The goal of curriculum, instruction, and assessment is to promote high performance and achievement opportunities for all students. To achieve this goal the learning community of District #109 holds the following beliefs:

• Standards define the curriculum – not textbooks. Textbooks are examples of one kind of resource through which the Illinois Learning Standards can be taught. As a result, the Illinois Learning Standards Performance Descriptors will define the curriculum for all fundamental learning areas.

• Children learn best when they are actively engaged in what they are doing.

• Student achievement must be assessed formatively as well as summatively so that intervention strategies can be implemented in the moment.

• Professional development opportunities to develop a standards-driven curriculum, one that sparks student motivation and enhances achievement, will be ongoing and based on student data and the needs of the learning community.

• Curriculum development is an on-going process. As with student achievement, it must constantly be evaluated, modified, and adjusted. Assessing student progress provides one means of measuring the current curriculum's effectiveness; collecting data about student progress is another.