1. Duncanville ISD Curriculum Update
Dr. Kimberly Gilmore-Madkins
Good evening,
To Dr. Cron, Mr. McNeely, and the Duncanville Board of Trustees. In compliance with policy EHAA and in alignment with District Goals that Duncanville ISD will provide each student a rigorous and relevant learning experience, it is my pleasure to provide you with an update on the curriculum audit conducted by the Region X Education Service Center in May 2015.
The audit centered on a review of the district curriculum –how the curriculum was implemented in the classroom – how it the curriculum was assessed.

2. Findings Absence of a long term curriculum plan
Lack of adequate funding for comprehensive curriculum development and implementation
Nonexistence of a consistent process for monitoring the implementation of the curriculum
District assessments were not provided in all content areas and grade levels
Lack of classroom resources
Inconsistencies with how the curriculum was assembled
Finding from the audit revealed:
The absence of a curriculum plan and lack of adequate funding for comprehensive curriculum development and implementation have impacted the depth, consistency, and thoroughness of the curriculum.
There has been little consistency or formalized process for monitoring the implementation of the curriculum.
Not all content areas and grade levels have district assessments.
Few resources are correlated directly to the curriculum.
There are inconsistencies in how the curriculum was assembled and the way in which units were bundled together.

3. Recommendations
1. Develop a 3 to 5 year curriculum plan to ensure tight alignment between curriculum, instruction, and assessment
2. Establish a more consistent and timely system for communicating with teachers regarding changes and updates to the district curriculum
3. Select a consistent curriculum delivery system with consistent templates used in the delivery of the curriculum
4. Develop a comprehensive vertical document to clearly define and map content
5. Create long term processes that target systematic issues.
The recommendations were to:
Develop a 3 to 5 year curriculum plan to in order to
Ensure a tight alignment between curriculum-written, instruction-taught, and assessment-tested
Develop a plan of how the curriculum will be communicated, instructed, and monitored.
2. Establish a more consistent and timely system that will address:
communicating with teachers regarding changes and updates to the district curriculum
A specific plan for training for using the district curriculum
A process for the adoption and purchase of resources
A design for how to use data collected from unit assessments
3. Select a consistent curriculum delivery system with consistent templates used in the delivery of the curriculum across content and grade levels.
4. Develop a comprehensive vertical document that will clearly define and map content
identify gaps and redundancies conceptual and procedural development and the 5th recommendation is to
5. Create long term processes that target systematic issues

4. Opportunities for Development
Systems
Teacher Support
Consistency
Communication
Training
Assessments
Alignment
In short, opportunities for development were discovered in the areas of : systems, teacher/administrative support, consistency, communication, training, assessments, and alignment. I am happy to report to you that the district has made meaningful process in addressing the areas.

5. Status Implemented the TEKS Resource System
Trained all campus principals on TRS
Established teacher capacity teams
Launched curriculum work groups
Scheduled TRS Express Checks
Completed goal setting conferences with all campus principals
Arranged for principals to participate in global campus coaching
The TEKS Resource Management System has been implemented at each campus. All campus administrators participated in multiple TRS trainings on how to best lead their campuses through the implementation process.
Capacity Teams - made up of a least one administrator and one teacher per content per campus- have been established to foster campus support through embedded teacher leadership development. The Capacity Team will become experts with the TEKS Resource System so that they can provide support to their colleagues on their campus. The Campus Capacity Teams will also communicate campus concerns to the District Capacity Team. District Capacity teams will be will meet multiple times throughout the school year and the first round of capacity teams have already been held.
Curriculum work groups-in the four core content areas- have been designed to support teachers in their implementation of the TRS framework and to collaborate on lesson design and researched based instructional strategies.   Curriculum work group members share their understanding of the units and then shares that learning with other teachers in their grade or course.   The work groups will meet three times during the school year and the first meetings began last week.
TRS Express Checks have been scheduled at each campus where a representative from Region 10 will report to the campus to answer questions or address any concerns teachers may have about the TEKS Resource System.  Representatives will be available all day so that teachers can come by on their conference/planning time. 
Dr. McCoy-Jackson has individually conferenced with each campus principal to review professional goals directly related to TRS implementation, instructional support and assessment.
And principals have been scheduled to participate in global coaching to enhance campus leadership development.
Curriculum updates will be presented each quarter to the board of trustees.