Rockville Centre is a beautiful community with a tradition of academic excellence. This has been fostered by integrating New York State Learning Standards, the International Baccalaureate’s Approaches to Learning, and conceptual attainment.
New York State has adopted the Next Generation Learning Standards as a set of learning goals. These standards are organized into grade levels, and in some cases, grade bands (for example 9-10 and 11-12 and language standards 1 and 2).
Standards are necessary, they support educators’ knowledge of student learning over time. The Rockville Centre School District is aligned to the Next Generation Standards in the various content areas, focusing on horizontal and vertical alignment.
These learning goals are the foundation for curricula and instructional design. Yet, to ensure high levels of learning, curriculum, and instruction should focus on transferring this knowledge and skills to new or novel situations and more significant complex concepts. Teaching for transfer is the ultimate goal of the work of an educator.
When thinking about curriculum, instruction, and assessment, important terms require a common understanding.
Curricula include content, concepts, and skills students learn throughout the school year. The Rockville Centre School District determines the content, concepts, and skills necessary to help students make maximum progress toward the grade-level goals as defined by the standards. Curricula should be designed using the Understanding by Design concept from Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins. This requires educators to begin with the end in mind and backward map the curriculum to the skills, knowledge, and concepts learners are expected to achieve by the end of the unit.
Curriculum Resources are the materials a district chooses after defining its curriculum. Well-chosen resources support teachers’ delivery of developmentally appropriate, standards-aligned instruction to all learners.
Instruction includes the ways, approaches, and strategies an educator chooses to teach the content of the standards based on the needs of their learners. Classroom teachers and the district determine instruction. The International Baccalaureate’s Approaches to Learning were developed to increase student responses and provide interaction with language, concepts, and peers while fostering a learner’s capacity to learn how to learn. Ultimately, this will lead to life-long learning.
