Overcoming Challenges of Standards Alignment

The context of this standard (i.e., where students are required to learn narration in the first- and third-person points-of-view) is literature (i.e., stories). If a citation does not relate to the narration of a story , it would not be aligned to this standard. The cognitive rigor of this standard (i.e., what students are required to do ) is to compare and contrast. If a citation only requires students to compare first and third-person points-of-view in the narration of a story, it would not be aligned to the standard. Identifying the content, context and cognitive rigor of a standard precisely can be difficult. Whether a phrase is part of the content or the context of the standard is not critical. Educators should, however, be able to articulate what the standard requires students to know and be able to do and in what context. Dissecting the three Cs of a standard is a tool for developing that understanding.

Why Alignment Matters

State standards establish the minimum expectations for what students are expected to know, understand, and be able to do by the end of each subject or course. State assessments test s tudents’ mastery of those

standards. In order for a material to help prepare students to master the standards, the material must be aligned to the state standards.

As a teacher explained, “If you don’t give students materials that teach them what they need to know, it is unlikely (or less likely) that they will learn it. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that cause-and- effect relationship.” As discussed in our previous white paper, Navigating to Successful Student Outcomes with Standards-Aligned Instruction , core materials should be used as the primary resource for the course. Therefore, when purchasing core materials,

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