Curriculum and Instruction is intentionally planned and delivered to be important, focused, engaging, demanding, and scaffolded.
This category seeks to ensure there is commitment to and practice of defining learning targets for students, then intentionally planning for and using a variety of instructional strategies so EVERY student is challenged. There are three elements in Curriculum and Instruction: Curriculum, Instructional Planning, and Instructional Practice (adapted from Carol Ann Tomlinson) |
Professional Learning: Continuous improvement practices increase educator effectiveness and improve results for all students.
An effective teacher has been demonstrated to have the highest impact on student learning and so professional learning is an essential category of system support reviews. The elements of professional learning are learning communities, leadership, resources, data, learning designs, implementation, and outcomes. (Standards for Professional Learning from Learning Forward) |
The district has a high-quality leadership and management team with a clear vision, ambition, and goals.
The team has a sense of purpose and high aspirations, with an action plan aligned to priorities, focused on student success. It has an organization structure with defined roles, and a system of continuous improvement. |
The school has a welcoming, positive, safe, accepting, and empowering environment that fully engages students in their learning. Students have a growth mindset; they are resilient and engaged in learning.
These spaces are most often characterized as having a welcoming and positive, safe and accepting and empowering environment that fully engages students in their learning and inspires them to work toward high levels of achievement The elements of learning climate are welcoming and positive, safe and accepting, and empowering. |
Finances of a district should reflect district priorities and meet all transparency compliance standards.
The budget should reflect the district's allocation of available resources (e.g. time, material, personnel) to maximize district effectiveness in response to strategic priorities. |
The infrastructure and facilities of the district should support and not inhibit student learning.
The district maximizes its use of all available resources, including technology, to support student learning. The elements of infrastructure and facilities are impact on learning and safety. |
Where there is family and community connection, the district 1) has a range of regular, two-way methods for communicating with parents, guardians, and the wider community; 2) takes steps to encourage active engagement in the education of their children and involvement in the life of the school through 3) partnerships for shared decision-making. The elements of Family and Community are Communication, Active Engagement, and Partnerships/Shared decision-making.
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