Office of
Curriculum, Instruction
& Professional Learning
Adam Pease, EdD - Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction - adpease@chappaquaschools.org - 914-238-7200 x 1004
Priorities & Guiding Principles
The office of Curriculum, Instruction, and Professional Learning had two overarching goals which ground and focus our work. First, is to support powerful and innovative teaching & leading through inspiring professional learning. Second, is to develop each student through rigorous instruction and powerful, relevant, and culturally responsive curriculum. This page describes our core beliefs with regard to professional learning and articulates the six District priorities which guide our work as a department.
Questions or comments related to Curriculum and Instruction should be directed to: Adam Pease, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction at adpease@chappaquaschools.org or the appropriate director listed below.
Vision & Goals for Teaching & Learning
Active Student Learning: Students are engaged in experiences that involve meaningful inquiry, action, imagination, invention, interaction, hypothesizing, and personal reflection.
Strong Student Collaboration: Students to work cooperatively toward a common goal, exchange ideas, and rely on one another to create a product, or arrive at a solution, that could not be achieved by an individual.
BOE Strategic Question 1 Budget & Operations
"How can the District ensure continuing excellence in its academic, social-emotional and extracurricular programs while developing a budget that is fiscally responsible?"
BOE Strategic Question 2 Teaching & Learning
"How can the District ensure that all students think deeply and creatively, support their thinking, apply problem-solving skills, work collaboratively, and actively participate in their learning as they acquire content knowledge?"
BOE Strategic Question 3 Social-Emotional Learning
"How can the District ensure that it develops students who are ethical, empathic, respectful, and resilient global citizens and leaders?"
Professional Learning Core Beliefs:
We must strive to balance professional voice and choice with alignment to broad district priorities.
We must understand that learners are different and that growth is individual. We must build personalized paths with scaffolding to support natural next steps for all professionals.
We believe that growth is continuous over a career and that educators must be strategic and purposeful as they plan their professional learning path.
We believe that all members of the organization, including adults and students, are teachers, learners, and leaders. We learn best when we learn with and from each other. We have important strengths to share as well as areas of potential growth.
We believe that students are at the center of all initiatives, decisions, and practices. They deserve the results of our collective best thinking
We believe that external experts and mind-bending experiences can push our thinking.
We actively seek inspiration from external experts, reputable institutions, and far-reaching experiences which challenge our worldview pushing us beyond what we know and are comfortable with.
District Priorities
In 2018 the District engaged in a stakeholder-driven strategic planning process to identify five district priorities. In 2021, the district added a sixth. These priorities continue to focus and ground our work. These six priorities are used as a foundation upon which the C&I Department's annual goals are built. These six priorities are described in more detail below.
USING INSTRUCTIONAL SPACE TO AMPLIFY LEARNING
K-12 students will engage in experiences that involve meaningful inquiry, action, imagination, invention, interaction, hypothesizing, and personal reflection in spaces that are designed to flexibly support a wide variety of learning styles and innovative instructional activities. Instructional spaces are purposefully designed to enhance, amplify, and enrich learning experiences.
DISTRICT WIDE ASSESSMENT PRACTICES
Assessment systems accurately track learning and provide useful feedback to instructors, students, and parents about the extent to which students are successfully meeting course objectives and grade-level standards. Data systems track student performance, personalize instruction, and inform the continuous curriculum improvements.
SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING CURRICULUM ALIGNMENT
Social and emotional learning (SEL) allows us to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. Emotions drive our learning, decision-making, creativity, and relationships with others and district activities are designed with this in mind.
CURRICULUM ALIGNMENT
A rigorous curriculum, which is purposefully developed, articulated, and aligned, provides all students the opportunity to acquire the skills and knowledge necessary to be successful. Our curriculum provides order to the content and skills being taught, the level of rigor expected, and encourages interdisciplinary connections. We are committed to a powerful, aligned, and well-articulated curriculum for all subject areas, grades, and buildings, to ensure that all students benefit from the highest quality learning experiences available.
TECHNOLOGY AS A TOOL TO PERSONALIZE LEARNING
When flexibility, choice, and collaboration are the educational norm, kids see themselves as learners and leaders. Faculty and students will work in an innovative, agile atmosphere of learning, that leverages advanced instructional technologies to support active and personalized learning environments where students utilize technology to access "just-right" learning experiences.
EQUITABLE, AFFIRMING & CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE LEARNING
Students will be educated to recognize, reject and stand up to all racism and hate as they learn to support antiracism, diversity, and social justice. We will nurture students as citizens who will be informed, ethical, moral, engaged and active participants in an equitable society.