ACES Releases Curriculum Studio, an AI App That Builds Standards-Based Curriculum for Connecticut Schools

The web tool writes full units against three instructional frameworks at once and cuts district spending on outside curriculum software and consultants

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Oct. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Area Cooperative Educational Services (ACES) has released the ACES Curriculum Studio, a web application that helps Connecticut K-12 educators design standards-based curriculum in a fraction of the usual time.

Every unit is built through three frameworks at once: Connecticut's K-12 Universal Curriculum Design Principles, Understanding by Design (UbD), and CAST's Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines. The tool guides teachers from learning outcomes and assessments through instructional sequencing and supports for diverse learners.

"Teachers spend nights and weekends building units from scratch," said Bob Hutchins, Ph.D., AI Literacy Advisor at ACES and the tool's creator. "This does the structural work and gives the judgment back to them."

A teacher can generate transfer goals, essential questions, performance tasks checked against the 6 Facets of Understanding, standards-aligned rubrics, and lesson-level material such as warm-ups, exit tickets, guided notes, and formative assessments. Facilitation tips are detailed enough for a substitute to teach from.

Every element draws on a built-in database of 3,451 Connecticut standards across 21 content areas, from ELA and math to personal finance, SEL, and AI literacy.

"Educators spend less time formatting documents and more time making instructional decisions," said Dr. Jessica White, Assistant Director of the ACES Center for AI. "Teachers stay in control."

Finished work exports as editable Word files, PDF lesson plans, and PowerPoint decks. Courses move through a submit, review, and publish workflow, and a shared catalog lets districts adopt, clone, rate, and give feedback on each other's units.

Most districts pay for curriculum twice, through software licenses and outside consultants. The Curriculum Studio covers both. Curriculum platforms commonly run $50,000 to $200,000 or more on multiyear contracts, and consultants charge roughly $800 to $2,500 a day.

"One tool now does work that 25 districts were paying for separately," said Tim Howes, Deputy Executive Director at ACES. "The savings can stay in classrooms."

Learn More at - https://www.acespdsi.org/curriculum-creator.

Media Contact:
Jessica White
(860) 834-6147
[email protected] 

SOURCE ACES Center For AI