Gwinnett County Public Schools is committed to providing a world-class education for all students, one built on the foundation of the district’s Academic Knowledge and Skills (AKS) curriculum for grades K-12. If teaching and learning is the core business of our school system, then our AKS curriculum is the “core” of teaching and learning in GCPS. The AKS offers a solid base on which teachers build rich curricular experiences to ensure that every student is learning to his or her potential. Because the AKS details exactly what a student is expected to learn, teachers can tailor the classroom experience to meet individual needs.
The AKS includes all of the state’s standards, including the state-adopted Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE) in the areas of Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Career and Technical Education, Physical Education, World Languages, Computer Science, and Fine Arts for all. The AKS for each grade level (or subject area at the high school level) spells out the essential concepts students are expected to know and skills they should acquire in that particular grade or subject.
The AKS curriculum was developed, and is annually revised, by our teachers, with input from our parents and community. The AKS review process invites all stakeholders to give input on what our children should know and be able to do. This year, teachers, parents, students, and community members were given the opportunity to provide input on proposed AKS for 64 courses in Career and Technical Education, and Fine Arts, Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies, as well as Study Skills/Affective Skills. Participants could give additional feedback on existing AKS. The review included AKS for several new courses, a process that can take 18 months to three years to complete.
“All courses offered in the district undergo an extensive review process—first, to determine if the course is needed, and then, to determine what exactly will be taught…the AKS for the new course,” says Tricia Kennedy, executive director of instructional development and support. “The process is important to ensure that our students continue to have access to content that will prepare them for the world they will live in as adults.”
On Oct. 28, the Gwinnett Educational Management System (GEMS) Oversight Committee—a group of community and school system representatives charged with the annual review of the AKS curriculum—reviewed the suggestions and curriculum director comments for all of the courses before making recommendations to Superintendent Dr. Calvin J. Watts for adoption by the School Board.
While the AKS review process has been in place for more than 25 years, 2021 marked an upsurge in interest in serving on the GEMS committee. District leaders promoted GEMS participation across communications channels throughout the summer, with 446 applicants requesting to serve… the most applications ever received.
“We are humbled and appreciative of the interest our community exhibits in the core work of the district,” says Dr. Clay Hunter, associate superintendent for Curriculum and Instructional Support. “For many years, the GEMS Oversight Committee has provided a mechanism for meaningful involvement by every part of the community in the development of the AKS curriculum, which is the cornerstone of our work to support student success.”
In the spirit of continuous quality improvement, GCPS has made a concerted effort to expand the GEMS process this year—instituting student representation on the committee and ensuring that the committee includes diverse representation across roles and clusters.
“Gwinnett County Public Schools is the centerpiece of a vibrant and richly diverse community,” says Dr. Hunter. “Having diverse participation in the AKS review process—from communitywide feedback opportunities like the annual survey to a more diverse and inclusive GEMS committee that includes students—helps ensure that we are considering the opinions and needs of the whole community.”
Cai House, a senior in the School of the Arts at Central Gwinnett HS, expressed that being on the GEMS Committee was a rewarding experience. Cai appreciates that GCPS is including student input when it comes to the curriculum in use in Gwinnett classrooms.
The 2021 committee is comprised of 79 members, not including six student members, with GCPS educators making up 23% of the committee’s makeup and the balance represented by parents, community members, business partners, and other education partners. Each cluster has four members. The bulk of the members—57 of the 79 participants—are new to the process.
“It truly takes a village—of teachers, staff, and administrators, as well as community members—to teach our children,” says Jennifer Hartwein, a Collins Hill Cluster parent. “I’m glad to be part of that village!”
Lacey Jean-Pierre, a returning GEMS member who teaches history at Peachtree Ridge HS, says that she sees the AKS review and GEMS process as an important opportunity to collaborate with stakeholders to ensure an equitable and relevant curriculum for our students.
In addition to the community-supported review of the AKS, the district also conducts a review of core instructional materials as well as supplemental resources, inviting feedback from district staff and the community. The most recent materials review concluded on Oct. 31 and covered proposed curriculum resources for select grades and courses in Language Arts, Social Studies, Career and Technical Education, and Foreign Language. During the review process, resources are piloted in GCPS classrooms. Data from the reviews and pilots will be considered in making adoption recommendations to the Board of Education in early 2022.
26 Years of GEMS
Since 1995, teams of teachers have met each year to review the AKS for their grade level and/or subject area. The first teams review the existing curriculum to propose what knowledge and skills were essential for each grade level— kindergarten through 12th grade— and every course. Teachers, parents, and community members throughout the district then evaluate the proposed AKS, providing feedback on what they believe to be the essential curriculum for all students. The final proposed revisions to the AKS are presented to the GEMS Oversight Committee, comprised of representatives from the community and school system, for validation. The GEMS Committee then recommends the validated revisions to the superintendent, who presents recommendations to the Board of Education for adoption and implementation in the subsequent school year. This process is repeated each year to address any revisions or enhancements that teachers and/or the community believe are needed to improve our curriculum and to ensure alignment with changes at the state level. With this process for curriculum development and improvement in place, parents can be assured that the curriculum their child is learning in a Gwinnett County classroom will be essential to his or her learning and embraced by our educators, parents, and the community.