Curriculum in CARL

When you create a custom course or curriculum in CARL, you can organize its items using up to four Curriculum Levels. CARL reads those levels when it plans, so your lessons line up with the way your curriculum is actually built.

Curriculum frameworks do not all use the same structure. Depending on the framework, you may see competencies, purposes, organizing ideas, themes, standards, outcomes, expectations, indicators, benchmarks, content, descriptions of learning, or other terms.

CARL sorts those different structures into four broad categories so it can plan against any of them consistently.

You do not need to rename your curriculum to match CARL. Keep the wording from your source, then choose the Curriculum Level that best describes what the item does.

The four Curriculum Levels

Mapping currently covers Levels 2 to 4. Level 1 is still part of the framework and Compass reads it for reference, but you cannot map an item to it in CARL at the moment.

These are possible CARL fits. They are not official “Level 1 to 4” labels used by those curriculum authorities. Curriculum Levels are organizational categories, not student achievement, proficiency, progression, or difficulty levels.

What if my curriculum does not use four levels?

That’s fine. Use only the levels your curriculum needs.

Some curricula use two or three main layers. Some include cross-curricular competencies that sit alongside subject content. Some use progression stages or locally selected content. Others use standards and sub-standards without anything equivalent to a “big idea.”

You do not need to create extra categories just to fill all four Curriculum Levels.

Do Curriculum Levels always form a hierarchy?

No.

The numbers help CARL organize items from broader to more specific, but the original curriculum may not be a simple top-to-bottom hierarchy.

For example, a cross-curricular competency may apply across several subject areas without being the “parent” of those items. A progression framework may describe development over time instead of curriculum detail. A locally designed curriculum may combine outcomes and content in the same statement.

Use the level that best reflects the item’s function, and keep the original source wording.

What if my framework is organized differently?

Choose the closest fit based on what the item does, not only the label the source uses. A few examples:

British Columbia. BC uses Core Competencies across learning, alongside the Know-Do-Understand structure of Big Ideas, Curricular Competencies, and Content. BC itself does not describe these as CARL’s four Curriculum Levels.

Alberta. Alberta’s newer curriculum uses Organizing Ideas, Guiding Questions, Learning Outcomes, and Knowledge, Understanding, and Skills & Procedures. Some of those elements happen to fit the CARL model fairly closely, but the source terminology should stay Alberta’s.

Ontario. Ontario commonly uses Strands, Overall Expectations, and Specific Expectations, with Transferable Skills across learning. Strand can stay in the separate Strand field.

Wales. Curriculum for Wales uses Four Purposes, Statements of What Matters, Descriptions of Learning, and progression steps. These elements do not form the same kind of hierarchy as BC or Alberta.

Scotland. Curriculum for Excellence uses Experiences & Outcomes and Benchmarks, and Scotland also has its own official Curriculum Levels for learner progression. CARL’s numbered Curriculum Levels should not be presented as equivalent to those progression levels.

Common Core Mathematics. Common Core Mathematics organizes content through Domains, Clusters, and Standards, with separate Standards for Mathematical Practice. There is no need to invent a fourth layer.

Mexico (SEP). Mexico’s Plan de Estudio 2022 includes Ejes articuladores, Campos formativos, Contenidos, and Procesos de Desarrollo de Aprendizaje. These elements interact across the curriculum and should not be presented as one simple four-step hierarchy.

What do Code and Strand mean?

Code

Use the identifier from the original curriculum source, if one exists.

Strand

Use this for a strand, domain, area, field, or similar grouping when your curriculum provides one.

Code and Strand are separate from Curriculum Level. You do not need to turn a strand or domain into another Curriculum Level just to fill the structure.

Quick guide

When two options seem reasonable, choose the one that best reflects how you want to organize the course, and use that approach consistently within the custom curriculum.

Mapping for CARL’s currently supported curriculum frameworks

This is a suggested mapping based on how Compass structures curriculum into four levels, not each framework’s official hierarchy. Levels 3 and 4 are the ones Compass tracks for coverage. A dash means there is no clean equivalent at that level, and you never need to fill all four; keep Strand in its own field.

Framework	Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4
British Columbia	Core Competencies	Big Ideas	Curricular Competencies	Content
Alberta	Organizing Ideas	Guiding Questions	Learning Outcomes	Knowledge, Understanding, and Skills & Procedures
Saskatchewan	Cross-curricular Competencies	Broad Areas of Learning	Outcomes	Indicators
Manitoba	Global Competencies	Enduring Understandings	Grade-level Learning Outcomes	—
Ontario	Transferable Skills	—	Overall Expectations	Specific Expectations
New Brunswick	Global Competencies	Big Ideas	Skill Descriptors	Achievement Indicators
Nova Scotia	Essential Graduation Competencies	General Curriculum Outcomes	Specific Curriculum Outcomes	Indicators
Prince Edward Island	Essential Graduation Competencies	General Curriculum Outcomes	Specific Curriculum Outcomes	Achievement Indicators
Newfoundland & Labrador	Essential Graduation Learnings	General Curriculum Outcomes	Key Stage Curriculum Outcomes	Specific Curriculum Outcomes
Yukon	Core Competencies	Big Ideas	Curricular Competencies	Content
Northwest Territories*	Core Competencies	Big Ideas	Curricular Competencies	Content
England	—	Programmes of Study	Subject content	—
Wales	Four Purposes	Statements of What Matters	Descriptions of Learning	Locally selected content
Scotland	Four Capacities	Curriculum areas	Experiences & Outcomes	Benchmarks
Northern Ireland	Cross-Curricular Skills	Areas of Learning	Learning requirements	Minimum content
Common Core ELA	CCR Anchor Standards	Strands	Grade-specific Standards	Standard components (where present)
Common Core Math	Standards for Mathematical Practice	Domains / Clusters	Standards	Standard components (where present)
Mexico (SEP)	Ejes articuladores	Campos formativos	Contenidos	Procesos de Desarrollo de Aprendizaje

*Northwest Territories: for subjects using the NWT-adapted BC curriculum; NWT-specific courses also exist. Scotland also has its own official Curriculum Levels for progression, which are different from these. Wales progression steps and Mexico’s Ejes articuladores are cross-cutting, not a strict top-to-bottom rank.

Most curricula are already built in. Setting yours once tells CARL which outcomes to plan against, so you are not restating it in every lesson prompt.

Where to set it

Click your profile image in the bottom-left corner, open Settings, then go to Curriculum Defaults. Under Curriculum Standards, search for your curriculum and select it.

Selecting a curriculum also sets the Planning Framework and Assessment Language that come with it, so check both before you save. Click Save Changes before you start a new plan.

Teaching something the built-in list does not cover? Add your own source instead. See Upload my curriculum or Manually map curriculum / custom subjects.

If the curriculum you use is not available as a built-in source, you can add your own curriculum source and use it for planning.

Uploading is usually the easier option when you already have a curriculum document and want CARL to work from that source without entering every curriculum item manually.

After the curriculum is added, review the imported wording and structure. Curriculum documents are organized in very different ways, so the imported structure may need adjustment.

Where to add it

Open the profile menu from your avatar, choose Settings, then the Uploaded Curriculum Sources tab. From there you have three ways to add a curriculum:

• Upload a file, by dragging it in or clicking Upload.
• Paste a Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides link, then choose Import from link.
• Choose Enter curriculum by hand to build it yourself (see Manual mapping below).

CARL reads the source and shows you what it found. Review the extracted items and tick the ones CARL should include by default before you start planning.

Accepted files: PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, CSV, text, Markdown, rich text, JSON, or an image (PNG, JPG, or WEBP), up to 25 MB each. The original file is scanned once and then removed; CARL keeps only the items you confirm.

Should I upload or map it manually?

If you are unhappy with how CARL organized your uploaded curriculum, you can adjust it by hand. See Manually map curriculum / custom subjects.

If you teach a custom course, locally developed program, school-created subject, interdisciplinary course, or another curriculum that is not available as a built-in source, you can create the curriculum structure manually.

Manual mapping lets you keep the wording from your original source while organizing each item so CARL can use it consistently.

Where to start

Open the profile menu, choose Settings, then the Uploaded Curriculum Sources tab, and click Enter curriculum by hand. CARL walks you through a short setup: name the source, add its subject and grades, then add each item. You can add items one at a time, or choose Paste the table to bring several in at once.

Add the curriculum item as it appears in your source

Each item has a Title and an optional Description. Enter the wording from the curriculum, course outline, standards document, program guide, or other source you are using.

If the item has a Code or belongs to a Strand, add those in their own fields.

Choose the closest Curriculum Level

Use the level that best describes the item’s function. Mapping currently covers Levels 2 to 4, so Level 1 is listed here for context rather than as something you can choose yet:

• Level 1 · Broad goal / capability (not available in mapping at the moment)
• Level 2 · Organizing concept
• Level 3 · Learning expectation
• Level 4 · Specific curriculum detail

You do not need to use all four.

Keep your source terminology

You do not need to rename an “expectation” as an “outcome,” turn a “benchmark” into “content,” or rewrite a “standard” to match CARL.

The Curriculum Level tells CARL how to organize the item. Your source wording stays as written.

Use Code and Strand when they help

Code is for an identifier used by the source, if one exists.

Strand is for a strand, domain, area, field, or similar grouping.

Neither field needs to become another Curriculum Level.

Example: a small custom Digital Citizenship course

If your curriculum is longer or already exists as a document, uploading it may be faster than entering each item manually. See Upload my curriculum.