Curriculum Review Cycle
The Elizabethtown Area School District is committed to maintaining a rigorous, relevant, and engaging curriculum that reflects current educational research, state standards, and the evolving needs of students. To ensure continuous improvement, the District follows a comprehensive curriculum review cycle that evaluates each content area on a regular basis.
The curriculum review process is collaborative and involves teachers, administrators, and other educational professionals working together to evaluate existing curriculum, identify opportunities for improvement, review instructional resources, analyze student achievement data, and recommend revisions. Throughout the process, the District ensures that curriculum remains aligned with the Pennsylvania Academic Standards, the District's Life Ready Model, and the educational needs of all learners.
The curriculum review cycle consists of four continuous phases: Evaluate, Develop, Implement, and Monitor. Together, these phases help ensure that EASD's curriculum remains current, effective, and responsive to the needs of students and the community.
Evaluate & Assess Needs
- Comprehensive review of existing curriculum including PA Standards-alignment and coverage of PSSA & Keystone eligible content
- Any new state requirements?
- All standards & eligible content addressed?
- Vertical alignment of scope & sequence
- Gaps?
- Redundancy?
- Identify strengths & areas of need in current curriculum
- Supporting district mission, vision, and goals?
- Preparing students for college & career pathways?
- Addressing needs of whole child?
- Appropriate pacing and level of rigor?
- Comprehensive review of textbooks and instructional materials
- Content accuracy
- Engaging & relevant to students’ lives – representative of diverse backgrounds & cultures, high-interest topics, local and global issues, etc.
- Online options and accessibility
- Updated curriculum guides
- Pilot possible texts or instructional materials in a few classrooms
- Technology integration
- Project-based assessments
- Pedagogical considerations – 21st Century skills
- Supportive of K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum?
- Interdisciplinary connections & Personalization
- Opportunities for collaboration & problem-solving
- STEAM opportunities?
- Humanities opportunities?
- Opportunities for student choice & input; Student directed learning
- Integration of higher order thinking skills – opportunities for analysis & synthesis
- Opportunities for collaboration & problem-solving
- Differentiation – resources & activities for remediation and enrichment, considerations for ELLs or other special needs students
- Review of student data & status of common assessments
- Determine needs for professional development in content or instructional strategies
- Budgetary considerations
- Are there any obvious and substantial recurring costs?
- Cost of new textbooks or instructional materials?
- Implications to current staffing?
- Any special equipment or facility needs?
- Include any anticipated costs in preliminary budget process
- Seek School Board approval for changes that need to occur, any proposed textbooks/instructional materials (when required)
Develop
- Complete any work identified as a need during Evaluation Cycle
- Write or revise new curriculum
- Design lesson plans and authentic assessments
- Write or revise common assessments as needed
- Update curriculum guides, scope & sequence, etc. as needed
- Seek School Board approval for final curriculum/new course (as needed)
- Purchase & align any newly approved textbooks and instructional materials with unit and lesson plans (AFTER School Board approval)
- Participate in professional development as needed (especially for those who were not part of the pilot) – content, instructional strategies, implementation of new resources, interdisciplinary connections, technology integration, etc.
Implement
- Fully implement board approved curriculum guides, common assessments, new textbooks, and/or new instructional materials district-wide (full grade level or department)
- Collect & review annual data from common assessments, PSSAs, Keystones, etc.
- Make minor adjustments as needed
- Ongoing & embedded professional development
- Integrate learning from professional development into daily practice
Monitor
- Collect & organize quantitative and qualitative data in preparation for evaluation
- Feedback from department or grade level
- Feedback from students
- Feedback from parents
- Review multi-year data from common assessments – identify trends
- Review multi-year data from PSSA & Keystone data (when applicable) – identify trends
- Begin to research new textbooks or instructional materials (as deemed necessary)
- Continue implementation with minor adjustments as needed
- Ongoing & embedded professional development
- Begin preliminary list of needs
- Might begin pilot of new materials, strategies, texts, etc