CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION DEPARTMENT

Tradition of Excellence Since 1961

United ISD Department for Curriculum and Instruction is organized into six instructional branches:  Elementary School Education, Middle School Education, High School Education, Special Education, Instructional Accountability and School Improvement.  Each branch is led by an Executive Director.  Together the instructional team guides and empowers all instructional directors, coordinators, and support staff ensuring effective, efficient, instructional support to all UISD campuses.  The Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) Division is “keeping with a tradition of excellence in education” by providing leadership in all academic programs in United ISD to ensure that all students receive a quality educational program.

United ISD is proud to be named amongst the top school districts in the state of Texas earning an “A” for Overall Performance.  “Districts earn an A for Exemplary Performance when they serve most students well” in high academic achievement and/or appropriate academic growth, TEA (txschools.org).
In addition to earning an “A” for Overall Performance, United ISD also garnered the only Distinction Designation for the area of Post-Secondary Readiness, available to districts.

Our exemplary performance is a direct reflection of how all our campuses faired in this new system, all of which earned overall performance grades of “As” or “Bs”.  Commissioner Morath stated: this “reflects the hard work and commitment of everyone within a school district, starting with our classroom teachers” (TEA Updates) and we agree wholeheartedly.

As noted on the txschools.org website, the new 2017-18 accountability system measures three areas or domains: Student Achievement (how much students know), School Progress (how much better students are doing than last year or peers in similar schools) and Closing the Gap (performance gaps amongst different groups of students).

United ISD enrolled and educated 43,212 students last year, of which 98.8% were Hispanic, 36.1% English Learners, 8.5% received Special Education Services and 75.4% Economically Disadvantaged which identifies UISD as a High Poverty School District based on TEA information.  From the information posted to the txschools.org, UISD is 1 of 4 High Poverty Districts that educates more than 20,000 students earning an A this year. UISD also graduated 94.7% of the 3,128 students in the Class of 2017, which surpassed both the state and federal graduation rates for that same cohort.

United ISD administrators, teachers and students are committed and dedicated to student success and are already working on ensuring students are well prepared for eventual success in subsequent grade-levels and post-secondary life.
United ISD’s focus continues to be to ensure that the department carries on its established commitment to the continuous improvement on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) based, learner centered, aligned scope and sequence for all core areas.  Our commitment to this effort assures that the district’s educational objectives are aligned to the state framework and to instructional practices that provide the highest standards of student achievement and instructional excellence. All teachers are expected to adhere to the scope and sequence as a means of ensuring a comprehensive sequential delivery of instruction throughout United ISD.

With the changes in the state accountability system, and the implementation of the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness Skills (STAAR) and the End of Course (EOC) priorities have been established to meet the targets and goals mandated by the state. However, the department has a strong foundation and commitment on which to build. Thus, the instructional team will continue to provide the curricular leadership that creates, implements, maintains, and enhances excellence, creativity, and achievement, while concurrently providing effective, efficient, instructional support to all forty United ISD campuses. This dedication extends to our teachers, parents, and students to support quality teaching and learning in order to achieve academic success for every student. Our 2018-2019 school year will include the required Domain 17 within T-TESS (teacher assessment), for all content areas.  We are confident that through outstanding campus leadership and the delivery of quality instruction with a student measure component for all teachers, United ISD will maintain its history of academic excellence.

Emma Leza
Associate Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction

Curriculum & Instruction Department