What is Curriculum?

• At RPS, we define curriculum as the universal foundation for what is taught, and what students learn, at each grade level (for each subject) PK-12. Curriculum includes the learning standards and goes beyond textbooks or traditional state-developed standards (like Virginia’s Standards of Learning) which are generally too broad or require individual interpretation, resulting in students learning different topics at different paces.
• Unlike a textbook, which serves as a reference tool with some learning exercises spread throughout chapters, a curriculum enables teachers to offer students a more comprehensive learning experience by providing teachers with:
• Scope and Sequence, which paces concepts containing knowledge and skills to be addressed.
• Units of instruction that group together knowledge and skills with instructional tasks/experiences that allow for the development, application, and use of knowledge and skills. Units range from three to six weeks and may end in assessment. 
• Daily Lessons which give a range of tools and strategies to support the learning toward the goals.
• Assessments that include the reasons for and methods to assess student learning and academic progress.
• Instructional Resources, including the texts, media, and tools that are used for teaching and learning.
• These five components of curriculum create the universal foundation for what every RPS student is expected to learn each year in each subject, so they are well-prepared to reach their full potential.
• There is plenty of research that emphasizes the importance of curriculum.  A strong curriculum boosts student learning and a weak one can actually cause students to lose ground (Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, 2017). Absent a high-quality curriculum, a division cannot adequately guarantee standards-aligned, high quality tasks being given to students (Ed Trust, 2018).

Why Curriculum?

• Our RPS student achievement data show that our students need more support to meet proficiency expectations.
• RPS most recently adopted new curriculum in 2014 for math and in 2015 for ELA. New Virginia Standards of Learning (SOLs) were implemented for math in the 2018-2019 school year and english language arts in the 2019-2020 school year. RPS needs new curricula to align what we are teaching our students to the standards that they are being expected to learn.
• A high-quality curriculum is a lever for equity.  It helps us as educators standardize what is an appropriate level of rigor for students based on grade level and enables all students to reach grade-level proficiency.
• More than ever with COVID, there is unfinished learning and a common curriculum is one way to address the wide variety of gaps that students will have once they return to next school year.
• In our Dreams4RPS Strategic Plan, priorities 1.2 and 1.3 expect that we will adopt a K-8 ELA and math curricula that will ignite rigorous and exciting teaching and learning.