"Today’s education system faces irrelevance unless we bridge the gap between how students live and how they learn." ~Learning for the 21^st Century, prepared by the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills

The Challenge

• Demand for reform and accountability in education is one reason schools have begun to examine their instructional practices, evaluate equity issues, review assessment techniques, assess curriculum implementation and determine whether the curriculum is aligned to tested objectives.

• No Child Left Behind has forced the nation’s schools to set standards for student achievement and hold students, teachers, and other educators accountable for results.  Success will be measured by whether every child is learning.

• Texas TEKS and TAKS require Texas schools to align instruction, assessments, and resources for success in our state’s accountability system.  Success will be built upon disaggregation of student data that drives instructional decisions to ensure that ALL students are learning.

The Response

• Examine the interconnected relationship of all aspects of a district’s system and the ability of the district to align the entire system to the ultimate goals of enhancing the success of its students.

• Evaluate existing programs and develop strategic efforts in curriculum and instruction.

• Give administrators the knowledge, skills, management tools, and confidence to improve the design and delivery of the entire school system’s curriculum.

• Provide principals, teachers, central office administrators, parents, student, the community, and the school board information and data that can be used in planning school improvement.

• Design a curriculum that is academically rich and relevant, student-centered, and culturally diverse, honoring input and contributions from all the district’s stakeholders.

• Develop a systematic and continuous program of curriculum review, evaluation, and development to provide quality control of the curriculum to ensure that all students will learn the same core of significant content at a specific instructional level, from teacher to teacher, and school to school.

The Six Elements of 21^st Century Learning

• Emphasize core subjects

• Emphasize learning skills

• Use 21^st century tools to develop learning skills

• Teach and learn in a 21^st century context

• Teach and learn new 21^st century content

• Use 21^st century assessments that measure core subjects and 21^st century skills

The Solution

• Using a comprehensive needs assessment, identify the district’s strengths and gaps.

• Based on effective schools research and organizational theory, examine the design and delivery of curriculum and provide specific recommendations to improve the match between curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

• Based on the findings of the District Needs Analysis, develop a Curriculum Blueprint that conveys the intent of the district leadership and that guides the development, scope, alignment, and evaluation of the curriculum in all subject areas.  The Curriculum Blueprint will also ensure quality control of the designed and delivered instruction and will link the budgeting procedure to the curriculum to ensure that students are prepared to meet the curricular objectives that are aligned with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) and the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS).

• Results will be used not only to improve teaching and learning, but also to provide direction for the district’s strategic planning process.