Curriculum
Our Program
Essential Elements
Addressing Student Differences
Standards
Core Expectations
The Urbana School District #116 curriculum is based on the Standards, Benchmarks and Performance Descriptors developed by the State of Illinois. The curriculum emphasizes the development of strong basic skills in:
- Language Arts (reading, writing, speaking and listening)
- Mathematics
- Science
- Social Studies
- Physical Development and Health
- Fine Arts
- Study in Foreign Languages and the Practical Arts is made available at the middle and high school levels
- Technology is incorporated into the curriculum as part of everyday learning activities
Our curricular programs are developed to move beyond the basics by helping students develop the critical thinking skills necessary to analyze and evaluate information and solve problems and the cooperative skills necessary to work as an important part of a problem-solving team.
Everyone knows the curriculum (what is taught) and what students should know and be able to do by the end of a specific grade. The term "everyone" includes not only teachers and staff, but also parents and students. Our performance descriptors help everyone understand what is expected of students academically and behaviorally.
Everyone takes responsibility for student learning. This includes all staff, parents, and especially students. Our primary focus is to help students become responsible for their own learning.
Everyone uses data to make instructional decisions. Access to current student data is necessary for making critical decisions about teaching and learning. Data about student achievement and progress is collected and reported through daily work, benchmark assessments, common course exams, anecdotal records and student portfolios.
Addressing Student Differences
Children enter school with different abilities and learning needs. The Core Expectations describe what a typical learner is likely to accomplish by the end of a specific grade level. Not all students progress at the pace of a typical learner. Teachers recognize the need to modify, adapt or enrich the learning experiences of those students who are developing knowledge and skills at different rates. The district also provides support programs to address the diverse needs of students beyond the general classroom program of instruction. These programs include Literacy Support, Title One, English as a Second Language and Special Education.
Standards are the desired results of student learning - what we want students to know and be able to do.
The Illinois Learning Standards set forth overall goals, standards and benchmarks at specific age levels.
- Goals are very broad statements about the knowledge and skills that make up subjects like language arts, math, science, social studies, physical development and health, and fine arts.
- The standards cover a large amount of knowledge and skill content and tell us what a student should accomplish by the end of Grade 12.
- Benchmarks do a good job of telling us what students should achieve by the end of Grades 2, 5, 9, 10 and 12, but give little guidance for specific grades.
With that in mind, Urbana's curriculum committees have developed performance descriptors that tie directly to the benchmarks, standards and goals.
Our district's performance descriptors set the standard for Urbana School District #116 students. They provide us with detailed information about continuous improvement. That is, every day each student takes small steps toward achieving the performance descriptors which will enable them to meet the state standards.
Core Expectations are the performance descriptors that help us to measure continuous progress towards each state benchmark and standard. The Core Expectations provide an overview of the essential skills students should accomplish during a specific school year. They are a "snapshot" of the instructional focus at a particular grade level and do not describe everything that is taught in a grade or course. All District 116 students are expected to work toward mastery of these standards. To accomplish this goal, students at each grade level must build on the concepts and skills previously learned. Daily lessons, instructional strategies, and assessment of student work are designed to help students make progress and meet or exceed the learning standards.
Core expectations for high school courses will eventually be linked by course from this page. Until then, you can access information about specific courses through the UHS Course Description and Planning Guide, which is available by contacting the high school office (217-384-3505).
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Core Expectations by Grade
- Early Childhood
- Kindergarten
- Grade 1
- Grade 2
- Grade 3
- Grade 4
- Grade 5
- Grade 6
- Grade 7
- Grade 8
- For information regarding course content at the secondary level, please see the following curriculum links for Urbana Middle School and Urbana High School.
- Urbana Middle School:
http://www.usd116.org/ums/departments/index.html - Urbana High School:
http://www.usd116.org/uhs/guidance/courses.html
- Urbana Middle School: