Criterion Four: Aligning Curriculum

Criterion four revolves around assisting instructional staff with alignment of curriculum, instruction, and assessment with state and local district learning goals. Along with Criterion 5, this criterion identifies key aspects of the principal’s role as instructional leader tied to curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Criterion 4 deals with the “what” and Criterion 5 deals with “how.” The big idea of this criterion is reflected in an understanding of the power and importance of a guaranteed and viable curriculum for each and every student in the school. 

Key Questions for Reflection

• How am I helping staff identify and align essential standards across content areas and grade levels?
• Where does culturally responsive teaching show up in our curriculum planning?
• How are we ensuring the “taught” curriculum matches the “written” curriculum?
• What structures exist in our school for reviewing and aligning formative and summative assessments?
• How am I supporting teachers in differentiating instruction while maintaining alignment to standards?

Quick Wins

• Facilitate a PLC session focused on identifying essential learning standards.
• Create or update a shared curriculum map folder for each subject/grade.
• Conduct a “look-for” walk focused on alignment between instruction and posted learning targets.
• Ask each department/team to bring one unit plan and align it to a key standard.
• Review and revise common assessments to ensure they reflect what’s been taught.

AI Prompts

Align

Help me design a staff PD session that explores vertical curriculum alignment in math.

Question

Generate questions I can use to facilitate a PLC conversation around aligning assessments to standards.

Walkthroughs

What are some walkthrough ‘look-fors’ to identify strong instructional alignment in classrooms?

Reflect

Create a reflection tool teachers can use to self-assess curriculum, instruction, and assessment alignment.

Tech Tips

• Use Google Sheets or a shared tool to collaboratively build and maintain curriculum maps across grade levels.
• Install a standards-alignment plugin (like Edulastic/PearDeck, Brisk, or Nearpod) in your LMS/browsers to tag standards to lessons.
• Create digital assessment banks linked to priority standards and available to all staff.
• Use AI tools (like ChatGPT or MagicSchool.ai) to generate aligned assessments and scaffolded tasks.
• Use Padlet or Canva Whiteboards during PD for teams to share aligned units or lessons in real time.

Examples of Proficient Behaviors

A proficient leader ensures that curriculum, instruction, and assessment are aligned to standards and reflect the needs of all.

In practice, they:

• Facilitate team meetings to collaboratively identify essential standards across content areas and grade levels.
• Use a curriculum mapping process to ensure consistency and equity in what is taught across classrooms.
• Guide staff in selecting instructional strategies that align with standards and support both intervention and enrichment.
• Lead professional development on balanced assessment practices, emphasizing formative tools to inform instruction.
• Help teams analyze assessment results to adjust instruction, revise units, and identify needed supports for students.

Possible Evidence to Collect

• Curriculum maps or pacing guides showing alignment to standards.
• Revised lesson/unit plans showing updates based on new standards or student data.
• Samples of common assessments used to evaluate aligned learning targets.
• Meeting artifacts reflecting teacher collaboration on instructional shifts or curriculum review.
• Documentation of intervention and enrichment plans tied to assessment results.
• PD agendas, slide decks, or materials focused on curriculum or instructional alignment.
• Screenshots or exports of digital tools (e.g., curriculum platforms, shared team folders).

Continued Learning

The AWSP Learning Lab is our online learning platform with various courses, live and asynchronous options. Check out what is available to support your learning.

Explore the Learning Lab

• Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning – Mike Schmoker 
  A straightforward guide that emphasizes the importance of aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment around just a few essential priorities
• Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain – Zaretta Hammond
  Connects neuroscience to curriculum design and instruction.
• Making Curriculum Matter: How to Build SEL, Equity, and  Other Priorities into Daily Instruction – Angela Di Michelle Lalor, ASCD
  Offers design frameworks to prioritize depth, coherence, and student relevance.
• Culturally Responsive Education in the Classroom: An Equity Framework for Pedagogy – Adeyemi Stembridge
  Provides practical strategies to embed equity in K–12 pedagogy and close achievement gaps.