Taylor Fox
Curriculum built from scratch, and the expertise behind it.
Six downloadable work samples, six case studies that show the same pattern (start from the outcome, diagnose what's missing, design backward, measure whether it worked), and the seven skill areas and research methods that make it repeatable.
The actual documents, not descriptions of them
Curriculum experience is usually summarized. These are the design documents themselves, written at the level of specificity I would expect to defend in a scoping meeting. Six pieces, ranging from a full-year course carried through external review down to a one-page scaffold built to fix a single missed rubric point.
"What Do We Give Up?"
An interdisciplinary six-week suite on trade-offs in civic and economic decision-making, mapped to the C3 Inquiry Arc with Universal Design for Learning built in from the first draft rather than added at the end. Runs all four C3 dimensions in sequence rather than sampling from them.
Grades 8–12 · 6 weeks, 18 sessions · Civics, Economics, History · print and digital
Digital Music and Production
A full-year visual and performing arts elective, designed from scratch and carried through the University of California's a-g subject-area review to approval. Four nine-week units covering music theory, digital composition, audio production, live technical production for the spring musical, and careers in the industry.
Grades 11–12 · full year · VAPA (F) elective · approved through UC a-g review
College Prep Intensive
A ten-day postsecondary transition program, written so another instructor could run it, and rebuilt in full after the first cohort. Built backward from a single measurable outcome rather than forward from a list of topics, so every session ends with a deliverable that feeds the next one and the two weeks accumulate into a completed application.
Graduating seniors · 10 sessions over two weeks, 90 minutes daily · two versions · 90% college acceptance rate among participants
The P.I.E.C.E.S. Method
Six historical lenses for understanding the world, built as a student-facing mnemonic mapped one-to-one onto the six College Board themes for AP World History. The official themes are correct and nearly impossible to hold in working memory while a fifteen-year-old is under time pressure with an unfamiliar document in front of them. This is the translation layer.
Grades 9–12 · AP World, AP US, and AP European History · verified: students applied all six lenses independently under formal classroom observation
LEQ Planning Scaffold
A one-page planning organizer that decomposes the College Board long-essay rubric into fields a student fills in before writing, built around an original three-distance contextualization ladder. Contextualization is the most frequently missed point on the AP History rubrics, and the reason is structural: the rubric tells a seventeen-year-old nothing about how wide, how close, or how many. This replaces the open instruction with three numbered fields at three stated distances.
AP World History: Modern, carried into AP US History · one page, student-facing · seven points across five rows
ACE, Adapted
Answer. Cite something specific. Explain why it matters. A three-step constructed-response protocol sharpened at the two steps where student writing actually fails. The three-step spine is an established strategy in wide circulation; the two qualifiers are original, and they are the part that does the work.
High school AP History · short answer, document-based, and long essay evidence · adaptation with original qualifiers, documented as such
Six pieces of work, each tested against outcomes
UC-Approved Digital Music Course
Designed a complete secondary-level digital music course and shepherded it through University of California a-g approval, a rigorous, externally reviewed curriculum process. Required building full standards alignment documentation and writing the same type of formal regulatory submission required for CAEP and state DOE review.
College Readiness Seminar
90% acceptanceDesigned and ran a two-week college readiness seminar for graduating seniors. Started with the outcome, diagnosed what students' existing preparation had failed to give them, and built the seminar backward from there. The cohort achieved a 90% college acceptance rate.
Self-Pacing Learning System
Designed an individualized self-pacing system originally for one student navigating an unstable home environment. It worked well enough that student-athletes and students working after-school jobs began requesting to use it too, evidence that the design held up against real-world constraints, not just theoretical best practice.
Year 1: Structured Due Dates & Feedback Reform
Investigated whether replacing self-paced assignments with structured due dates and personal, cumulative feedback would improve AP US History outcomes. Applied peer-reviewed research on feedback and low achievement (Pitt, Bearman & Esterhazy, 2020; Carless) to redesign the assignment calendar.
100% AP-worthy thesesIn the formal mentor-observed lesson, every student produced an AP-worthy thesis statement, verified individually.
Year 2: Digital MC Practice & Skill Transfer
Tested whether weekly AP-aligned multiple-choice practice (Albert.io) improved exam readiness. Practice exam average was 70% across 18 students; the graded unit exam average was 75%, with only 5 of 30 questions overlapping between the two assessments.
70% → 75%A 5-point gain with minimal question overlap rules out memorization and points to genuine skill transfer. Also redesigned test corrections from grade-recovery into metacognitive reflection.
Original AP Pedagogical Frameworks
Independently designed and iterated a set of frameworks embedded across my AP courses: the ACE Protocol (Answer, Cite, Explain) for written response scaffolding, the HAPP Framework for primary source analysis, PIECES for LEQ theme brainstorming, and a 6-Step AP Question Strategy for multiple-choice mastery.
Evidence the strategies had been internalized, not just taught: in a formal observation, students independently eliminated wrong multiple-choice answers on their own without waiting for teacher confirmation.
Seven areas, one throughline: design that gets tested against results
Skills and content areas built over a decade of classroom practice, formal action research, and doctoral-level study.
Curriculum Design & Development
- Curriculum builds from scratch: syllabi, modules, assignments, assessments
- Standards alignment: InTASC, CAEP, state DOE, UC a-g, C3 Framework, AP
- Backward design (outcome-first curriculum logic)
- Gap analysis and alignment matrices
- Rubric and storyboard development
Accreditation & Regulatory Writing
- Standards alignment narratives
- Evidence-based justifications for regulatory bodies
- UC a-g course approval documentation (demonstrated)
- CAEP and state DOE frameworks
Adult Learning & Professional Development
- Instructional design for adult professional learners
- Faculty onboarding and PLC facilitation
- Coaching and curriculum-aligned professional learning
- Teacher preparation curriculum
Assessment Design
- C3 Framework (social studies) and Depth of Knowledge classification
- AP assessment alignment: rubrics, FRQs, LEQ, SAQ, DBQ, MC
- Self-designed frameworks: HAPP, ACE Protocol, 6-Step AP Strategy, PIECES
- Data-driven instruction using AP exam analytics (Albert.io)
- Formative-to-summative assessment cycle design with documented skill transfer
Classroom Action Research
- Cycle of Inquiry methodology: formal question, action steps, evidence, mentor-observed outcomes
- Scholarly article application to classroom design (Pitt, Bearman & Esterhazy; Carless)
- SMART and QUEST goal-setting frameworks
- Two full years of California Induction Program action research (2024–2026)
Writing & Research
- Academic and regulatory writing
- Research synthesis and analysis
- Policy-adjacent briefs and documentation
- Doctoral-level literature review and argumentation
AI Integration
- AI-powered adaptive learning platforms in daily instruction (Albert.io)
- AI-assisted assessment design for personalized, mastery-based learning
- Evaluating AI-generated instructional content for quality and framework alignment
- Doctoral research agenda on AI-augmented and AI-resilient critical thinking
In active development
Skills I am building now, alongside a decade of instructional design experience.