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Curriculum Alignment
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Curriculum Alignment
Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement

Edited by:
August 2008 | 232 pages | Corwin
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"One of the few books that takes a holistic look at alignment and helps clarify the definition of alignment. Squires helped increase my knowledge as an instructional leader and showed me that alignment can be a valuable tool when used with real intent. The book engaged me in authentic reflection on my professional practice."
—Margarete Couture, Principal
South Seneca Central School District, NY

Use the power of alignment to strengthen curriculum and raise student achievement!

Aligning what is taught, written, and tested can be a powerful, systemic way of improving school performance. This guidebook, written by a long-time educator and proponent of curriculum alignment, demonstrates how to apply specific principles and recommendations to improve curriculum, instruction, and test scores.

This resource offers school and district administrators and curriculum specialists concrete, practical guidance for aligning curriculum and instruction with state standards and assessments to improve teaching and learning. The author offers research-based strategies that reinforce the importance of curriculum alignment and shows how districts can:

  • Use alignment as a major curriculum design element
  • Translate research into usable strategies to achieve measurable results
  • Expand options for raising test results and student outcomes
  • Connect school policy with continuous school improvement
  • Meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind

Comprehensive, thoughtful, and realistic, Curriculum Alignment offers a wide range of approaches to appeal to educators at every level.

 
Preface
 
List of Figures and Tables
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Author
 
Part I. Alignment and Instruction, Textbooks, and Standardized Tests
 
1. Introduction to Curriculum Alignment
What is Alignment?

 
Alignment Problems

 
The Alignment Matrix

 
 
2. Alignment and Instruction
Introduction

 
The "Reform Up Close" Study and Alignment Dimensions

 
Instructional Alignment and Professional Development

 
Three Smaller Studies of Instructional Alignment

 
What Districts Can Do

 
 
3. Alignment and Textbooks
Introduction

 
Textbook to Test Alignment

 
Summary of Findings for Studies of Textbook to Test Alignment

 
Quality of Textbook Instruction

 
Modifying the Use of Textbooks to Improve Alignment

 
Summary of Findings for Textbook Alignment

 
What Districts Can Do

 
 
4. Alignment and Standardized Tests
Introduction

 
Marzano's Standards Compilation

 
The Webb Studies:Aligning State Standards, Assessments, and Policies

 
Webb's WAT Web Site

 
The Browder Study: Alignment in Special Education

 
Vertical Alignment

 
Science Inquiry and Alignment to Three Large-Scale Assessments

 
The Bowe and Kingsbury Study

 
The National Center for Educational Statistics Study (2007): Cut Scores for State Tests and the NAEP

 
Backloanding the Curriculum

 
Summary of Findings for Studies of Alignment of State Tests

 
What Districts Can Do

 
 
Part II. Alignment and Mastery Learning, Project 2061, and TIMSS
 
5. Alignment, Reteaching, and Mastery Learning
A Personal Ntoe

 
Introduction

 
Bloom's Theory of School Learning

 
Cohen: Instructional Alignment

 
The Wishnick Study

 
Summary of Findings for Studies of Mastery Learning

 
What Districts Can Do

 
 
6. Ideas From Project 2061 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Introduction

 
Project 2061

 
Summary of Findings for Project 2061

 
What Districts Can Do

 
 
7. Alignment and the TIMSS Analysis
Introduction

 
The TIMSS Methodology

 
Curriculum and Student Acheivement

 
What Districts Can Do

 
 
Part III. The Aligned Curriculum
 
8. Criteria for a Useful and Useable Curriculum Incorporating Alignment
Introduction

 
The Many Meaning of Curriculum

 
The Common Definition of Curriculum

 
Our Definition of Curriculum

 
Criteria for a Useful and Useable Curriculum

 
 
9. Addressing Alignment Through a Curriculum Design: The Balanced Curriculum Model
Introduction

 
Results from School Districts

 
The Balanced Curriculum Model

 
Is the Balanced Curriculum Useful and Useable?

 
What Districts Can Do- A Conclusion

 
 
10. How the Balanced Curriculum Meets This Book's Recommendations for Districts
 
11. Summary of Alignment Research and Recommendations
Introduction

 
Summary of the Book

 
Summary of the Book's Chapters

 
The Reasearch Posted on the Alignment Matrix

 
Major Findings From the Alignment Research

 
 
Resource A: 10 Criteria for Structuring a Useful and Useable Curriculum
 
References
 
Index

"One of the few books that takes a holistic look at alignment and helps clarify the definition of alignment. Squires helped increase my knowledge as an instructional leader and showed me that alignment can be a valuable tool when used with real intent. The book engaged me in authentic reflection on my professional practice."

Margarete Couture, Principal
South Seneca Central School District, NY

"The author provides readers with much food for thought, resources to delve more deeply into specific ideas, and benefits and challenges to weigh when making curricular and alignment decisions. Readers are urged to seriously consider how they define curriculum and are offered an alternative definition that, when acted upon, may play a critical role in increasing student learning."

Judith A. Rogers, Professional Learning Specialist
Tucson Unified School District, AZ
Key features
• Defines curriculum alignment and shows how it can be used in mastery learning, for textbooks, and in relation to standards, standardized tests, and instruction
• Summarizes the critical research and related findings (in each chapter)
• Provides specific ideas and strategies for aligning curriculum based on the research (in each chapter)
• Offers an example of a systemic and data-driven approach to curriculum alignment using the Balanced Curriculum model

For instructors

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ISBN: 9781452261201
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