Designing 21st Century Universal Classrooms

What is a Guaranteed, Viable Curriculum?

A Guaranteed, Viable Curriculum consists of Power Standards and Power Indicators that fully outline the content, concepts, and skills that are essential within an academic discipline and at each grade level to ensure all students have the opportunity to achieve proficiency. Sometimes referred to as the “core of the core,”  ”the safety net curriculum,” or “the portable curriculum,” the Guaranteed, Viable Curriculum provides clarity and guidance to principals, teachers, students, and parents about the core curriculum and its essential content and skills. Having this document in place, clearly indicating Power Standards, Power Indicators, and a common local assessment plan, means that individual teachers do not have the option not to teach this content and these skills, or to replace them with something else. Viability means the articulated content and skills can be taught and learned (not rushed and covered) within the timeframes available during the academic year.

What are Power Indicators?

Power indicators reflect the assessment evidence from specific learning expectations that we will accept at each grade level, or at benchmarked grade levels, that students’ learning is progressing along a continuum based on the Power Standard.  Since the Power Standards “endure,” meaning we are constantly learning in these areas, the power indicators reflect a local decision concerning leverage and readiness.  These indicators are the foundation of the CCSU Common Local Assessment Plan.

So, is this Guaranteed, Viable Curriculum the whole curriculum?

The Guaranteed, Viable Curriculum is a part of a more Comprehensive Curriculum that includes a larger number of targets and indicators that are important to know and do and desirable to learn — or worth being familiar with — in order to provide a richer learning experience in the academic disciplines. We endeavor to ensure every student has met the indicators outlined in the Guaranteed, Viable Curriculum by creating a local assessment plan that includes valid and reliable measures of those power standards and indicators and ensuring that our instructional strategies promote equitable opportunities to learn and succeed.

What is the difference between the Guaranteed, Viable Curriculum and the Comprehensive Curriculum?

The CCSU Guaranteed, Viable Curricula ensure that the knowledge and skills that are most essential to achieving the desired results will be the focus of both teaching and learning. The Comprehensive Curricula outline the continuum of the essential learning goals identified in the Guaranteed, Viable Curricula, as well as additional important and desirable learning experiences.

Written and compiled by Linda Keating, CCSU, 11/20/06, revised on 9/20/07 and again on 6/24/08.   Formats adapted from documents created by Monadnock Regional School District, NH (Dr. D. G. Hodgdon) and Rockford Public Schools, IL (Terri Breeder and Martha Hayes)

Last updated: Aug 26 at 9:09 am