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Curriculum Strategy & Implementation

Develop a school district curriculum strategy that recognizes the changing needs of students

Curriculum selection is no longer about textbook adoptions that happen every few years. Districts today are developing a strategy for instructional materials adoption and selection that takes into account district goals, pedagogical shifts, cultural relevance, and student-centered environments.

The right curriculum makes a big difference

Curriculum is a key lever in providing meaningful learning experiences for students, a driver for equity, and clarifying instructional leadership and staff development opportunities. Whichever part of the curriculum process you are focusing on  --  selection, adoption, implementation, or evaluation--being responsive is key to managing this complex process.

curriculum strategy

Our approach to curriculum strategy & implementation

  • Design a vision for instruction, student experience, and outcomes.  Then evaluate current curriculum and supplemental resources, usage, and engagement against the vision to identify gaps and opportunities through our comprehensive curriculum audit.
  • Create shared definitions for terms like content, rigor, differentiated resources, high-quality instruction for content for students, teachers, leaders, and community members.

  • Design systems and processes to evaluate curriculum quality, standards-alignment, level of change needed, and evidence basis.  Design a selection tool that supports committee evaluation and reduces bias when evaluating content and materials. 

  • Test out new curriculum strategically (consider a pilot group of early adopters, scaled implementation). Gather data on user experiences (student, teacher, leader, community members) through observations, surveys, student work samples.

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About Our Comprehensive Curriculum Audit

At Education Elements, we believe that a curriculum is much larger than a textbook. We believe a curriculum should be rigorous, develop conceptual understanding of content and skills, and integrate learners' cultures and identities. Materials that have these characteristics empower learners to build critical awareness of themselves, their communities, and the world. Transformational learning occurs when there is alignment between the intentional design and use of high quality instructional materials.

Through our audit and review process, we empower teachers and leaders to ensure that curriculum focuses on grade level standards and the learners experiencing it. We believe that a high quality curriculum must meet criteria for core instructional components, content, and context-specific priorities. Our approach is two tier:

  • The Materials Audit: Our team of content experts look at curricular materials and create a readout with strengths, opportunities, and next steps; districts gain understanding of the extent to which curriculum meets the criteria for High Quality Instructional Materials. 

  • Culturally Responsive Guided Review + Analysis: Our team will partner with a local committee of school and district leaders, teachers, students, and families to design and facilitate experiences that illuminate strengths, opportunities, and next steps for materials with a culturally responsive lens.

As a result of our audit, you will have information to be able to interpret, analyze, and adjust practices based on findings. Following these decisions, Education Elements can support districts and schools in building and adjusting the systems and enabling conditions that are needed to put curriculum in action.

Our guiding principles:

 

  • Students and their needs must be at the center of learning and decision making around curriculum, instruction and materials
  • Student-centered learning happens through personalized learning, with support of the Core 4
  • Ultimately, the teacher should decide on the right mix of instructional practices and materials needed to facilitate learning experiences that meet students’ needs
  • Equity is ensured in part through teaching to the standards and by maintaining a baseline for the quality of curriculum and instructional materials we use
  • Teachers are professionals with different needs, styles and philosophies, therefore they need personalized support

 

It's not just about processes, it's about the people

At Education Elements, we believe that implementing a curriculum is not just about processes, but it's also about the people. Processes and people work together to build alignment, enabling the instructional core to attain the desired outcomes.  Investing in the process and multiple stakeholder groups requires domain expertise, strong project management and change management skills.

This results in tighter alignment to district vision, desired outcomes + experiences: instructional core.

 

Curriculum adoption is abou tthe people

 

How does Education Elements support districts in creating an effective curriculum strategy and implementation

We work with districts using our proven methodology customized to meet the needs of each district with curriculum planning. We help districts to:

  • Diagnose the district’s readiness level for a new curriculum adoption plan using multiple sources and inputs.
  • Design a new curriculum blueprint that meets the unique needs, priorities, and expectations of your school district
  • Explore various curriculum resource types and develop the right curriculum mix for your district
  • Build the district's capacity as we do this important work together and transfer what we build and design to the teams that carry the work forward.

Resources

Align Curriculum Goals with Personalized Learning Vision [Part 1 - White Paper Series]

Guarantee your curriculum goals are aligned with your vision by following the steps in this report.

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Determine Offline-Online Curriculum Alignment and the Role of Digital Tools. [Part 2 - White Paper Series]

Determining the right mix of offline and online curriculum tools.

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Review, Demo and Select Digital Tools [Part 3 - White Paper Series]

Don't make costly mistakes in the selection and procurement of digital content and tools.

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Curriculum Adoption Process [Framework]

The most essential questions to address when considering building a process for curriculum

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Speak with an Ed Elements Team Member
About How We Can Support Your Curriculum Strategy.