Norms

Exemplary

Exemplary

Locus of Control

Lora Darden

Tests primarily assess cultural differences…

“This is particularly true if tests have a low alignment or ‘match’ to any school’s curriculum…”

-Fenwick English, p. xi

What are the differences between curriculum articulation & curriculum coordination?Articulation – level of focus and connectivity

from one grade level to another or one course to another (in a sequence of courses)

Coordination –level of focus and connectivity from one classroom to another at the same grade level from room to room and from campus to campus

What is the most effective way to get teachers to use the curriculum?

Get teachers to monitor themselves by training them to live and breath by the ARRC resources.

Necessary Requirements of an Effective CurriculumCoordination – the sameness from classroom

to classroom; campus to campus

Articulation – grows from grade level to grade level demonstrates smooth transitions

Elementary to Middle School Middle School to High School

WITHOUT leading to “slavish” conformity where every teacher is on the same page at the same time

Slave to two mastersConformity of experiences for all learners

vs.

Demands for different ApproachesMethodsMaterials

To meet the needs of all learners

Tightening of the curriculumRefers to actions that bring the

written,taught, andtested

curriculum into alignment or congruence with one another

One grade level is giving released TAKS tests every week in the weeks leading up to TAKS. While they are creating a tight alignment between the taught and tested, they are causing articulation issues with the grade levels above.

A new look at data disaggregation…Did you know that data disaggregation is really…

Breaking test items down into smaller Components Skills Knowledge Content

Which leads to an adjustment in the work plan (curriculum)… To what degree are we building in these changes as we

receive data? To what degree does our curriculum indicate that

people need to have a different set of directions from which to teach?

Content & Context: Two Levels of Alignment between test & curriculumContent alignment

The content of the curriculum & the content of the test are in alignment

Context alignment (also known as format alignment)The testing scenario is the same one as the

curriculum/work planIf, as in the case of science, students learn better

working in 3-D, the curriculum must still help translate the 3-D experiences into the 2-D context of the assessment

Curriculum ConstructionGap analysis – as opposed to a survey, a gap

analysis examines the current state of student performance against the desired outcomes for student performance

Super Monday Meetings…Look at areas of need and examine curriculum

to see how many opportunities they had to cover this TEKS/SE and whether there are any model lessons associated with this TEK/SE.

Beef up this area for the next time this comes around in the curriculum documents.

Units of study should be embedded.

Curriculum LanguageWell-organized

Easy to read

Unambiguous textual language

Contextually relevant to real classrooms

The link to what is tested“The curriculum-test connection should be

represented in the curriculum guide so that the classroom teachers knows what will be testedwhenwith what instrument” (English, 1992, 48).

Time…There must be some sort of time designation

within the curriculum guide

Time will guide how much emphasis and stress is to be placed on those specific elements

Time should be represented as ranges of time, not specific designations, to allow for learner variations

For curriculum alignment, STUDENTS must…Know the content of the curriculum

Know how the test will be used to measure that knowledge

Food for ThoughtIf curriculum is aligned to the test, and

students are taught using the curriculum, then students who are given access should perform better on the test. Equal access should mean equal test scores.

For student populations performing at a lower level, to what degree are they receiving access to the curriculum? What is it about access to the curriculum that is not providing them with what they need? How is this true across the board for specific student populations?

If the curriculum matches the assessment…The alignment should result in a J curve

instead of a bell curve

Bell curves occur when random variables are introduced

J curves occur when the chance has been taken our of the equation because there is a tight alignment between the curriculum and what is taught

A thought about testing…If people don’t have another chance to try the

assessment to look for improvement, then there’s no point in engaging in assessment.

Assessment only matters if there is opportunity to show change over time.

This has implications for data reports… do we ever talk about improvement over time in those meetings?

Locating Curriculum BreakdownsAfter test results are analyzed, how can we

ensure there is a tight alignment among the “re-teaching efforts?”

When students perform poorly, we need a plan of action to ensure their experiences will be more tightly aligned to the context of the assessment.

The gaps in performance should prescribe the nature of the work.