Curriculum and Instruction As a Framework for Instruction: A Guided Workshop of Professional Learning and Action

Observations of almost thirty years in the field continue to lead to an overarching conclusion that led to the development of Curriculum and Assessment as a Framework for Instruction: teachers deserve to experience the professional learning that helps them to make informed decisions around what instruction of standards in classrooms should look like. With a standards framework from the state, instruction is often approached as a series of isolated learning events because teachers have not been provided the opportunity to learn deeper about the meaning of the standards as a foundation around which instruction is developed. Without professional learning, proficiency of students becomes defined as a count of the number of standards they can respond to with some measure of understanding. Curriculum and Assessment as a Framework for Instruction makes the case that the standards can readily be turned into a story of learning in which students are active participants.

Curriculum and Assessment as a Framework for Instruction offers states, districts, and schools a framework for positioning standards at the center of an instructional program. By describing the standards as expectations of learning, Curriculum and Assessment as a Framework for Instruction helps to define teaching and learning rather than simply suggest broad student outcomes. Importantly, the framework developed in Curriculum and Assessment as a Framework for Instruction connects the assessment of learning to the development of a curriculum from standards, and it guides developers to better consider cross-curricular relationships and the often overlooked relevance and meaningfulness of practice and process standards in domains.

Too many of the texts in the field of curriculum and assessment development are cumbersome, while others focus more on the goal of creating lessons and instructional strategies. Curriculum and Assessment as a Framework for Instruction does not intend to fill in the instructional piece; teachers are the creators of instructional experiences. Instead, Curriculum and Assessment as a Framework for Instruction intends to help teachers and leaders describe standards as expected proficient outcomes from which instructional decisions can be efficiently made. The author is pragmatic in the approach: proficiency in a domain is the expected outcome for K-12 students, and the focus of any framework should enable that.

Curriculum and Assessment as a Framework for Instruction starts by prioritizing standards based on their value to the long-term success of students. Standards are connected to both a taxonomy of learning and depth-of-knowledge, which allows teachers to see how to construct student learning experiences. As units are created using chosen frameworks, practices of various domains and cross-curricular connections are made. Assessment of student learning makes up the second half of the text, where strategies of formative assessment, instructional assessment, and the development of instructional rubrics make visible what successful learning looks like in classrooms.

Curriculum and Assessment as a Framework for Instruction is not theoretical in its ideas but is instead written to inform the development of an instructional curriculum framework rooted in standards while providing professional learning so that teachers and leaders build capacity to create a long-term success with a redeveloped curriculum. The program described in Curriculum and Assessment as a Framework for Instruction has been used in hundreds of schools over the past almost 15 years, and it has brought a clear focus of what instruction needs to look like. Equity and successful course-, college-, or workforce-readiness is at risk without a well-described curriculum framework in place.