Develop curriculum planning tools for supporting standards and instruction (Curriculum Planning Tools)

· Standards are the foundation: Sometimes in practice, the starting place for curriculum design is something other than standards: existing units of study, purchased instructional materials, or content on accountability tests. In a standards-based education system, academic standards are the starting place and building blocks for curriculum development, and alignment to standards should be assessed regularly. 

· Alignment: Alignment of curriculum, assessments, and instruction with standards is paramount in a standards-based education system. “The goal of a well-designed curriculum should be to ensure that students have a range of opportunities to gain the knowledge, skills, and abilities required by the standards” (CSAI 2018).  

· Continuous improvement: This work is not a one-and-done activity; in a standards-based education system, continuous improvement applies to curriculum as well. “While standards describe what students are intended to learn; curriculum describes how they are intended to access the knowledge, skills, and abilities embedded within the standards” (CSAI 2018). When a robust professional learning system is in place, teacher capacity and understanding evolves; this necessarily leads to adjustments in curriculum to better guide necessary changes for student learning. 

· Activity 1: Build a scope and sequence

· Activity 2: Develop unit plans

· Activity 3: Analyze instructional materials and resources - coming soon