rich collection of samples from some of the highest-performing academic programs in use throughout our region. This will allow us to more quickly conduct pilots of new materials following curriculum revisions if we determine new and/or supplemental materials are needed.

If you ever have questions, comments, or concerns about the curriculum and instruction process, please reach out to Kris Boganski, Supervisor of Curriculum and Instruction.

Email: kboganski@btschools.org
Website: https://btschools.org/curriculum/
Phone: 9084796336