Curriculum

Curriculum Overview:
At East Rochester Union Free School District, our main priority is to remain committed to our students. To that end, we continue to focus on the holistic development of our students by providing them with a guaranteed and viable curriculum that is strongly aligned to the New York State Learning Standards. We are committed to providing the highest quality, student-centered instruction that recognizes student strengths and empowers them to become independent learners, critical thinkers and contributing citizens in a global society. 


Curriculum Review and Edit Process:

As we engage in regular and ongoing curriculum review, our focus is to adapt curriculum to meet the demands of the revised learning standards and to ensure educational equity and access for all students. We are guided by the question, to what extent does our curriculum prepare students and teachers to respond to events that take place in our global community? Our hope is that, through our curriculum, we can cultivate the unique gifts and talents of every student by unlocking their potential to contribute to our global community.
While we continue to audit and further develop our curriculum, the district remains committed to whole child development that is based in equity and inclusion for all to reduce the predictability of who succeeds and who fails. In order to achieve this we are guided by NYSED guidance and frameworks, which include:

1. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Framework and Policy Statement
2. Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework
3. Digital Equity
4. Social Emotional Learning Benchmarks
5. Sexual Education

These frameworks do not operate in isolation of one another, but work in tandem to drive our overarching curriculum and instructional practices.


Instructional Materials:
As a district, we recognize that each teacher has their own instructional practice, and we encourage their individual selection of resources that support district curriculum. We also recognize our collective responsibility to vet instructional resources for alignment to our district curriculum, as well as New York State Learning Standards. We are committed to providing all faculty and staff with ongoing professional development and support needed to vet and select critical instructional materials to support our curriculum. To that end, we encourage teachers to use recommended criteria to assist in the evaluation and selection of learning materials that align to and support district curriculum.


Moving Forward:

As always, if there is any question regarding an instructional resource, please reach out to your building principal and/or the Office of Curriculum and Instruction for support.

We recognize that while this work may take us many years, there are a number of ways we can continue to take action now. We will use the new Culturally Responsive-Sustaining Education Framework Roadmap to guide our work moving forward, and we will continue to find ways to invite community members into this work and continue educating our faculty and staff.