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Power Standards/GVCs

What is the Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum?

The GVCs are the absolute essential knowledge and skills ALL students must acquire in the course or grade level. Our teams will teach all of the standards in their curricular area but will focus their common formative assessment, intervention, and extension efforts on those skills that are so essential that every student must know.

How will we determine what is essential?

Teacher teams will utilize the state standards, testing blueprints, and their own professional judgments to come to a consensus on the GVC in the course/grade level. Teams will consider ERL while engaging in this work:

  • Endurance-Does the GVC standard provide students with knowledge/skills beyond the unit of study?
  • Readiness-Does the GVC standard provide students with the knowledge/skills needed in the next course/grade level?
  • Leverage-Does the GVC standard provide students with knowledge/skills that will assist them in other disciplines?

Adapted from the work of Larry Ainsworth, “Unwrapping the standards: A simple process for making the standards manageable. Englewood, CO: Lead and Learn Process. 2013