Overview

Alberta is renewing the Kindergarten to Grade 12 (K to 12) curriculum, starting with K to 6. The curriculum development process is happening over a number of years.

Timeline

  • In September 2022, provincewide implementation began for the new:
    • K to 6 physical education and wellness curriculum 
    • K to 3 mathematics and English language arts and literature curriculums  
  • In September 2023, provincewide implementation began for the new:
    • grades 4 to 6 mathematics and English language arts and literature curriculums
    • K to 3 French first language and literature, French immersion language arts and literature and science curriculums
  • In September 2024, provincewide implementation began for the new:
    • grades 4 to 6 French first language and literature, French immersion language arts and literature and science curriculums
  • In September 2025, provincewide implementation will begin for the new:
    • K to 3 social studies curriculum
  • In September 2026, provincewide implementation will begin for the new:
    • grades 4 to 6 social studies curriculum

Learn about the implementation supports available to support teachers and students with curriculum implementation.

Implementation (September 2025 and September 2026)

Kindergarten to Grade 3 social studies curriculum will be implemented in elementary classrooms starting in September 2025. School authorities may also choose to optionally implement grades 4 to 6 social studies curriculum at this time.

Grades 4 to 6 social studies curriculum will be implemented in classrooms starting in September 2026.

We continue to provide school authorities and teachers with various supports  to implement new curriculum.

Next grades

During the 2024/25 school year, Alberta Education and Childcare began developing the draft curriculums for grades 7 to 9 mathematics, social studies, physical education and wellness, career education and financial literacy. Further information on new draft 7-9 curriculum will be available later in June 2025.

Learn more about junior and senior high school curriculum renewal.

Implementation supports for teachers and students

As part of Alberta’s ongoing curriculum renewal, Alberta’s government has invested in teacher professional development and quality learning and teaching resources to support successful curriculum implementation, including:

  • $48 million in 2022/23
  • $47 million in 2023/24
  • $34 million in 2024/25
  • $66 million in 2025/26

We also provide teachers across the province with implementation supports and learning and teaching resources on new LearnAlberta, including:

  • finalized K-6 curriculum
  • the Provincial Resource Review Guide to support local selection of learning and teaching resources aligned with learning outcomes in the new curriculums
  • bridging documents to help transition from the previous programs of study to the new curriculum
  • videos and support documents with an overview and orientation to the new curriculum
  • planning tools, such as sample lesson plans
  • Boards – a tool that allows for teacher planning, collaboration and sharing
  • information about flexible professional learning opportunities

Watch the Welcome to new LearnAlberta video for more information.

Curriculum development history (2019 to 2024)

  • August 2019 to December 2020

  • August to November 2020

    • Alberta Education designed and developed new K to 6 curriculum.

  • August 2020 to February 2021

    • Nineteen elders and subject matter experts provided advice based on their subject matter expertise and lived experience.
    • Learn more about the Advisors on Draft Curriculum

  • December 2020

    • The K to 6 curriculum working group, consisting of about 100 teachers from across Alberta, met virtually to discuss the draft curriculum.
    • Download the member list: Curriculum Working Group Members – Kindergarten to Grade 6
    • Approximately 30 Faculty of Education deans and professors from Alberta’s post-secondary institutions reviewed the draft K to 6 curriculum.

  • March 2021 to February 2022

    • The draft K to 6 curriculum was publicly released online on March 29, 2021, for review. Since then, Albertans have provided feedback many ways, including:
      • an online survey from March 2021 until February 2022
      • virtual sessions hosted by Alberta Education staff between May 2021 and February 2022
      • virtual engagement sessions where nearly 600 participants shared diverse viewpoints on each subject area and the draft social studies design blueprint in February 2022

  • June 2021 to March 2022

    • In June 2021, Alberta Education began conversations with education partners to share information and discuss the draft K to 6 curriculum.
    • Alberta Education provided approximately $800,000 in grants to support partner groups in conducting consistent and coordinated engagements with their communities so their unique perspectives could be heard.

  • January to June 2022

  • September 2022 to June 2023

    New K to 6 curriculum for English language arts and literature, mathematics and physical education and wellness implemented in schools.

    Draft K to 6 curriculum for science, French first language and literature and French immersion language arts and literature released.

  • August 2023 to April 2024

    From September 2023 to January 2024, we engaged with more than 900 education partners, teachers, multicultural organizations, Indigenous and francophone communities and other education specialists to inform development of a draft K to 12 social studies subject overview and the content of the draft K to 6 social studies curriculum.

    More than 12,800 surveys were completed by Albertans who provided input about what they would like students to learn in new social studies curriculum. Find out what they said:

    On March 14, 2024, we released a draft K to 12 social studies subject overview and the draft K to 6 social studies curriculum. Albertans completed more than 2,900 online feedback forms to provide input on key learnings within the draft K to 12 social studies curriculum. Find out what they said:

  • April 2024 to April 2025

    On April 26, 2024, we released draft K to 6 social studies curriculum to help school authorities prepare for optional classroom piloting.

    Starting in September 2024, 62 school authorities and over 2100 teachers piloted draft K to 6 social studies curriculum in classrooms and provided additional feedback.

    We considered feedback from all engagement activities and classroom piloting, as well as research and best practices, to finalize the new social studies curriculum.