Deep Curriculum Alignment


Book Description

Why do testing and accountability efforts in today's schools fail? In Deep Curriculum Alignment, English and Steffy explore the flaws in state mandated testing, advocating a more comprehensive approach to teaching and testing. This highly practical book will guide you into a deeply aligned curriculum that produces academic results and a level playing field. Each chapter covers principles of testing and curriculum building, and concludes with a summary of the key concepts presented. The authors survey various studies, present the ethical dilemmas involved in testing, and present a step-by-step guide to pedagogical parallelism and alignment.







Curriculum Alignment


Book Description

Provides information for school administrators and curriculum specialists on ways to align the curriculum to state standards to improve student achievement and teacher effectiveness.




Aligning Your Curriculum to the Common Core State Standards


Book Description

Avoid "analysis paralysis" and just get started! Now that most states have adopted the new Common Core State Standards, the next major challenge is to simplify and implement them by 2014. That is why it is important to begin this work now. Joe Crawford, Milken Award-winning educator and author of Using Power Standards to Build an Aligned Curriculum, shares his proven process for building a viable local curriculum based on the CCSS. Readers will find: A system for creating local standards from the CCSS Methods for connecting the common, formative assessments to quarterly instructional objectives Ways to scaffold learning expectations Examples taken from districts where CCSS is currently implemented Included are helpful charts and graphs plus access to Internet-based software for mapping the CCSS to curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Schools cannot continue to do what they have always done and expect a different result. This book explains how to facilitate learning for all students while taking advantage of the new culture, technology, and norms of today′s learning environment.




Aligning and Balancing the Standards-Based Curriculum


Book Description

Full of field-tested implementation tools, this comprehensive handbook shows how schools and districts can use the Balanced Curriculum process to put their schools on the track to success.




Using Power Standards to Build an Aligned Curriculum


Book Description

Award-winning educator Joe Crawford describes how to use Power Standards to build an effective standards-based curriculum and integrate them into instruction to achieve student success.




Curriculum Alignment


Book Description

"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.




Rigorous Curriculum Design


Book Description

The need for a cohesive and comprehensive curriculum that intentionally connects standards, instruction, and assessment has never been more pressing. For educators to meet the challenging learning needs of students they must have a clear road map to follow throughout the school year. Rigorous Curriculum Design presents a carefully sequenced, hands-on model that curriculum designers and educators in every school system can follow to create a progression of units of study that keeps all areas tightly focused and connected.




Curriculum Alignment


Book Description

This workbook provides school administrators a structured process to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to facilitate curriculum alignment. Based on the text "Deciding What to Teach and Test," the book outlines specific steps a facilitator can take to translate ideas into action. It is organized into a series of chapters that were written with the assumption that the work can be completed during a 3- to 4-month period. Each chapter contains a set of activities designed to build on the work accomplished in previous sessions, and the level, purpose, materials, estimated time of completion, and participants are outlined at the beginning of each activity. The first chapter focuses on understanding the concept of alignment and addresses such issues as becoming familiar with videotape, focus and connectivity, site-based decision making, and quality control. Chapter 2 presents ways to prepare for curriculum alignment by focusing on trend analysis. Topics discussed include the curriculum-development cycle, schools as sorting mechanisms, and gap analysis. The third chapter discusses the concepts of frontloading and backloading, outlining the advantages and disadvantages of these strategies. The last chapter looks at the curriculum audit and explores ways to increase understanding of the audit and its assumptions. (RJM)




Advancing the Three-Minute Walk-Through


Book Description

An expanded examination of the Downey Walk-Through, this sequel shows leaders how to help teachers improve their practice by engaging them in reflection and professional dialogue.