Curriculum & Instruction

Ridgefield Public Schools is a learning organization. In order for our students to reach their full potential, all members of the RPS community engage in study, reflection, providing feedback, and attending professional learning opportunities inside and outside of the district. As a district, we believe that our teachers are our greatest asset. A skilled teacher with a variety of tools in their toolbox is more effective than any published resource. Therefore, we invest in our teachers by providing them with the highest quality resources and the most up to date, relevant, and research based professional learning.

What is Curriculum and Instruction?

Ridgefield Public Schools provides a cohesive and comprehensive curriculum that intentionally connects standards, instruction, and assessment. A curriculum provides a roadmap for instruction based on Connecticut State Standards, essential questions, and enduring understandings. As a district, we use the curriculum design process developed by Grant Wiggens, known as backward design. That is, we begin curriculum development by determining what we want our students to know and understand by the end of the unit. Looking at the outcomes first results in coherently-designed curriculum units, performance assessments, and classroom instruction. The primary goal of backward design is student understanding, which is revealed when students transfer learning to novel tasks.

At RPS, we also use curriculum resources to support the day-to-day teaching in our classrooms. Representative groups review curriculum resources before adoption and are then implemented across all schools. As a district, we provide an aligned, equitable pathway for all of our students to access the standards.

At RPS, we have a curriculum revision and creation cycle that we work through each year. This means that our curriculum is alive and responsive to changing student needs, standards, and teacher feedback from year to year. We have a curriculum website for our teachers that provides access to all of those materials as we continue to memorize and revise curriculum documents for all classes at all levels.

Instruction refers to pedagogy, that is, the methods and actions of teaching. This is the "art" of teaching. Bringing a lesson to life from a curriculum resource relies on the skills of the teacher and his/her knowledge of the students receiving the instruction. The systems and structures of support and feedback in our schools across all levels allows us, as a district, to continue to support our teachers, as needed, in this "art."