Overview
The Office of Instructional Design and Assessment was created in 2007 as an umbrella department for the four main elementary curriculum areas: Math & Science, Literacy, Libraries and Arts Education. In support of the Chicago Public Schools mission, this office introduces, implements and supports outstanding academic programs and services that help prepare students for the challenges of tomorrow.
Goals
Instructional Design and Assessment strives to provide teachers and administrators with great services and tools to improve the quality of instruction.
To that extent, departmental goals aim to:
- Select and distribute quality materials and programs for schools
- Provide timely assessments and to help schools in using the data from those assessments to guide teaching
- Coordinate across elementary curriculum departments to ensure effectivity and efficiency.
Current initiatives
'Scale up' district math, science, reading, writing, social studies and arts curricula (expand cross curricla coverage to increase effectiveness).
- Implement supported core reading and math programs
- Implement a district-wide focus on rigorous writing and algebra in the elementary grades
- Increase focus on the academic and emotional needs of early adolescents
- Increase the focus on arts, library and social studies as important disciplines
Accomplishments
Since inception, Instructional Design and Assessment has increased coherence across curricular areas across the district
- Scaled up district supported curriculum to over 300 schools
- Implemented district-wide writing plan which resulted in the training of over 3500 teachers in 2007-08 in response to new district policies that require higher levels of writing performance
- Established a new Arts Education Office and began planning for a Social Studies Department
- Articulated a district-wide vision for instruction in the middle grades
Resources
- Strengthening the Middle Grades: A Guide for Instructional Leadership provides principals and administrators with strategies for strengthening middle grades education.
- Reading and Mathematics Benchmark Assessment Parent Reports provides parents with a summary of their child benchmark assessments results which can be used to better understand a child’s strengths and weaknesses. Parent reports are distributed with report cards on report card pick up dates. )