Skip To Main Content

Logo Image

Logo Title

Curriculum Review & Development

Foundational Beliefs

The Kirkwood School District believes students deserve a preK-12 spiraled experience that builds intellectual coherence. To best serve our students in these endeavors, teachers and principals deserve a long-range plan that allows them to anticipate work and professional learning. The Board of Education approves curriculum, which is defined as the course priority standards, essential skills and questions, enduring understandings, and the scope and sequence.

 Beliefs About Curriculum

  • The curriculum should be learner-centered, fostering the development of the “whole child.”

  • The district's key priorities (e.g., equity, critical/creative thinking, relevance, and future-ready skills) should be embedded in all curricular areas and easily identifiable to those on the outside looking in.

  • Curricular and programmatic evaluation should emphasize student growth, analyzed across the system and through a lens of equitable success for all subgroups of our population.

  • The curriculum should align with standards, encourage the intentional use of high-impact instructional strategies, and value both the art and science of teaching.

  • The curriculum should include cornerstone assessments, with multiple avenues for students to demonstrate transfer of learning and receive ongoing feedback about growth toward goals.

  • Curricula reflect Tier I instruction within our multi-tiered support system (MTSS) framework and thus should meet the needs of at least 80% of all students and subgroups of students.

  • The curriculum should align with Board Policy.

 Beliefs About Our Process

  • Because fostering the development of the "whole child" is essential to curriculum design, we must seek input and feedback from students, parents, teachers, alumni, and our community.

  • Intentional time and energy should be devoted to all phases of the curriculum process: evaluation, research, development, and implementation.

  • The development process must extend beyond agreement about “what students should know and be able to do,” providing clarity about how learning will occur (shared experiences) and be measured–instruction and assessment. This process will likely continue past Board adoption and through year one of implementation.

  • While all stakeholders should be involved in the curriculum process, with regular feedback opportunities throughout, not all teachers need to actively engage in the development phase of the work. Time and funds should be allocated to engage additional staff in other work and professional learning. 

  • Engaging teachers from multiple grade spans and disciplines adds value to the development/feedback process and supports system-wide articulation and collaboration.

  • Curricula must be readily accessible and user-friendly so teachers can be expected to use them often and well.