Curriculum Development & Evaluation
A strong curriculum creates meaningful, engaging experiences that help students explore careers in architecture, construction, and engineering while developing real-world skills. Affiliates should create structured, hands-on learning opportunities with clear objectives while regularly gathering feedback and evaluating student experiences to strengthen and improve the program each year.
Please visit ACE National’s Curriculum Resources Area for additional ideas for student engagement during sessions.
Students, mentors, and schools stay engaged when the curriculum is sound.
Effective curriculum development is an ongoing, collaborative process that ensures students gain the knowledge, skills, and experiences they need to succeed.
The following best practices will help in the design of an effective curriculum:
1. Plan with Purpose
✓ Start with clear learning outcomes or objectives.
✓ Use backward design — identify desired results and evidence of learning first.
✓ Align curriculum components — connect learning objectives, instructional activities, resources, and industry competencies.
✓ Build progressive learning — lessons should naturally build upon previous learning.
2. Create Authentic & Relevant Learning
✓ Incorporate authentic learning — use industry challenges, simulations, and project-based learning.
✓ Engage industry and community partners to connect learning with real-world practice.
✓ Integrate essential employability skills — communication, collaboration, problem-solving, critical thinking, leadership, and time management.
✓ Integrate technology with purpose — use industry software and tools to enhance learning.
✓ Promote interdisciplinary learning — incorporate areas such as technical writing, physics, and mathematics.
3. Design for Every Student
✓ Encourage student voice and choice — involve students in learning goals, presentation formats, and feedback.
✓ Differentiate instruction — provide multiple ways to access content, project choices, extension opportunities, and flexible pathways.
✓ Use multiple forms of assessment — exit tickets, drafts, discussions, presentations, demonstrations, and performance tasks.
✓ Embed reflection into learning — ask students what they learned, what challenged them, and how the experience connects to future careers.
✓ Ensure equity and inclusion by representing diverse perspectives.
4. Evaluate & Improve
✓ Review and revise continuously — use student performance, surveys, mentor feedback, stakeholder input, and workforce trends.
✓ Measure program success using achievement, attendance, engagement, retention, summer experiences, and other data points.
✓ Document the curriculum to support consistency and future improvement.
✓ Evaluate throughout the development cycle — analyze needs, design, develop, implement, evaluate, and revise.
Collecting and using student data effectively requires balancing instructional improvement, student privacy, equity, and ethical decision-making.
The following best practices can help ensure the data is meaningful and used responsibly:
Follow this Progression: Plan → Collect → Analyze → Communicate
Explore: National Survey Data
1. Plan Your Data Collection
✓ Start with a clear purpose — determine what you are collecting, from whom, how it will be used, and what it should help improve.
✓ Collect multiple types of data — combine quantitative data with reflections, interviews, surveys, and mentor observations.
✓ Collect data at multiple points — gather feedback before, during, and after the program year.
2. Collect Data Responsibly
✓ Use valid and reliable measures — keep surveys focused and avoid leading or biased questions.
✓ Standardize data collection — establish consistent procedures for surveys, attendance, mentor evaluations, and other measures.
✓ Protect student privacy — collect only necessary information, limit access, and remove identifying information when sharing results.
3. Analyze & Improve
✓ Focus on actionable data — collect information that can inform decisions and improvements.
✓ Disaggregate data — examine results across different student groups when appropriate.
✓ Use data for continuous improvement — identify strengths and challenges, make improvements, measure results, and repeat.
4. Communicate & Close the Loop
✓ Share findings clearly — tailor information to the audience using concise summaries, charts, and infographics.
✓ Combine numbers with stories — pair quantitative results with evidence and experiences that provide context.
✓ Close the feedback loop — show students and stakeholders how their feedback informed decisions and improvements.
Need guidance?
Reach out to your Regional Director or the ACE National Team for support on your curriculum development & evaluation plan.