To ensure that every student in Covington Independent Public Schools is exposed to a rigorous and demanding curriculum, the district has instituted a program of work that every school must follow. The expectation for our schools is that every child has the opportunity to excel at or above their grade level each day.
While the work is continuous, this curriculum work is in its fourth year of development. The curriculum was officially implemented in each school in the district during the 2020-2021 school year. With this change, the district has faced challenges and our teachers need to be commended for the work they have put in thus far in planning over the past two years.
“We are making sure that every child has access to the same standards with high expectations," said Scott Alter, Covington’s assistant superintendent for instruction. “We are guaranteeing that kids get high levels of instruction and have access to Kentucky’s academic standards in all our schools. Our primary goal is mastery of these standards for each and every child.“
Grade-level teams of teachers from all elementary schools in the district worked in collaboration with their peers across the district. They studied the Kentucky Academic Standards for each grade and decided what should be taught and when. They also developed common assessments to measure what was being taught in the classroom. At the middle and high school levels, same-subject departments of teachers came together as collaborative teams and also developed a common curriculum for all students in grades 6 through 12. In many areas, our teachers across all grades have collaborated and continue to collaborate with the alignment and rigor of our curriculum to ensure uniformity.
“We are in the process of making sure that the curriculum is at the highest levels it can be across all grade levels K-12," Alter said. “Our Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Sherry Lindberg, is in her second year of leading a quality control process to ensure our curriculum and assessments are of the highest quality.”
Besides assuring that all students have access to high-level standards, the districtwide curriculum has other benefits as well. Covington has a high mobility rate, meaning many students move and change schools several times throughout the school year. Because schools are teaching the same lessons at approximately the same time, the students’ transition is less disruptive. The districtwide curriculum guarantees students who move will not miss new content. A districtwide curriculum also does not leave to chance what schools should be teaching and when it should be taught.
“This curriculum is going to challenge our kids," Alter said. “We know it will take a while before we gain traction and see some gains, but our vision is that our kids can and will perform as well or better than any district around us or in Kentucky for that matter. We feel most confident because of the hard work our teachers are doing every single day in the planning and preparation process that our students deserve.”
