Curriculum

What is curriculum?
The term curriculum refers to the entire program of studies offered to students. The curriculum is split into courses and grade levels to ensure that learning is age appropriate and rigorous for the student.

What is the importance of curriculum?
The curriculum outlines what students are expected to master in their K-12 education.

How is curriculum created for our students?
Shippensburg Area School District follows the work by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins, the framework of ‘Understanding by Design”. Utilizing the Pennsylvania Common Core Standards and the Pennsylvania Academic Standards the district creates essential questions, or learning objectives, for students and then determines how students will demonstrate mastery of the Essential Question/learning objective. Resources, materials, and learning experiences are developed to provide students scaffolding to meet the Essential Question/learning objectives. Finally, teachers work in Professional Learning Communities to plan individual lessons and develop best pedagogical practices for our students to learn our curriculum.

What is currently the objective of curriculum in Pennsylvania?
With the passing of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) at the Federal level in 2015 and the Pennsylvania specific ESSA in January of 2018, Pennsylvania schools will be focusing on students being ‘Future Ready”.

What is the Standards Aligned System?
The SAS is a comprehensive, researched-based resource to improve student achievement. SAS identifies six elements that impact student achievement: Standards, Assessments, Curriculum Framework, Instruction, Materials & Resources, and Safe and Supportive Schools.

How can parents/guardians know what the curriculum is for our district?
Curriculum can be viewed using the Quick Links “Curriculum Maps” for the Rubicon Atlas Public Site .