Example Job Description
Director of Curriculum and Instruction
A district instructional leader who connects curriculum, teaching, assessment, and modern learning systems to measurable and equitable improvement.
Interview Planning Resource
Possible Interview Q&A: Director of Curriculum and Instruction
How to use this resource: Select questions that measure competencies established through the district’s current job analysis. Ask candidates the same predetermined questions under comparable conditions and evaluate responses against the same job-related criteria.
The indicators below describe evidence a strong response may contain; they are not required scripts or the only acceptable answers.
- How would you determine whether a curriculum adoption is improving learning rather than simply increasing platform use?
Strong response indicators: Defines learning and access outcomes, implementation measures, comparison conditions and costs before rollout; triangulates student work, assessment and teacher experience; avoids equating logins with learning.
- A vendor claims its product raised achievement by 20 percent. What would you examine before recommending a purchase?
Strong response indicators: Clarifies the outcome, denominator and percentage versus percentage-point claim, sample, comparison design, attrition, conflicts and subgroup evidence; checks relevance, implementation requirements, privacy and total cost.
- Schools using the same materials show very different results. How would you investigate?
Strong response indicators: Examines student opportunity and composition, implementation, staffing, language and accessibility supports, assessment comparability, and contextual differences; engages educators and tests explanations without simplistic rankings.
- How would you design a pilot so its findings can inform a scale-up decision?
Strong response indicators: Specifies purpose, eligible population, baseline, comparison options, implementation supports, evidence collection, equity and privacy safeguards, decision criteria, owners, costs and an achievable review schedule.
- An assessment dashboard conflicts with classroom work. Which evidence would you trust?
Strong response indicators: Checks alignment, scoring, coverage, administration, accommodations, timing and missingness; triangulates rather than automatically privileging either source; documents a defensible interpretation and follow-up.
- How would you evaluate an adaptive-learning or AI product that recommends different instructional pathways to students?
Strong response indicators: Reviews validity, subgroup impacts, accessibility, age and language suitability, teacher oversight, privacy and vendor terms; tests actual recommendations and escalation routes before expansion.
- How would you use data to improve professional learning?
Strong response indicators: Starts with a teaching problem, measures participation and transfer to practice, examines coaching and student evidence with context, protects staff confidentiality, and adapts the learning design.
- How would you reduce spreadsheet duplication while preserving educators’ ability to investigate classroom questions?
Strong response indicators: Defines shared measures and governed datasets, offers approved self-service tools and training, sets access and version controls, and retires duplicate reporting only after verifying that needs are met.
- What would you do if curriculum evaluation results are unfavorable to a high-profile district initiative?
Strong response indicators: Verifies methods and limitations, preserves evidence, presents balanced findings, distinguishes implementation from design problems, and recommends options without suppressing results or overstating certainty.
- How would you ensure evaluation includes students whose data are missing or difficult to compare?
Strong response indicators: Investigates why records are missing, reports coverage and participation, considers language and disability access, avoids excluding inconvenient cases, and qualifies comparisons and conclusions.
- How would you explain a recommendation to retire or replace a product to teachers and families?
Strong response indicators: Connects findings to learning needs and experience, explains evidence and limitations, considers transition and access costs, invites feedback, and sets a staged implementation and monitoring plan.
- What would you prioritize during your first 90 days?
Strong response indicators: Inventories curriculum, contracts, assessments, evidence and commitments; listens across schools and programs; identifies urgent access and data-quality issues; and proposes a focused instructional evaluation roadmap.
Position Description
Under the direction of the appropriate district administrator, the Director of Curriculum and Instruction leads curriculum development, instructional materials, assessment alignment, professional learning, and implementation support across assigned grade levels and subjects.
The position builds a practical evidence system for instructional decisions: connecting classroom work, assessment results, implementation measures, cost, access, and stakeholder experience. It develops staff analytical capacity, evaluates modern products responsibly, and works with research, data, technology, special education, and multilingual program owners to improve learning without overstating causal claims.
Reports To
Illustrative reporting relationship: Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services, Chief Academic Officer, or other designated administrator. Insert the district-approved reporting relationship.
Required Education and Credentials
Required
- Illustrative district qualification for review: master's degree in educational leadership, education, or a related field; the district should confirm its degree requirement and permitted equivalents.
- Hold a valid California Administrative Services Credential or other authorization appropriate to the actual assignment. District HR must verify current authorization and any additional credential requirements against the final duties.
- Complete district-required employment clearances and training in student privacy, nondiscrimination, accessibility, records, safety, and responsible use of technology.
Preferred
- Graduate coursework or sustained professional learning in applied statistics, program evaluation, improvement science, education data systems, or responsible AI for educational decision-making.
- Training in inclusive leadership, multilingual learner services, special education, family engagement, and coaching adults to use evidence effectively.
Required / Desired Experience
Required Experience
- Illustrative minimum for review: five years of successful K–12 teaching and instructional leadership experience, including responsibility for curriculum implementation or professional learning; confirm district thresholds and equivalent experience.
- Experience leading curriculum alignment, materials selection, teacher learning, inclusive instruction, and implementation across multiple schools or programs.
- Experience designing or interpreting instructional evaluations, analyzing assessment and opportunity data, and translating findings into feasible changes with school leaders.
Desired Experience
- Experience with California standards and instructional frameworks, multilingual learner access, special education collaboration, and coherent assessment systems.
- Experience with curriculum and learning-management platforms, assessment tools, spreadsheets, and business-intelligence dashboards; applied research or data-science literacy sufficient to partner effectively with analysts.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Curriculum Coherence and Instructional Leadership
- Lead standards-aligned curriculum design, materials review, course articulation, and inclusive instructional guidance that support rigorous learning across assigned grades and subjects.
- Coordinate teachers, principals, subject leaders, and program specialists to align instruction, assessment, language development, accessibility, and differentiated supports.
- Plan professional learning and coaching around specific instructional needs; connect participation and implementation evidence to changes in classroom practice and student opportunity.
Evaluation, Assessment and Improvement
- Develop evaluation questions, success measures, baselines, implementation expectations, and review dates before piloting or expanding a curriculum, product, or instructional initiative.
- Analyze assessment coverage, student work, growth, course access, subgroup outcomes, fidelity, and costs; distinguish curriculum effects from selection, assessment changes, and other plausible explanations.
- Work with qualified analysts on comparison designs, statistical uncertainty, survey interpretation, and reproducibility; publish balanced findings and recommend continuation, adaptation, or retirement.
Modern Products and Responsible Data Use
- Coordinate requirements and review for curriculum, assessment, learning-management, adaptive-learning, and AI-supported products; include instructional value, accessibility, privacy, security, interoperability, and total cost.
- Define authoritative measures, roster and assessment requirements, refresh expectations, and acceptance tests with data and technology teams; verify that dashboards reflect approved instructional definitions.
- Prevent unapproved use of confidential information, unsupported claims about learning impact, and automated high-stakes instructional decisions; route contracts, research approvals, and legal questions to authorized owners.
Program Stewardship and Communication
- Administer assigned staff, budgets, grants, materials inventories, and reporting responsibilities; maintain auditable selection, expenditure, implementation, and review records.
- Build staff capability in assessment literacy, practical statistics, data visualization, and improvement inquiry using approved tools rather than relying on isolated spreadsheets or one specialist.
- Explain progress, limitations, student-group access, and unresolved decisions to leaders, educators, families, and the board as assigned; perform related duties within the classification.
Required Skills and Abilities
Knowledge of
- Curriculum design, standards and frameworks, inclusive pedagogy, instructional materials adoption, assessment design, adult learning, coaching, and program implementation.
- Evaluation methods, comparison groups, selection bias, growth and proficiency measures, measurement limitations, implementation fidelity, survey design, and responsible interpretation of research.
- Learning-management, assessment, curriculum and adaptive-learning products; data interoperability, spreadsheet analysis, dashboards, and appropriate collaboration on statistical scripting or SQL analysis.
- Applicable instructional, accessibility, multilingual learner, special education, student-record, procurement, grant, copyright, privacy, and responsible-AI requirements within the assigned portfolio.
Ability to
- Translate district instructional priorities into coherent curriculum, professional learning, implementation support, and measurable evaluation plans.
- Triangulate student work and assessment evidence while testing definitions, missingness, subgroup differences, and alternative explanations.
- Assess modern products through educational need, independent evidence, accessible design, system fit, privacy, and sustainable cost rather than vendor claims alone.
- Collaborate with analysts on appropriate methods and reproducible findings without requiring every educator to become a programmer.
- Lead sensitive instructional change, facilitate disagreement constructively, and communicate findings and uncertainty in plain language.
- Manage staff, resources, documentation, timelines, and improvement cycles while respecting the authority of program, legal, fiscal, and technology owners.
Work Environment
- Work is performed in district offices, classrooms, school grounds, meeting rooms, and other professional settings, with remote participation as authorized.
- The position involves computer use, school visits, observation, facilitation, and detailed review of records, dashboards, assessments, reports, and communications.
- Work requires frequent coordination with school leaders, teachers, subject specialists, research and data teams, technology staff, students, families, vendors, and district program owners.
- The employee encounters interruptions, competing priorities, sensitive student and personnel matters, and urgent concerns requiring calm, documented judgment.
- Workload may increase during materials reviews, assessment windows, professional-learning events, budget development, school opening, and program evaluation or reporting cycles.
Other Requirements
- Successfully complete required criminal-record, fingerprint, and employment clearances.
- Complete a tuberculosis risk assessment and any examination required by applicable law or district policy.
- Maintain required credentials and complete district-assigned training in privacy, cybersecurity, accessibility, nondiscrimination, mandated reporting, and workplace safety.
- Protect confidential student and employee records; follow approved access, sharing, retention, incident-reporting, and records-request procedures.
- Travel between district offices, schools, professional-learning locations, and community meetings as assigned.
- Possess a valid California driver's license and maintain insurability when driving is an essential function; confirm the district's actual travel requirements.
- Occasionally work evenings, weekends, or extended hours for school events, public meetings, reporting deadlines, or urgent student and operational matters.
- Perform office and school-based activities involving sitting, standing, walking, communication, and computer use; confirm any role-specific lifting or other physical requirements through local job analysis.
- Perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.