Instructional Development

State Office of Instructional Development

The Virgin Islands State Office of Instructional Development is a territorial office housed within the State Office of Curriculum and Development.  This office presents minimum academic standards that demonstrate what students must know and be able to do to achieve educational success. The Office offers a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary presentation of meaningful curriculum planning, instructional resources, and projects supported and housed via a library of open education resources, GoOpenUSVI Microsite. In collaboration with the district offices of curriculum and instruction, the Office of Instructional Development seeks to provide teachers, students, administrators and community stakeholders with a measurable plan and structure for delivering an authentic quality of education.

Academic Standards 

Standards are clear and concise statements that describe what a student needs to know at a specific stage of development. They refer to the minimum requirements of what students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade level. The standards address a foundational framework of what is to be learned. The goal is to ensure all VIDE students focus on a common set of standards and are provided with opportunities to learn at the highest possible level. While the standards address what is to be learned, they do not address how learning experiences are to be designed or what instructional resources are to be used; the curriculum does so.

Curriculum

We consider our curriculum as the Heartbeat of the Department.  Curriculum consists of the components that provide for the delivery of instruction to include content area standards, textbooks, and other instructional resources, print and digital, as well as videos, lessons, assignments, and assessments. The overall purpose of curriculum is to focus on and connect the work of classroom teachers to standards, assessments and classroom practices to increase student achievement.

Translating the standards into a guaranteed, viable curriculum is critical to student success.  Marzano (2003) shares that this is the single most important initiative in raising student achievement. What does it mean to have a guaranteed and viable curriculum? To be guaranteed, the curriculum must ensure that specific content is taught in specific courses and at specific grade levels, regardless of the teacher assigned to the student. When schools and districts are unable to guarantee the curriculum being taught, it creates disparity in students learning. The opportunity to learn is a powerful, yet simple concept: If students do not have the opportunity to learn the content expected of them, there is little chance they will (Dufour & Marzano, 2011).

Not only must the curriculum be guaranteed, but it must also be viable. This means schools and districts must ensure enough instructional time is available to teach the content identified as essential. Regardless of the teacher assigned to a child, all parents should have an assurance that the level of academic rigor is consistent, and their children will receive the time and space needed to master essential content and skills.

The creation of curriculum aligned to standards does not guarantee students will have access to the same knowledge and skills. A distinction must be made between the intended curriculum and the implemented curriculum. In many places, gaps exist between the established curriculum and what is implemented by teachers in classrooms. For schools to truly implement a guaranteed and viable curriculum, it is imperative that the teachers accountable for delivering the content possess a common understanding of the curriculum and a commitment to teach it.  The Office provides guidance in implementing educational best practice in a way that positively impacts student achievement.

(Adapted from Kentucky Model Curriculum Framework (2014), Kentucky Department of Education)

Quite often the terms standards and curriculum are used interchangeably, but it is important to distinguish between the two.  Standards vs Curriculum outlines the difference between the two terms. This document helps educators to to distinguish between both concepts.

For a look at the curriculum by content area visit: https://goopenusvi.vide.vi/hubs/coer

Instructional Resources

Instructional Resources include all the print, non-print and digital resources designed to assist student learning. Often, instructional resources, such as vendor programs, textbooks and online products are mistakenly referred to and/or utilized as a school or district’s curriculum. While these resources may support the implementation of a high-quality curriculum, they do not comprise the full scope of supports found in a true standards-aligned curriculum.  The Office considers the curriculum to be the heartbeat of the Department, comprised by critical components such as

• Academic Standards                                                                       
• Textbooks/Resources
• Pacing Guides
• Lesson Plans
• Instructional Strategies
• Assessments

   

 

 

 

Collaborative Design Team (CDT)

The Collaborative Design Team (CDT) was established on February 4, 2020, based on the premise that the curriculum is the "heartbeat" of the department and not solely the responsibility of the State Office of Curriculum and Instruction (C&I).  The team is comprised of representatives from the Virgin Islands Board of Education, Office of the Assistant Commissioner, Superintendents’ and Deputy Superintendents, state and district directors, subject area coordinators, designated program managers and program assistants.  Recognizing that different perspectives are required to move the work of C&I forward, the goal is for all entities within VIDE to embrace the vision, mission, values and goals, and address all matters pertaining to curriculum to include academic standards, instructional resources, personnel, management, budget, and technology, to name a few. 

The CDT meets quarterly during which time, state and district divisions share their functions, goals, successes, and challenges, and demonstrate how curriculum is supported throughout each division within the Department.

Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grant (CLSD)

The Virgin Islands Department of education received its first discretionary five-year award for the Comprehensive Literacy State Development (CLSD) program which was awarded in October 2022.  Continuing the focus of previous one-year grant years, the approved FY 2022 CLSD aimed to increase literacy achievement for learners by extending the reach of literacy support into the Virgin Islands community beginning with its youngest learners. By engaging parents of our earliest learners, the Office of Instructional Development continued to strengthen critical partnerships. By engaging families and equipping them with basic literacy building skills, parents would be able to better prepare and support their children’s learning at home and in school. Consequently, the objective of the 2022 CLSD  program activities is to empower formal and informal educators with the skills required to take our students’ literacy achievement to the next level through the initiatives presented below. 

Engaging Classroom Libraries

Sets of fiction and non-fiction classroom libraries were purchased for PreK-3 grades, Grades 4th - 6th and Grades 7th - 8th grade classrooms of participating CLSD schools. By providing an accessible variety of fiction and non-fiction reading materials in the classrooms, teachers and students are encouraged to incorporate these resources into their lessons.  Reading for pleasure is also a welcomed outcome of providing conveniently located texts as reported in the literature on the importance of classroom libraries. Continued expansion of the classroom libraries through the purchase of additional sets of relevant books is the goal of this activity.

The Cradle Literacy Project

 

The focus of this initiative, established in prior grant years, is to engage families of children, birth to grade 3, in literacy development through continuing The Cradle Literacy Program for mothers, and their babies in collaboration with the Maternal Child Health division at the Virgin Islands Department of Health.  Since the initiative kicked off in November 2021, over 2,900 sets of books have been gifted to mothers leaving the hospital with their babies, presented at island clinics during the babies' first screening, or distributed during outreach events.

 

 

The Parent Webinar Series

 

The Parent Webinar Series is a list of virtual presentations provided to parents and caregivers of children birth to three years old.  The Office of Instructional Development views the Parent Webinar Series as the companion activity to the Cradle Literacy Project given the population the webinars serve.  Through contractual services, weekly webinars were delivered via Zoom. Regular attendees were primarily teachers, caregivers, and parents of the Early Head Start program; however, the webinars, when contracted, are available to all parents and caregivers.

The overarching goal of the Cradle Literacy webinar series is to introduce interdisciplinary questioning in the home.  The aim is to ensure that families, educators, caregivers and service providers receive the tools to promote interdisciplinary higher-order thinking skills through self-reflection and advanced questioning practices and activities. Some of the topics presented below have been the focus of the series.

 

 

Support for Head Start and Pre-K population

The focus of this activity is the development of oral language support provided to teachers in the Head Start division of the Virgin Islands Department of Human Services. Students enrolled in the Head Start programs are monitored through performance on the Learning Accomplishment Profile, Third Edition (LAP-3). This assessment is an online observation-based tool that assists teachers and parents in assessing the development of children 36 to 72 months. The LAP-3 contains a hierarchy of developmental skills arranged in a chronological sequence in seven developmental domains- Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Pre-Writing, Cognitive, Language, Self-Help, and Personal/Social. The Head Start program in the Territory administers the Language domain which focuses on the ability to speak and appreciate books, telling a story using a picture book, and speaking with peers. The assessment reports on the child’s developmental age compared to the child’s chronological age.

The Head Start program continues to respond favorably to the professional development procured through the CLSD program. Previous contracts focused on whole-group professional development for the teachers and their supervisors. More recently contract embraced a model of job-embedded professional development through observation and coaching to cement the skills and strategies learned in the whole group sessions in previous contracts. 

Using Technology to Increase Literacy

The Office facilitates professional development opportunity entitled Using Technology to Increase Literacy. This activity offers 16 hours of professional development for district directors, coordinators, school-based administrators, and English teachers in both districts. To date, four cohorts have received professional development with a focus on using technology to increase literacy in the English Language Arts classroom delivered through synchronous and asynchronous methods encompassing the six phases outlined below.

 

One outcome of the professional development is for participants to be able to integrate high quality instruction with the use of technology to include strategies for modeling, guided instruction, collaborative learning, independent learning, and formative assessment. In addition to 16 Board-approved hours, participants also receive the digital badge below which can be added to an email signature or printed and displayed in offices or classrooms. 

 

Joyful Learning Initiative

In 2019, the 33rd Legislature passed ACT 8270, which requires all prekindergarten (PreK) through Grade 3 teachers to obtain early childhood certification by October 1, 2024. VIDE committed to implementing ACT8270, which requires the identification of pathways that provide alternate routes to the required certification for teachers who have an elementary education licensure. 

To address the legislative mandate, the U.S. Virgin Islands Partnership to Strengthen the Early Childhood Workforce aimed to improve kindergarten readiness and elementary learning outcomes for all PreK–Grade 3 students by strengthening the early childhood educator workforce through training in joyful learning practices. Through this initiative, the Regional Educational Library Northeast and the Islands (REL-NEI) partnered with the Virgin Islands Department of Education (VIDE) state and district level offices across the territory, the VI Board of Education (VIBOE), the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI), and the Region 3 Comprehensive Center (R3CC).  

Additionally, VIDE is interested in motivating teachers in Grades 4 to 6 to seek early childhood certification as well, allowing school leaders more flexibility in placing teachers across grades.

Beyond the certification requirements, VIDE and VIBOE are committed to providing our educators with robust professional learning opportunities that foster evidence-based best practices in the classroom, with a particular focus on playful learning. Research provides extensive support for the importance of play for healthy development.

The Partnership supported VIDE and other local partners in helping the PreK-Grade 3 teaching workforce become certified in early childhood education and in providing resources for professional learning around playful learning as new cohorts of educators enter the workforce. 

Micro-credentialing

The Partnership designed three evidence-based micro-credential modules that allow early childhood and elementary teachers to earn micro-credentials toward certification in early childhood to be eligible to teach in PreK-Grade 3 under the new law. Each micro-credential module includes six to seven lessons and is approximately 10 hours long. These modules are online, asynchronous learning experiences for educators to engage with at their own pace.

REL-NEI completed delivery of the three modules in August 2023. The modules focused on playful learning and are aligned with National Association for the Education of Young Children [NAEYC] standards and provide teachers with 10 hours of professional development and one IACET-awarded Continuing Education Unit CEU per module. The modules underwent a robust review process, receiving iterative feedback from content experts, internal partners, and educators to ensure that the modules are responsive to the local context and meet the needs of early childhood educators. The modules are currently available to VIDE educators on the VIDE Professional Learning Suite.  The modules are also available via VIDE’s Public Portal thereby making them available to a wider audience.

Resources developed through the Partnership to support joyful learning are provided through the links below.

• Resources for Caregivers, Teachers, and Administrators
• Resources for Administrators
• Resources for Caregivers
• Resources for Teachers

The Virgin Islands State Literacy Plan

The Virgin Islands State Literacy Plan was completed in September 2022.  The literacy plan provides stakeholders with research-supported principles, guidelines, and recommendations for implementing best practices for effective literacy teaching and learning. The plan assists stakeholders to consider how best to integrate VISA and the Kallaloo Framework into school based literacy practices.  The principles, practices and assessment information are intended to assist leaders in ensuring they are able to support school administrators to develop school-based plans, processes, and practices for teaching and learning literacy that are researched, informed, and supported.

The State Literacy Plan is presented in two domains. The first presents the guidelines/expectations for schools to follow when developing a literacy plan. The second presents guidance on how schools can pursue this requirement using research along with evidence-based strategies for developing, implementing and monitoring the plan. 

In addition, Disciplinary Roadmaps are shared which align to the Virgin Islands Department of Education's State Literacy Plan.  With a focus on literacy as a shared responsibility, these customized Roadmaps offer strategies for integrating literacy in Mathematics, Science, History, the Arts, and the Health & Physical Education classrooms. To review the State Literacy Plan and Disciplinary Roadmaps, access the link here: Disciplinary Roadmaps

All about Social Studies

All about Social Studies highlights the collaboration between social studies coordinators and lead teachers from both districts with the Office of Instructional Development. Three major initiatives are the focus for the Office.

1.     Development of a comprehensive robust K-12 social studies curriculum which includes ongoing collaboration through a professional services contract that brings together educators and a team of consultants to write the curriculum.  It is anticipated that the new curriculum will roll out in August 2025 to start the new school year.  Below are specific links to the implementation plan and resources that will be available to support the curriculum.

·       Implementation Plan

·       Resources

·       VISA-Social Studies  

·       Sample Units Developed

·       Curriculum Development Meetings

·       Social Studies Roadmap housed on GoOpenUSVI

·       Social Studies Hub housed on GoOpenUSVI

·       Two-pager examples of VI History embedded in VISA-Social Studies

·       AIR Social Studies Interactive Map  by State

 

 

2.     The VI-Centric-Civics Textbook Initiative also falls under the umbrella of Social Studies Education. ACT No 7934, authored by the Honorable Novelle E. Francis, Jr., initiated a partnership between the State Office and the district Office of Curriculum and Development through a joint work group.  The ACT provides for a “structured civics course for grades 9-12 which utilizes materials relevant to the Virgin Islands and includes the functions of the three branches of Government of the Virgin Islands and the roles of public officials.”  To fulfill the mandates of this legislation, a customized VI-Centric Civics Textbook was developed. The project came to fruition through the collaboration of individuals, organizations, and institutions who provided relevant information and resources for students.  Through the support of dedicated teachers, administrators, political leaders, community leaders, as well as governmental and non-governmental agencies, the textbook was unveiled on January 11, 2025, at Government House on St. Croix.  The purpose and significance of the project was explained during the Unveiling. The Unveiling ceremony was covered by VIDE’s Public Relations Office as well as the St. Thomas Source.

3.   Similar to the VI-Centric Civics Textbook, an initiative is underway for a series of VI History Textbooks for Grades 3-8.  For this project, the Office meets regularly with a VIDE team of content writers which is comprised of social studies coordinators and teachers from both districts.  Upon completion of the textbook series, a similar unveiling is anticipated.

Territorial Spelling Bee

 

The Annual Scripps Spelling Bee is a prestigious academic competition that brings together the brightest young spellers from across the district. Students compete in a series of challenging rounds, demonstrating their vocabulary skills, spelling accuracy, and poise under pressure. This event not only fosters a love for language and learning but also encourages perseverance, confidence, and sportsmanship among participants.

 Each year, top spellers advance through classroom and school-level competitions to earn a place in the district bee, where they vie for the chance to progress to regional and national levels. The Scripps Spelling Bee is a cherished tradition that celebrates academic excellence and the hard work of students, teachers, and families. We invite the community to support and cheer on these talented spellers as they showcase their dedication and linguistic prowess.

 This year, 2025, marks the 52nd Annual Territorial Spelling Bee Competition.  Scheduled for March 20th, 12 students, six from each district, will compete for an opportunity to represent the Territory at the Scripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland from May 27-29.

U. S. Virgin Islands Scripps National Spelling Bee Delegates       

1974 -2024

2024  Joseph Greaux. Jr. 2023  Abdel Bazzar 2022  Shadya Coureur 2020  Michael Atwell 2019  Michael Atwell 2018  Jah’Quane Graham 2017  Z’Qi Chapman 2016  Makayla Todman 2015  Makayla Todman 2014  Manay Thadani 2013  Manay Thadani 2012  Yad Bass 2011  Justine Arevalo 2010  Carmi Thomas 2009  Raheem Knight 2008  Jo Ann Thomas Lewis 2007  Julisa Marcel 2006  Biko McMillan 2005  Lindeon Sherlock Davis 2004  Gemel Joseph 2003  Joey Emmanuel 2002  Lindeon Sherlock Davis 2001  LeAnne Joseph 2000  Lindelle Davis 1999  Kamilah Clenance

1998  Sonya Tonge 1997  Linesha Davis 1996  Onika Thomas 1995  Kirby D. Trim 1994  James Ignatius 1993  Jevere Akin Howell 1992  Dyanne Baptiste 1991  Dyanne Baptiste 1990  Joeanna C. Moorehead 1989  Rebecca B. Sunderlin 1988  Reginald B. Navarrate 1987  Giselle  Ranbarrnan 1986  Vernelle Trim 1985  Desiree Gumbs 1984  Vernelle Trim 1983  Christina L. Rodriquez 1982  Cynthia Clendinen 1981  Christina L. Rodriquez 1980  Devon Petty 1979  Rudolfo Brown 1978  Devon Petty 1977  Arlene DeGannes 1976  Renee Georges 1975  Andrew W. Clark 1974  Tracy Weatherby

 

 

Welcome to GoOpenUSVI

To provide instructional support for teachers, VIDE houses curriculum resources under one platform, through the launch of its OER Microsite through the support and partnership of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME). Open Educational Resources are any type of educational materials that are in the public domain. They are published under open licenses that specify how materials can be used, reused, adapted, shared and modified according to specific needs. 

The Microsite serves educators through a digital library and collaboration platform, to support and promote open educational practice and the creation, curation, and adoption of open educational resources. The #GoOpenUSVI digital library is populated with resources found in the OER Commons digital library.  Specifically, vetted collections have been provided for English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Music, Health and Physical Education, Career and Technical Education, and Foreign Language. The Microsite will expand with resources developed or curated by VIDE stakeholders and educators who will collaborate with Virgin Islands organizations and cultural bearers to build out a Hub of Virgin Islands History and Cultural Resources. Such resources will align to Virgin Islands Cultural Standards  which educators can access from the Kallaloo Framework through the Microsite for daily integration into lesson plans.

The digital library successfully launched publicly to kick off the 2021-2022 school year.  Now in its second year, the site is accessible locally and nationally and Virgin Islands educators are able to utilize the resources in the library to support instruction for all students.  Registered user accounts are utilized by VIDE users as well as users with a UVI email account; however, a Registered User account is not required to browse the #GoOpenUSVI Microsite. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Statements are provided by Legal Counsel of the Virgin Islands Department of Education; users are expected to honor the terms set out in these policies.

Developing this library and providing professional learning to educators around the use of OER and open educational practice will ultimately improve student outcomes and decrease overhead costs for textbooks. In addition, the use of OER will allow educators to develop or adapt instructional materials that will better resonate with their students, allowing for adaptation to students’ contexts and experiences.  The Microsite allows for flexibility, experimentation, and innovation within the curriculum. Available to all educators, the platform supports interdisciplinary and vertical alignment of instruction to meet the needs of all learners.