The 2008 Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction (CAI) Institute provides an opportunity for principals, teachers and central office staff to engage in meaningful, interdependent experiences around the Framework for Quality Learning, the Professional Learning Community model, and the Teacher Performance Appraisal system that stimulate deliberate and reflective application of practice.

The foundation of the Institute is the understanding that as a result of our innovative implementation of the Framework for Quality Learning, the Professional Learning Community model, and the Teacher Performance Appraisal system, ALL students will believe in their power to embrace learning, to excel, and to own their future.  This vision demands that ALL students obtain a deep understanding of a rigorous and relevant curriculum and that understanding is measured not through recall of SOL-based facts but through dynamic, engaging learning experiences in the context of a balanced assessment system.  This mission requires that ALL students, teachers, central office staff, and principals be consistently engaged within a community of learners and learning.

Work at the 2008 CAI Institute is grounded in the Framework for Quality Learning, the Professional Learning Community model, and the Teacher Performance Appraisal system and is organized into three areas: curriculum, assessment, and instruction .

• Curriculum:   What should all students know, understand, and be able to do?  What knowledge is truly essential and enduring?  What's worth understanding?  What powerful ideas should all students encounter?  How can we address required content standards while remaining responsive to individual students? How can we make what students are learning in school relevant to their own lives? How can the curriculum we bring to our students engage them in meaningful questioning about the world?  What is the role of curriculum in eliminating the achievement gap?

• Assessment: How will we know whether students have achieved the desired results?  What will we accept as evidence of student understanding and proficiency? How can assessment promote learning, not simply measure it?  What grading and reporting practices support learning and encourage learners?  What will we do when students don't learn?  How can I assess for student understanding of concepts and essential knowledge through strengths in student profiles? How do I assess for student interests and strengths their learning profiles so that learning activities can be challenging and engaging?  What is the role of assessment in eliminating the achievement gap?

• Instruction: What activities, strategies, and resources are best suited to accomplish our goals?  How can teachers use classroom elements flexibly to support student success?  How do teachers organize and manage their classrooms to support responsive instruction?  How does teaching for deep understanding differ from "coverage-oriented" instruction?  What instructional approaches help students to make meaning for themselves?  What about those students who haven't mastered the basics and what about those who have mastered them before we start?  What is the role of instruction in eliminating the achievement gap?

Purpose

The purpose of CAI 2008 is to build capacity to implement the Framework for Quality Learning through deep exploration of the components of Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction. School teams will apply the backwards design process described in the Framework for Quality Learning to develop a plan for faculty learning to be implemented in the 2008-2009 school year.  In addition, individual teachers or teams of teachers will engage in the construction or revision of a Framework for Quality Learning unit. All participants will take part in sessions designed to strengthen their understanding of the Framework for Quality Learning.

Standards-based and concept-centered, the Framework for Quality Learning is rooted in Albemarle County Public Schools' Lifelong-Learner Standards, Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOL), and national standards within the disciplines. These various standards provide insight into what all students must know, understand, and be able to do in real-life contexts. By organizing standards around key concepts and understandings of the discipline, we engage the personal intellect and emotions of the students (Erickson, 2002). When students explore concepts over time as opposed to facts in isolation, they develop deeper understanding and are able to transfer knowledge across disciplines and situations.  If you have not recently read the Framework for Quality Learning, it is strongly suggested that you do so prior to CAI.  Visit the link on this page for a copy of the Framework for Quality Learning.

Essential Questions About Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction

Curriculum

• What should all students know, understand, and be able to do?
•   What knowledge is truly essential and enduring?  
• What's worth understanding?  
• How can the curriculum we bring to our students engage them in meaningful questioning about the world?    
• What is the role of curriculum in eliminating the achievement gaps?

Assessment

•  How can assessment support learning?
•  How can assessment tasks and performances engage students in thinking and working beyond the  SOL?
•  What assessment strategies are best suited to certain content and skills?
•  How can feedback improve future performances?

Instruction

• What does teaching that ensures high levels of learning by all students look like?
• What impacts retention of content and skills?
• What influences student engagement?

Unit Development

Unit development requires "unpacking the standards."  This is the first step of concept based Framework for Quality Learning Unit development and why we call our Institute CURRICULUM-Assessment-Instruction. The next step of Framework for Quality Learning unit development is about determining acceptable evidence - ASSESSMENT.

Product  

School teams will apply the backwards design process described in the Framework for Quality Learning to develop a plan for faculty learning to be implemented in the 2008-2009 school year.  In addition, individual teachers or teams of teachers will engage in the construction or revision of a Framework for Quality Learning unit. All participants will take part in sessions designed to strengthen their understanding of the Framework for Quality Learning.