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The Gwinnett County Public Schools curriculum is a visible priority through open and well-structured processes that connect to all aspects of teaching and learning in the district.

1 – Curriculum Procedures Curriculum revision instructions and form.
What to Notice The Academic Knowledge and Skills (AKS) curriculum was developed by the district and community members in the mid-1990s to push for standards that exceeded state expectations. This document provides clear directions on how to propose district curriculum revisions to the AKS. Not only does the document outline well-coordinated procedures, but it also illustrates the transparency of the annual revision process by outlining internal and external stakeholders who are solicited for input. The form drives alignment with the district’s mission by requiring submissions to indicate how a proposed revision relates to the district’s mission and strategic goals, and how it fills an identified need. The Gwinnett Education Management System (GEMS) oversight committee includes various district and community members (all of whom must apply to be selected for membership), which helps leverage expertise, create buy-in, and adds balance to curriculum development.	Questions to Ask How long does it take for the appropriate committees to approve new courses? How often are brand new courses proposed? Is the same process followed for smaller tweaks to the curriculum, such as the addition of one or two missing academic objectives? What mechanisms are in place to support teachers working together on curriculum revision? How are disagreements on curriculum revisions resolved? Does this inclusive process increase dissent over curriculum content?
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2 – Academic Knowledge and Skills (AKS) Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) AKS CQI PowerPoint, and AKS CQI summary document and checklist
What to Notice This PowerPoint and text document both explain Gwinnett’s strategic approach to teaching and learning. To ensure the educational program is aligned and seamless, the district created a highly structured and systemic approach that focuses on the AKS curriculum and on continuous quality improvement strategies. The graphic on page 4 of the presentation illustrates the four “plan, do, act and check” steps, along with the type of activities associated with each. Pages 5 – 14 further detail those activities, and pages 15 – 24 focus on tools used for the various steps. The AKS-Continuous Improvement Monitoring Checklist is designed to monitor the presence of particular activities under each step. The “Look Fors” included in the second column are helpful to clarify what products and activities should be seen, and for adding consistency to the monitoring process. The PDF following the PowerPoint provides a useful quick-reference summary of the AKS CQI process and activities, and a blank monitoring checklist. Both documents clearly summarize and explain a complex, thorough and aligned process that ensures teachers know exactly what to teach, and what their students need. The addition of the seventh step on the PDF, (p. 1) “Maintenance of Critical Concepts for Retention,” is important because it stresses that key information should be periodically reviewed to be maintained and to connect to other relevant concepts. This is a step districts often do not explicitly include in their strategies.	Questions to Ask How are district personnel trained on the AKS CQI improvement model? Does training include central office staff, principals and teachers? How long does it take to train personnel on all parts of the model? Which district personnel are responsible for managing and monitoring implementation of the model? What are their roles? How comfortable are teachers in implementing the model? What support can they receive if they have difficulty with a particular area? How do teachers obtain data for various steps like data disaggregation and mini-assessments? What training do they receive for understanding how to interpret and respond to data? How long has this model been in place? What changes have teachers seen in student achievement with the implementation of this model? Who monitors implementation of the AKS CQI model in the classroom? How many monitoring visits would a teacher receive? How do teachers receive feedback from the monitoring visits?
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3 – Berkmar High Professional Development Activities for Teachers Outline of professional development training that supports the curriculum and instruction process. This document outlines professional development activities implemented at one of the district’s high schools. Rather than just static subject-related courses, the topics on this list are designed to support the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) framework (see previous document). For example, the first training activity, “Collaboration for Achievement,” ties to one of the “Look Fors” on the AKS CQI Monitoring Checklist – evidence and documentation of weekly meetings. The “Collaboration for Achievement” offering trains teachers how to work together effectively to improve student achievement. Another activity, “Focus on Best Practices,” ties directly to the AKS CQI steps 5 and 6-- “immediate extensions” and “immediate interventions.” For example, teachers learn how to help struggling students understand content through graphic organizers, or how to extend lessons to more applicable activities like comparing and contrasting. While many similar activities were found in other Gwinnett school professional development offerings, there are still school-specific activities, like the cluster vertical math team activity at the end of this plan. Overall, this document exemplifies important alignment between training and expectations, as well as flexibility for individual school practices.
What to Notice The lesson plan template begins with an overview and purpose, including a direct link to the New York State standards and New York City’s Blueprint Art Strands. The tool provides teachers with a sequential plan that moves from objective setting through closure. Materials and other resources are listed.	Questions to Ask Which of these training topics are unique to this school, or which are implemented district-wide? What type of follow-up is provided after the training sessions? How does the school or district evaluate the effectiveness of the training sessions? Who leads training sessions? Is the training conducted in house, or are consultants or other district members involved? How does the school decide what topics it should include in professional development? How much freedom does the school have to make these decisions?
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4 – Curriculum parent letter – Fourth grade Letter to parents explaining the district’s curriculum, assessment, graduation and grade-level requirements.
What to Notice This comprehensive parent letter explains everything parents need to know about their child’s education in the district. It clearly lays out promotion requirements, testing schedules, and specific learning objectives in each subject for a particular grade level. In addition to these details, the letter ends with one page of bullet points on how parents can help their children in school. This document not only serves as a vital communication with parents, it also illustrates the importance the district places on involving parents in their children’s academic program.	Questions to Ask Is this letter provided to parents in other languages? What resources are available to parents if they have questions about the contents? What kind of response from parents has the district received in reaction to this letter?
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Instructional strategies in Gwinnett County Public Schools are well communicated and are selected to differentiate teaching and learning for students as well as teachers. Aligned instructional strategies are found in many of the district’s documents and are designed around the Continuous Quality Improvement cycle to help teachers and students reflect and improve upon their own learning.

1 – Quality-Plus Teaching Strategies Document that outlines research-based instructional strategies to be used to implement the curriculum.
What to Notice The first page of this document clearly lays out the instructional strategies to be used in the district. The strategies identified show the value the district places on differentiating instruction, practicing high-level cognitive skills, and pairing instruction with assessment practices. This document does a particularly good job defining the categories through bulleted lists that describe what effective use of each strategy looks like in practice. The second page illustrates the same instructional approach tailored for English Language Learners (ELLs). The strategies are very similar, but they provide details that are specific to ELL student needs. The similarity between instructional approaches for the general and special populations illustrates a balance between adjusting strategies for particular learners and providing the same high-quality educational program for all students. This is important, as many districts tailor instruction without this type of cross-walking and mapping back to ensure a clear pathway to the district’s academic standards.	Questions to Ask Who receives these summary instruction documents? How are teachers trained on the various strategies? How much time does it take for teachers to master all these strategies? How are teachers instructed to balance the various skills like problem-solving and collaboration within various lessons? Does the district train teachers in all of these skill areas, or are there certain skills that most teachers learn in their preparation programs? How well do students monitor their own progress? Do students at all grade levels self-assess and establish goals? How were the ELL-specific strategies developed? Do they work for all types of ELL students? Are there similar documents for other specific student populations like special education?
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2 – Examples of Walkthroughs Sample walk-through document used to monitor the use of the Quality-Plus Teaching Strategies.
What to Notice The graphic on the first page of this document lays out the purpose of classroom walkthroughs very well. The bullet points characterize the importance of providing informal constructive feedback, opportunities to discuss and reflect on instruction, and motivating and encouraging teachers. The document on the second page represents one school’s walkthrough document. This document aligns well with the district’s Quality Plus Teaching Strategies, as it addresses all 13 strategies. In addition to logging the presence of a particular strategy, it also allows the user to identify observable behaviors to categorize the teacher’s implementation level of each strategy based on preset criteria.	Questions to Ask Does each school design its own walkthrough protocol? How much latitude does the school have to decide what components are included? How is quality control monitored? Do all schools conduct walkthroughs with the same frequency and/or for the same duration?? If not, who makes that decision? Does the district establish any minimum requirements that all schools must follow? How and when are teachers informed about the walkthrough process? What feedback have teachers given about the process? How is information collected in the walkthroughs shared with the teachers? How are principals trained to conduct walkthroughs? Do personnel other than principals and assistant principals conduct walkthroughs? How are the results of the walkthroughs used at the school level? Are results also used to make decisions at the district level?
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3 – Instructional Framework Rubric Rubric designed for teachers to assess their instructional skill level.
What to Notice This document created by a middle school provides a well-laid-out one-page rubric that helps teachers reflect on their instructional skills in five important aspects of teaching. Similar to the Quality-Plus Teaching Strategies document, the rubric uses teacher-centered language to describe what a skill at a particular level looks like. In any instructional area, a teacher can look across a skill like “learning to use technology” and understand the skill trajectory between novice and expert. Not only does this approach acknowledge that teachers are at different levels in different instructional areas, such as assessment, it also helps them understand where they are and where they need to improve to become an expert practitioner.	Questions to Ask Who developed this document? How is it used? Do all teachers at this middle school use it to assess their instructional skills? What supports are available to teachers who want to improve in a particular area? Are there training opportunities at every level in every area? How is this document updated? Does it change as district instructional strategies change? What impact has this rubric had on veteran teachers? Has it prompted any additional training requests? How does this document relate to teacher evaluation? Are these the same skills that appear on the evaluation instrument?
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4 – Differentiating Instruction Presentation about the assumptions and implementation of differentiated instructional strategies.
What to Notice This presentation takes the audience through the process of understanding the importance of differentiating instruction for various learners, and then breaks down the concept by essential elements. The presentation matches the district’s teaching philosophy by being very learner-centered, as it first answers the natural question, “Why would or should we do this?” It then moves to “How will we do this?” This presentation is thoughtfully detailed, and shows evidence of being designed by someone who understands the training needs of the target audience.	Questions to Ask How is this presentation used? What follow-up training or practice is provided to teachers on differentiating instruction? What would this skill look like if it were mapped from novice to expert like the Louise Radloff Middle School instructional rubric? What other materials or other supports are available to help teachers incorporate these strategies into their lessons? How do teachers balance differentiating instruction for individual students and making sure all students master the state standards?
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Leaders Serve as Resource to Support, Improve Teaching and Learning – Gwinnett County Public Schools

Human Resource Systems