Aligning Curriculum Standards,

Instructional Practices and

Assessment.

Alaska School Leadership Institute

May 2009

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A Model of Alignment
DATA

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How is performance towards standards
demonstrated at the classroom level?

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Curriculum Alignment Check

• Do we understand how our curriculum is aligned to

the Alaska Standards and GLE’s?
• Do we have a good understanding of what our
students are expected to know and be able to do
within the content standards and GLE’s?
• Do we use unpacked standards and learning
targets to plan lessons and assessments?

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 If Curriculum is defined as…
…desired “performances of understanding.”
Then the next step is to…

Unpack the Standards

Identify the underlying concepts and skills

needed for students to demonstrate proficiency
at each grade level.

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Why Unpack the Standards?

Fosters a process for collegial dialogue

Eliminates redundancy and focuses instruction
Promotes consistency
Provides equity
Promotes continuity between grade levels and
between schools
Increases student learning for ALL

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The Dichotomy of an Unpacked Standard

Standard

GLE

Concept Skill Concept Skill

Learning Targets
I Can… Statements

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What are Learning Targets?

A Learning Target is any achievement

expectation we have for students on the path
toward meeting a standard.
It specifically states what we want the students
to learn and be able to do.
Learning Targets should be formatively
assessed to monitor progress toward meeting
a standard.
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Standards and Targets

To fully utilize the Standards and Grade Level

Expectations, educators must be able to answer
the following questions:

What specific content and skills are embedded

within the standards and GLE’s?
 How are learning targets used by teachers and
shared students?

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Instruction

How do we make sure that our instructional

strategies are meeting the varied needs of all
our students?

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Assessment as Instructional Feedback

From…

Teach Test Grade & Move On

To…

Assess Teach Assess Adjust Instruction Assess

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Assessment in Support of Learning
• go beyond merely providing judgments about
student performance to providing rich
descriptions of student performance,
• evolve from being isolated events to becoming
events that happen in ongoing series to reveal
patterns,
• go beyond merely informing instructional decisions
of teachers to informing decisions also made by
students.

Rick Stiggins, 2006

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Assessment

In what ways do the assessments we use inform

our instructional practices and monitor student
progress at the building, classroom and
individual student levels?

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 How do you know what they know?
What data do you collect to:

verify student understanding?

monitor progress?
inform instruction, curriculum
or program needs?

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Using Data to Identify Learning Gaps

Formative assessment
can identify specific
students’ learning gaps at
a time when the learning
is still taking place and
timely interventions can
be made.

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Analyzing your Classroom Assessments
Fundamental Questions

 What standard(s) are you assessing?

 What kind of evidence are you gathering?

 What levels of performance do you expect?

 How will the assessment be used?

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Assessment and evaluation are no longer
the product of teaching, they are the
tools that learners and teachers use to
support learning.

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Assessment can help us move towards…

Learning …instead of just teaching

Quality …instead of quantity

Improvement …instead of one-shot deals

Depth …instead of coverage

Confidence …instead of anxiety

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