Curriculum & Instruction
Georgetown Independent School District provides a comprehensive educational
program with a wide range of academic and elective courses. Beginning at the
elementary level and continuing through to high school, the curriculum emphasizes
core academic classes and also provides opportunities for students to take
honors classes and special interest classes in a variety of areas. For
more information about the major subject areas, click on the links to the
left to visit our Curriculum Corner
website.
The district's curriculum standards meet or exceed the Texas
Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards established
by Texas Education Agency (TEA). The TEKS specify what skills and concepts
students should know and be able to do at each grade level.
GISD adheres to the TEKS standards in the all curriculum areas. In 1997, the
GISD District Planning Committee recognized the need to strengthen the curriculum,
and GISD began the curriculum revision process to develop an aligned and benchmarked
curriculum in Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Reading/Language Arts
for grades K-12.
The purpose of curriculum alignment and benchmarking is to match what is written
(curriculum), with what is taught (instruction), to what is tested (assessment).
The curriculum alignment process has continued, and in 2001-02, teacher teams
from across grade levels and subjects areas organized the TEKS standards into
nine-week units called the TEKS Scope and Sequence.
In the foundation subjects - mathematics, language arts, social studies, and
science - there is a TEKS Scope and Sequence for each grade level. The benchmarks
are performance expectations that measure how well students are achieving
the TEKS standards within each nine-week period.
The GISD TEKS Scope and Sequence provides a unified
vision of excellence and maximizes the learning conditions for all students
through clearly stated high expectations of what students will learn. Teachers
use the TEKS Scope and Sequence to plan and deliver a TEKS-based curriculum
that is 100% aligned to the state assessment system. Beginning in 2003, a
new state assessment system, the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills
(TAKS), will be administered to students at grades 3 through 11. The new state
assessments are expected to be more challenging because they are based on
the more rigorous state-mandated curriculum (TEKS) and because they are linked
in difficulty to an exit-level testing requirement for graduation that incorporates
higher expectations.
GISD is committed to designing and delivering a curriculum that is aligned
to the TEKS and ensures high levels of achievement for all students. For more
information about the GISD TEKS Scope and Sequence, please contact:
Teri Watson
Curriculum Director
Georgetown Independent School District
603 Lakeway Drive, Georgetown, TX 78628
(512) 943-5000 x. 6040
Email: watsont@georgetownisd.org
