Curriculum Standards

The South Windsor Public Schools has a five-year curriculum review cycle, and several K-12 curriculum areas are reviewed each year. A representative committee of professional staff reviews potential curricular changes and provides suggestions for improvement. Modifications are also made in areas not currently under review, but areas which need to be changed as a result of new learning, state/federal mandates, changes in Board of Education policies/goals, etc. Attention is focused on the developmental appropriateness of the curriculum as it is reviewed. A developmentally appropriate curriculum is a curriculum which allows and supports teachers to teach children in keeping with the predictable stages of intellectual growth.

A curriculum is the detailed plan used to teach students the learning goals embodied in the standards prescribed by the Connecticut State Department of Education. Curriculum includes activities, lessons, units, assessments, and instructional decisions made in the classroom. Teachers will continually increase the quality of their direct instruction by providing focus, emphasis, and attention to particular details as a model for students. In turn, students have explicit guidelines regarding teacher expectations, and can use rubrics as a tool to develop their abilities. A rubric is a specific tool that helps teachers design and score assessments that can be used to generate both formative and summative scores, and helps students know how their work will be evaluated before the work begins.