NEA's Keys to Excellence: KEY 6 

Curriculum and Instruction

Curriculum and instruction are the school's core processes that affect teaching and student
learning. In high performing schools, the staff comes together to discuss, challenge and ultimately make critical decisions about: what is taught, to whom, how students are grouped for instruction, how time and content are allocated, how teachers and education support professional work with each other and relate to students, and how student learning will be assessed. Changes in school processes or organizational structures that do no affect the core processes are unlikely to have an impact on student learning and performance.

The indicators under this Key address the critical issues that have a direct impact on student learning and achievement including the breath, depth and coherence of the school's curriculum and the nature and quality of the instruction provided to students.

Indicator 1: Curriculum includes "learning how to learn" activities.
The knowledge explosion makes it impossible to teach everything worth knowing. As a result, teachers must be selective in their choice of curricular activities. This indicator measures the extent to which teachers focus on "learning how to learn" activities that require thoughtful analysis, understanding of disciplinary concepts and effective communications such as: projects that require the use of library resources, the development of models, maps or charts and opportunities to brainstorm and debate ideas.

Indicator 2: Varied, engaging, and collaborative strategies are used in instruction.
Cognitive theorists have demonstrated that students, like adults, learn best when they are meaningfully engaged in their own learning by exploring and manipulating information, synthesizing and explaining ideas, generating and testing hypotheses and arriving at new understandings.

This indicator examines the type of instruction that facilitates "higher order thinking," such as learning for understanding which can occur in collaborative contexts including such practices as: substantive discussions with instructors or peers where students must explain their reasoning, challenging small group work and hands on projects.

Indicator 3: Curriculum provides opportunities to study topics in-depth.
Curriculum provides opportunities to study topics in-depth. This indicator measures the extent to which students have opportunities to study topics in-depth.

If students are to achieve a deep understanding and an appreciation for rich knowledge, they must have the opportunity to use what is familiar to them. This will enable them to construct new ideas, integrate what they have learned, and learn more complex concepts.

Indicator 4: Curriculum includes attention to accuracy and detail.
This indicator measures the extent to which teachers, instructional aides, and other school employees set high standards and emphasize the importance of attending to details, using proper formats and conventions, being accurate in providing answers, and communicating clearly and precisely.  In high performing schools, teachers celebrate and reward accuracy and attention to detail as much as they celebrate and reward effort.

Indicator 5: Instruction includes interventions for students who are not succeeding.
This indicator documents what teachers believe about their students' learning and how they teach to that belief. Students come to school with differing needs, motivations and readiness skills for learning. When students are not progressing as expected, rather than attributing the lack of success to external conditions, the teachers and other education employees in high performing schools work together to find and apply alternative teaching strategies to help these students succeed.

Indicator 6: Studens are provided with personal instruction and feedback.
This indicator documents the instructional strategies teachers use to provide students feedback about their performance. The quality of the feedback is based on sound instructional practices, materials, and resources.  Feedback or knowledge of performance and results is essential for learning. Feedback may serve two functions: (a) it could be motivating as when an education employee makes an encouraging remark to a student, and (b) it could provide meaningful information to the student regarding the accuracy and precision of his or her performance. While both functions are essential, feedback that fails to communicate useful performance-related information, or not provided in a timely manner, may hinder rather than facilitate learning.

Indicator 7: Research conducted at school influences programs and instruction.
In high performing schools, teachers are open to new learnings and rethink their approaches to teaching and assessment practices based on teacher-directed action research and other classroom based inquiries. Decisions about programs are based on evaluation and data analysis, not political considerations; hence, you can see real continuity from one program to another.