Welcome to Mars Area School District's Secondary (7-12) Curriculum page! 

 Academics or curriculum can be defined as "the planned educational experiences offered by a school district which can take place anywhere, at any time, in multiple contexts and in a specific manner all focused on student growth, performance and achievement.

"Curriculum is a design for learning; very similar to the blueprint for a
house. The curriculum is what we intend for students to experience" —
Jon Wiles, Leading Curriculum Development, Corwin Press, 2009

Curriculum Vision

Mars Area School District's approach to Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment with Technology Integration is based on local expectations and the State's Academic Standards. More specifically, the District has chosen a curriculum development process whereby designing and refining curriculum, using Best Practice instructional delivery models, selecting a variety of assessment and innovative ways of using technology is systematically addressed and implemented. These tools are used by teachers when determining the core knowledge and skills students need to know and demonstrate in a variety of situations including real life scenarios.

In addition, the key to learning in the 21st Century is to carefully and systematically design each course with "Big Ideas" or Essential Questions" that encourage students to think about the content they are learning. The use of "Enduring Understandings" is also important since these are the key concepts and principles that we want students to know 5, 10 or 20 years from now, after they have forgotten the details. Ultimately, we want our students to make connections and apply these learnings to what they may encounter in the future.

Mars Area School District periodically posts information regarding the District's curriculum and academic programs. For more information, click on the appropriate link on the right-hand side of this page. For more information, call (724) 625-1518.