The Curriculum Instruction and Assessment Office of Colonial School District provides support to teachers, administrators, and parents in enabling students to gain academic skills and knowledge necessary for their successful futures.

Curriculum Staff
The Curriculum Office phone number 610-834-1670 fax number  610-834-7535
Dr. Elizabeth McKeaney, Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, (E-Mail) - ext. 2155
Sergio Anaya, Curriculum Supervisor, (E-Mail) - ext. 2164
Maria Bellino, Curriculum Supervisor  (E-Mail) - ext. 2149
Donna Gaffney, Curriculum Supervisor (E-Mail) - ext. 2144
Kathleen Hamill, Curriculum Supervisor (E-Mail) - ext. 2225

Vision of Curriculum Excellence

The Colonial School District embraces a rigorous and relevant approach to curriculum that emphasizes students’ personal, social, academic growth and achievement.  The curriculum is viewed as a living document that continually evolves in response to student and societal needs.  It emphasizes communication, collaboration and active participation in authentic, real-world experiences.  The curriculum fosters skills and attitudes that enable students to think critically, creatively and constructively so that they can be prepared to accept the challenges of advance education and meet the demands of our present technological society and future workplace. Meaningful interpretation of students’ performance is critical to this process; therefore their achievement is based upon clearly specified learning criteria reflected in our curriculum, planned instruction and local assessment plan which includes national and state standards. 

CORE BELIEFS

We believe:

• Excellence can be achieved by all students.
• Instructional/assessment tasks are at the heart of the teaching-learning process.  Therefore, ongoing assessment is an integral part of curriculum/instruction which assists students in meeting and exceeding the standard.
• To tap the full intelligence and learning potential of all students, a curriculum must be a coherent, organized set of instructional opportunities which focus on student learning. 
• To make learning meaningful for all students, the curriculum must go beyond traditional resources and actively involve students in real life experiences so that they may find meaning in their learning and connect and apply learning to new situations.
• Curriculum provides connections with home and community experiences and maximizes students learning conditions.
• The curriculum must develop independent responsibility as well as a sense of responsibility to others.
• The curriculum is a process that continually defines and redefines experiences students have in learning situations.  Therefore, it is viewed as an on-going process which is an integral part of every teacher’s responsibilities.

2009 Highlights 

Curriculum
«  Developed framework for evaluating curricular design to focus more on developing and deepening students’ understanding and providing them with experiences that go beyond facts and skills to focus on larger concepts, principles and processes that represent 21^st Century Skills. 

Instruction:  Professional Development
«  Developed, organized and conducted workshops to assist staff in deepening and enhancing their knowledge base and understanding of research-based teaching and learning practices.  Sessions included:

• Embedding 21^st Century Skills into existing curriculum frameworks and teaching i.e. critical thinking and problem solving, contextual learning, communication, information and media literacy, creativity and innovation, and collaboration skills are embedded in all curriculum areas so that students can carefully analyze and objectively evaluate information.
• Increasing opportunities for professional collaboration and sharing of best practices through cross-grade articulation, book study groups, Professional Learning Time and focused dialogues using various student data sources.

Assessment
«  Updated and refined local benchmark assessments, data collection tools, student data profiles and supported staff in utilizing various data sources for instructional planning.