Academic Services

Departments

We assess the needs of every student and carefully group students based on their particular needs and strengths.

Curriculum and Instruction

The vision of the William Penn School District is to nurture and empower all students to become college and/or career ready. Our curriculum is one avenue through which this mission of nurturing lifelong learners is realized.

We strive to provide a 21st Century, relevant, and standards-aligned curriculum on the belief that all children can learn, that students share responsibility for their own learning, and that students must develop adaptive skills to succeed in the diverse and changing global society awaiting them after graduation. To this end, our curriculum is supported by the Pennsylvania’s Standards Aligned System (SAS), which includes standards, assessments, a curriculum framework, best-practices for instruction, materials and resources, and planned interventions.

To deliver the curriculum, we insist upon a dynamic approach to teaching and learning that fosters continuous improvement. In order to be responsive to emerging and growing trends in teaching and learning, the curriculum is evaluated through the use of an Instructional Design cycle providing opportunities for administration and teaching staff to review and revise each curricular area and assess its effectiveness on an ongoing basis.

English Language Development

English language arts is taught daily on a block schedule. Students in grades k-6 have ELA for 120 minutes daily. At the middle school level students receive daily instruction in ELA for 90 minutes and in high school, for one period daily. During this time students have the opportunity to learn in a whole group, small groups, and work independently on all things to support students in growing their reading and writing skills. Students are assessed formatively and summatively each quarter and data is used to instruct students and meet them at their specific need.