Teaching & Learning

Westport Public Schools aims to provide a cohesive and comprehensive curriculum that intentionally connects standards, instruction, and assessment. Our curriculum development process is guided by a backward design approach. Backward design is based on the idea that planning is best done by starting with the desired results. It is a design approach that results in purposeful thinking about curriculum planning from a micro lens, as well as programmatic reform from a macro level. Looking at the outcomes first results in coherently-designed curriculum units, performance assessments, and classroom instruction. The primary goal of backward design is student understanding, which is revealed when students autonomously transfer learning to novel scenarios.