You develop school curriculum and instructional materials. As a School Curriculum Developer, you're creating courses, aligning standards, and ensuring students learn what they need.
School Curriculum Developers design and refine the instructional content, scope and sequence, and learning materials that teachers use — creating or adapting curriculum that aligns with standards, is instructionally sound, and meets the needs of the specific student population. The work is typically district-level rather than school-level, requiring collaboration with teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators.
The design process is iterative and collaborative. Effective curriculum development involves gathering input from teachers about what's working and what isn't, piloting materials in classrooms, analyzing student performance data, and revising based on what you learn. That cycle requires patience with imperfect early versions and genuine responsiveness to feedback.
Staying current with instructional research and curriculum trends is an ongoing professional expectation. Evidence-based literacy instruction, math curriculum debates, and the integration of technology all create a constantly evolving landscape. People who thrive tend to have both content expertise and instructional design skills, find the problem-solving of curriculum work engaging, and are effective at the collaborative processes that make curriculum adoption actually work in classrooms.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
Roles with similar work and overlapping career paths
View all Technology roles →You develop school curriculum and instructional materials. As a School Curriculum Developer, you're creating courses, aligning standards, and ensuring students learn what they need.
Median pay for a School Curriculum Developer is about $75K nationally, with the field ranging roughly from $47K to $115K depending on experience, employer, and metro (BLS).
Core skills for this role include Learning Strategies, Writing, Instructing, Speaking, and Monitoring.
Most people in this role hold a master's degree.
Employment in this field is projected to grow about 1.3% through 2034, with roughly 210,850 people working in it today (BLS).
Closely related roles include Curriculum Writer, Education Coordinator, and Course Developer.
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