Curriculum Alignment

Refers the “match” between the content, format, and level of

cognition of the curriculum or textbook (English, p.77 2010).

Frontloading

• Frontloading: When the educator writes the curriculum first, followed with searching for an appropriate assessment to determine whether the students have mastered the material of which the curriculum includes.

• Preferred practice in schools-the test must follow not lead. P. 78

Pros of Frontloading

• The test always follows the curriculum and does not “establish” it.

Cons with Frontloading

• Locally developed tests are considered poor testing instruments, lacking reliability and usually loaded with memorization test items that require minimal problem solving abilities

Cons of Frontloading continued

• The local instructional program is too complex to be used as the base to apply traditional standardized measures

• For example: Whole Language based approaches often fare poorly on standardized tests of language due to most being based on more traditional reading approaches.

• Teaching to test!!!!

Backloading

• The practice of working from the test back to the curriculum.

Pros to Backloading

• There is always 100% alignment because the curriculum to be taught was derived from the test itself.

Cons to Backloading

• Any imperfections, errors, or biases that are present in the test are also reflected in the curriculum.

• The person who wrote the test, wrote the curriculum and unless the test creators were also local, local control may be sacrificed.

Cons to Backloading continued

• Teaching to the test may be considered an unethical procedure

Teaching to the Test

• Researchers may say that matching the test items to the material being taught is “unethical”

• Do you agree with this statement, why or why not?

The “Normal” curveRandomness must be functional in order to get a continuous distribution of responses.

But, teachers, administrators, and curriculum cannot be considered random variables…

Test secrecy does not allow for alignment, so school related variables appear random….

However they are not.

The Normal Curve assumes that 50% of the population must be below average for a continuous variable to hold.

How does this occur? Who is below average???

Lower Socio Economic

Klineberg 1935

• Factors such as socioeconomic status and the amount of schooling and language influenced test scores

• Does this hold true today?? Why or why not?

Teaching to the test:

Issue:Kaplan & Princeton Review SAT Test Prep companies:

“We can increase your score!”

Result: Alignment matches content on exam = nonrandom interference.

“My score increased 30 points”

Did the students know the information or simply memorize what they practiced on a test?

How to get 50% of students to perform below average

Avoid teaching students what you intend to test them on.

Socioeconomic Determinism

• Consequence of using standardized norm-referenced tests, which claim to be “objective” measures of pupil learning even though they are not.

What should schools do?

• Teach what they are testing and test what they taught.

How do you Ensure Ethical Applications of Standardized Tests?

• School variables are RANDOM

• Control for bias (example of Quakers Pg. 92)

• If the sole purpose of the test is to assess a random variable that is assumed to contain the characteristics of a continuous variable within the population being assessed, then it is unethical to “teach to the test.”

Examples in other fields

• Sports/Athletics: Pg. 94

Would you tell a coach, that his or her team may not practice because it would be considered cheating??????????????

According to English…

• Align the content to the test• If everyone knows what the alignment is,

teachers, administration, and the curriculum can be assessed

• This will lead to the determinism of socioeconomic level being decreased as a predictor.

• Schools predict pupil achievement because they are now related to what goes on inside of them.

What is Cheating?

• Permitting the students to practice with the actual test itself

• Providing more time than permitted• Assisting students with test items during the

exam• Changing student answers after the test is

completed

Transfer vs. Alignment

• Transfer is facilitated when the situations are similar and recognizable by the learner. (Quarterback example)

• Alignment is a process of teaching the learner to recognize similar situations (contents and formats) by which assessments will take place.

Pareto Principal

• “The few account for the many (Burr, 1976, p. 203).

Example:When reviewing test scores, suppose that two or three errors account for almost half of all the errors. Correcting those two or three errors will help scores in the future.

*Find the pattern*