Improving Access to High-Quality, Standards-Aligned Curriculum
We help district and school leaders understand curriculum as having three facets: the intended curriculum, the lived curriculum, and the learned curriculum.
- The intended curriculum refers to what students are expected to learn as defined by the standards, as well as the print and online materials used to support instruction and assessment.
- The lived curriculum refers to how the intended curriculum is implemented and assessed and how students experience it.
- The learned curriculum refers to how much of and how well the intended curriculum is learned and mastered by students
We review the quality of curricula and instructional materials, help decision makers review options to select the optimal program, and support teachers and leaders with professional learning and coaching throughout the implementation process to ensure that all students engage in high-quality learning experiences in every subject.
High-Quality Curriculum
- Review: Content-focused reviews of existing curriculum
- Adoption: Support with revieiwng and selecting new curriculum materials
- Design: Building standards-based scope and sequences, units of study, and performance tasks
- Implementation: Professional development to support implementation of newly adopted curriculum resources
Our Work in Action
Statewide Curriculum Reviews in Maryland
WestEd partnered with the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) to develop a system for reviewing Curricular Support Materials (CSMs) used across the state in English, Mathematics, and Science. We developed rubrics for reviewing CSMs, designed processes for conducting reviews, and facilitated review workshops with local educators.
Our team is also developing a dashboard so Maryland educators around the state can navigate and explore the results of CSM reviews, as well as access anchor sets of exemplar materials to support future reviews.
Our Impact: Local education agencies in Maryland will have greater access to data to help them adopt and implement suitable curricular support materials.