Show-Me Curriculum Administrators Association

In July 2022, SMCAA conducted Quality Curriculum Retreat in person. This event was attended by 61 participants. During this statewide event, we studied the importance of the changing role of a curriculum director, the development of a curriculum handbook, curriculum review and evaluation and updates from DESE staff. We were able to host our Annual Fall Conference in October 2022. The theme for our conference was Moving Forward-What Needs to Be Done, What Works. Our keynote speaker, Joe Sanfelippo, focused on Leading From Where You Are. Our 13 breakout sessions included topics ranging from Competency Based Learning to Empowering Teachers through effective curriculum development and implementation. A total of 120 participants attended this event. Evaluations were good and we used recommendations for planning our 2023 Fall Conference. Our 2023 Winter Symposium theme was "I Want To Know More AboutX and was held in February 2023. It was not as well attended as in previous years due to conflicts with other state meetings. We had a total of 44 attendees in-person. This event included information related to new state initiatives such as Competency Based Learning, developing a portrait of a graduate and time for members to share. The 4th Annual Curriculum Bootcamp held on site in June 2023 was a training for developing curriculum for specific content areas including ELA, Math and Science. This event was planned using direct feedback from the past school year on moving back to content based curriculum work. This event was not as well attended as in the past with 18 participants to this two-day event. The low attendance has lead to a change for summer of 2024.

SMCAA also conducted 18 in person or virtual training sessions with EMBARC (formally, BYOC). EMBARC is designed to follow the Understanding by Design format of curriculum development embraced by SMCAA. Teachers determine learning targets that address state/national standards, organize them into units, identify the topics to be addressed in each unit and develop aligned assessments, learning activities, and instructional methods to assist students in the mastery of the learning targets. The tool runs reports to assist districts in the assessment of how well their written curriculum is addressing student learning. The aim is that teachers use and adjust their written curriculum to guide effective instruction for student learning. In addition, SMCAA hosted one series of EMBARC Users Group meeting with 29 participants in attendance including EMBARC Users and those considering its use.

In addition, SMCAA held Regional Curriculum meetings in September 2022, January 2023, and March of 2023. These meetings provided all up-to-date information happening at the State level in curriculum and instruction, as well as a short training course in specific areas of interest to our members. In total, 377 members and nonmembers participated. Some of these meetings were virtual for member convenience and others were in person.