Program Overview

Philosophy of Curriculum and Instruction

A guaranteed and viable curriculum ensures equal opportunity for learning for all students. The written curriculum, the taught or implemented curriculum, and assessments must be aligned.   The curriculum is viable when adequate time is given to teach all essential content. Essential content is the knowledge and skills that students need to know, understand, and be able to do to succeed in school and beyond. Content is determined by state and local grade-level content standards based upon the Connecticut Core State Standards, Connecticut Frameworks, and National Standards.

The Waterbury Public Schools written curriculum is designed to achieve ambitious, rigorous outcomes. It is deliberately designed to remain flexible, adaptable to the community's diversity, and continuously changing to meet all students' learning needs. The curricula will keep students at the center of its design by identifying vertically and horizontally aligned big ideas, essential questions, concepts, skills, and domain-specific vocabulary that all students need in order to become fully functioning, well-educated citizens. The curriculum provides administrators, teachers, students, parents, and the community with a clear understanding of what students should know and be able to do upon their graduation and at key stages at each grade level and in each content area. A curriculum is a “living” document that is renewed yearly based on teacher and administrator feedback to support the needs of the students.