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Curriculum Framework

What Will Your Student Learn?

MCPS Policy IFA: Curriculum
(20K Adobe Acrobat PDF)

Curriculum (the written curriculum)

In response to the Board of Education's revised policy on curriculum, MCPS has embarked on a revision of its curriculum and has set for itself the following goals and products:

• Goals
  • A coherent, precise, and measurable curriculum at each grade level with organization and expectations that are consistent from grade to grade and across the subject areas.
  • A means for students, teachers, parents, and administrators to monitor student progress toward meeting curriculum standards.
• End Products
  • A curriculum framework that states what Montgomery County School students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade level in each subject area (Mathematics, Reading/Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies) consistent with Maryland State Content Standards as well as national and international standards.
  • Local daily/weekly and quarterly/unit assessment measures that help students, teachers, principals, and parents monitor students’ progress toward mastery of the MCPS curriculum standards and indicators.
  • Units of instruction, adopted or developed, that support attainment of the local standards and indicators.
  • An instructional management system that will use technology to help monitor the progress of each student toward mastery of standards and indicators and will provide information to students, teachers, parents, principals, and central office on an ongoing basis.

On July 2, 2001, the Montgomery County Public Schools Board of Education approved the Curriculum Framework for preKindergarten through Grade 8 English/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. This document defines what students are expected to know and be able to do by the end of each grade level, pre-K to 8, in each of the four content areas.

Approval of the Curriculum Frameworks was followed by the development of Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction (CAI) Blueprints. The blueprints organize the curriculum framework's expectations into units of instruction. They also organize the units around enduring understandings and essential questions, and include examples of assessment, instruction, and differentiation. Similar to the way an architectural blueprint establishes a plan for a house, the CAI Blueprints established a plan upon which the more detailed instructional guides and assessment measures are being developed.

Teachers in all grade levels were provided with copies of the curriculum framework for pre-K - 8 and the CAI Blueprints. Teachers are trying out the curriculum and the blueprints this year and providing feedback to the Office of Curriculum and Instructional Programs, which is in charge of developing the instructional guides and assessments.

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Step 1: Examine and Utilize Maryland State Content Standards
Step 2: Develop Curriculum Framework Based on Standards and Assessments
Step 3: Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction Blueprint Model

Examine and Utilize Maryland State Content Standards

The first step in developing the curriculum framework was to examine and utilize the Maryland State Content Standards. These standards define what the state expects students to know and be able to do by the end of Grade 3, Grade 5, Grade 8, and high school. The Maryland standards are the basis of both the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program, tested at Grades 3, 5, and 8, and the Maryland High School Assessments. The latter are examinations that will be required of all students to receive a high school diploma, beginning with the class of 2004.

See example: Maryland Mathematics Content Standards

The K-8 state content standards are organized into grade level bands (K-3, 4-5, and 6-8). They do not specify what is expected of students at the end of each grade within those bands. Therefore, it is necessary to "back-map" the Maryland Content Standards to the other grade levels in order to define what students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade level, pre-K through 8. The process of back-mapping the Maryland Content Standards is being conducted by an independent firm, the Council for Basic Education, under contract from Montgomery County Public Schools, and was completed on May 4, 2001.

See examples: Back-mapped Standards for Grades K-8 with Clarifying Examples

Develop Curriculum Framework Based on Standards and Assessments

The next step in the process was to fashion a curriculum framework that takes into consideration the Maryland State Content Standards, national and international standards, and state assessments that affect students in MCPS. Standards that have influenced the final framework include national standards in each discipline and comparison with standards from other states, districts, and nations where students demonstrate success on national and international measures.

The initial development took place during May 2001 by work and advisory groups for each subject area that included nationally recognized content experts. Beginning in late May, other advisory groups and interest groups began to review the curriculum framework and provide feedback. In addition, the framework was made available for general public comment beginning on June 12, 2001. Copies were placed in all school media centers, public libraries, and on the MCPS web pages.

The resulting final version of the Curriculum Framework contains significant revisions to the draft document (see Document Archive). The Office of Curriculum and Instructional Programs is deeply grateful to the hundreds of teachers, parents, students, and community members who spent many hours reading the document and providing input.

The curriculum framework with scope and sequence of indicators for preK-8 was approved by the Board of Education on July 2, 2001. The document approved by the Board of Education includes:

• Broad K-12 standards in each subject area that mirror the Maryland State Content Standards.
• For each subject area, a rationale and research on which the standards for that subject are based.
• Indicator statements (objectives) for Grades pre-K – 8 specifying what students should know and be able to do at each grade level in order to achieve mastery of the standard by the end of high school.

Curriculum, Assessment, Instruction (CAI) Blueprint Model

The CAI Blueprint Model is the document that "translates" or reorganizes the curriculum framework into something teachers can use. Please see CAI Blueprints for detailed information, organized by subject and grade level, pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8.

Grade 2 Math Blueprint

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