Key takeaways
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The components of curriculum work together. Goals, content, learning experiences, and assessment should all point toward the same student outcomes.
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Schools use several types of curriculum at the same time, from the written curriculum teachers are expected to follow to the curriculum students actually learn.
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Curriculum is more than a document or textbook. What schools choose to teach, how teachers teach it, what gets assessed, and even what is left out all shape the student experience.
When people hear the word curriculum, they often think first about a textbook, a set of standards, or a pacing guide. Those are parts of it, but the curriculum is much broader.
For school leaders, curriculum is the plan for what students should learn and how that learning will develop over time. It includes the goals we set, the content we teach, the experiences students have, and the ways we determine whether learning happened.
From a superintendent’s perspective, this is where curriculum work becomes practical. The question is whether the curriculum helps teachers know what matters most, helps students build knowledge and skills from year to year, and gives leaders a clear way to see where support or adjustment may be needed.
Understanding the different types of curriculum and the major components of curriculum gives educators a clearer way to think about that work.
What Are the Components of Curriculum?
The components of curriculum are the parts that turn broad expectations into an actual learning experience. They answer four basic questions: What do we want students to learn? What content will help them get there? What experiences will support that learning? How will we know whether they learned it?
These pieces should work together. Effectivecurriculum alignment means the goals, content, instruction, and assessment reinforce one another.
What Are the 4 Main Components of Curriculum?
1. Curriculum Intent: Aims, Goals, and Objectives
Curriculum intent explains what the school or district wants students to know and be able to do.
That may include district goals, state standards, graduation expectations, course outcomes, unit goals, and lesson objectives.
Teachers should be able to review the curriculum and identify which outcomes are essential. Students should know what they are working toward.
If the goal is unclear, the rest of the curriculum becomes harder to organize. Teachers may spend too much time on less important material, assessments may measure the wrong things, or students may complete activities without understanding what they were supposed to learn.
This is one reason effectivecurriculum development should begin with the desired learning rather than with a textbook chapter, activity, or resource.
2. Content: Subject Matter
Content includes the knowledge, concepts, vocabulary, skills, texts, problems, primary sources, and other material students work with as they move toward the curriculum goals.
More material is always available than there is time to teach. Schools have to determine what is essential and what can reasonably fit within the school year.
Content also includes the materials teachers use to help students learn. Textbooks, primary sources, labs, videos, and digital tools can all be useful when they have a specific purpose. High-quality instructional materials should support what students are expected to learn, not drive the curriculum on their own.
3. Learning Experiences: Instructional Methods and Strategies
Learning experiences describe what students will do with the content and how teachers will help them learn it.
That may include direct instruction, discussion, guided practice, labs, projects, writing, problem-solving, or technology-supported learning. Different goals call for different instructional strategies.
Two teachers may be working toward the same standard and use different examples, questions, activities, or groupings to get there. Curriculum consistency does not require identical lessons.
A K-12 online learning platform can support these learning experiences by providing teachers with access to flexible resources, digital media, and multiple ways for students to engage with content. Choose resources because they help students meet the learning goal, not simply because they are available.
4. Evaluation: Assessment of Learning Outcomes
Evaluation answers the question: Did students learn what we intended them to learn?
That evidence can come from quizzes, projects, writing, performances, student explanations, observations, exit tickets, or other assessments. Schools should use the type of evidence that best matches the learning goal.
Evaluation also helps schools see whether the curriculum is working as intended. If students are struggling with the same skill across multiple classrooms or grade levels, the issue may be bigger than a single teacher or a group of students. Schools may need to look at the sequence, pacing, resources, or expectations.
Regular curriculum evaluation helps schools identify those patterns and make changes.
Types of Curriculum
Many steps separate state standards from what students learn. The state establishes the learning standards, the district organizes those standards into a curriculum, teachers turn them into classroom lessons, and assessments show what students actually learned.
Some types of curriculum describe how learning is organized, how curriculum moves from a state or district plan into classrooms, or what students learn outside the formal curriculum.
What Are the Different Types of Curriculum?
It is helpful to group the different types based on what they tell us about the student learning experience.
Curriculum Based on How Learning Is Organized
Subject-centered curriculum organizes learning by subject. Math, science, English language arts, and social studies are taught separately, with their own standards and learning goals.
Learner-centered curriculum focuses more on students’ needs, interests, and experiences. Teachers still work toward the required learning goals, but students may have more choice in what they explore, how they complete an assignment, or how they show what they learned.
The goal is to give teachers flexibility to connect required learning to the students in front of them.
Integrated, or core, curriculum connects learning across different subjects. For example, a project about water quality might include science, math, writing, and technology. This helps students see how what they learn in one subject connects to another.
Spiral curriculum returns to important concepts as students move through school. Students first learn something at a basic level, then return to it later with greater depth and complexity.
Fractions are a simple example. Students may begin by understanding parts of a whole in elementary school, then use fractions in operations, ratios, proportions, algebra, and other areas of math as they get older. The key is that students build on previous learning rather than simply repeat the same material.
Curriculum From Planning to Student Learning
Another group of curriculum types describes what happens between the expectations established for schools and what students eventually learn.
Recommended curriculum includes standards, frameworks, and guidance developed by state education departments, professional organizations, and other education groups. State learning standards are one of the clearest examples of expectations that help shape a district’s curriculum.
Written curriculum is the curriculum a district or school has formally developed. This may include curriculum guides, units, pacing information, standards, essential questions, assessments, and instructional resources. It should give teachers enough direction to understand what students need to learn without scripting every day of instruction.
Taught curriculum is what is actually taught in the classroom. Something can appear in a curriculum guide but still receive very little instructional time. Teachers may run out of time, students may need more support with earlier skills, or some content may receive more attention because of other priorities.
Supported curriculum includes the resources and structures schools provide to help teachers deliver the curriculum. That can include textbooks, digital resources, technology, professional learning, intervention programs, instructional coaches, schedules, and planning time.
Assessed curriculum is the part of the curriculum schools measure. Classroom assessments, common assessments, benchmark assessments, projects, and state tests all communicate something about what the school considers important.
Assessment needs to align with the curriculum so that teachers and students receive a clear message about what matters.
Learned curriculum is what students actually learn. A standard can be written into the curriculum, taught by a teacher, and included on an assessment, but that does not automatically mean students understood it or can use it later.
Schools have to look at student work, assessments, classroom performance, and other evidence to understand whether the intended learning actually happened.
Curriculum Students Experience Beyond the Written Plan
Not everything students learn in school appears in a curriculum document. Students also learn from the way schools operate, what adults model, what is left out, and what they experience outside school.
Hidden, or implicit, curriculum includes the lessons students learn from the school experience itself. Students learn from routines, expectations, relationships, discipline practices, and how adults treat one another.
For example, a school may say student voice is important, but students will also notice whether adults actually listen to them when decisions are being made.
Excluded, or null, curriculum refers to what is not taught. Sometimes schools intentionally decide that certain content is outside the scope of a course. Other times, content is left out because there simply is not enough time.
If teachers consistently run out of time before reaching an important standard, school leaders should consider whether the pacing, content, or sequence needs to change.
Concomitant curriculum includes learning that comes from students’ families, communities, peers, and experiences outside school. Students come to school with values, beliefs, habits, knowledge, and experiences they have developed throughout their lives.
Phantom curriculum refers to the messages students receive through media and the broader culture. Today, that can include television, advertising, social media, videos, online content, influencers, and other information students encounter through technology.
Students may already have opinions or misunderstandings about a topic before it is discussed in class. Teachers cannot control everything students see outside school, but they do need to understand that those outside influences are part of what students bring into the classroom.
Keeping Curriculum Focused on What Students Learn
As you can see, there are many different ways to describe curriculum, but the most important question remains the same: Are students learning what we expect them to learn?
When reviewing the curriculum in your school, make sure the goals are clear, the content can be taught within the time available, instruction and assessment align, and students have the knowledge and skills they need for the next grade or course.
Understanding the components of curriculum and the different types of curriculum helps schools have those conversations more clearly. The goal is not a perfect curriculum document. It is a curriculum teachers can use, and students can learn from.
