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Alignment of Curriculum and Tests to Standards

Aligning Tests to Standards 

Traditionally alignment meant going through a checklist to see if a test question measures a standard. But that's not sufficient. To determine if tests are aligned to the standards they are supposed to measure, Achieve, a nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, Mass., focuses on four criteria: 1) content, 2) performance, 3) level of difficulty, and 4) balance and range. And it focuses its analysis of each criterion around core questions, including the following:

Content. Does the test evaluate what the state standards indicate all students should know and be able to do at a particular grade level? If not, is it because the standards are too vague to make a determination, or is it because test items measure only part of what the standards ask for? 

Performance. Are students asked to demonstrate the skills the standards expect? For example, if the standards say that students will analyze the characteristics of various literary forms, does the test ask them to evaluate different literary forms, or does it merely ask students to identify one type of literature? 

Level of difficulty. Are test items easy, medium, or hard, and is the range of difficulty appropriately distributed across all the items? What makes them difficult-the content they are assessing, or another factor, such as the language of the question? Overall, is each assessment appropriately rigorous? 

Balance and range. Does the test as a whole gauge the depth and breadth of the standards and objectives outlined in state standards documents? If not, are the standards that are assessed the most important ones for the grade level? Overall, do the assessments for elementary, middle, and high school focus on the most important content that all students should know?

Expanding Alignment

But there is much more to alignment than the match between tests and standards. Assessment experts at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) offer a broader view in which they define alignment as "lining up goals, standards, curriculum, capacity and outcome measures." And they observe, alignment has another larger meaning; that is, it can - and probably should - also encompass "the logic between policy goals and the strategies enacted to meet those goals." 

NEA' s Tool for Auditing Standards-Based Education  advances a broad view of alignment. It provides a framework for how policies, resources, curriculum, instruction, assessment, and accountability requirements should focus on a common goal: improving the achievement of all students. The audit tool contains 10 standards that NEA believes standards-based education systems should meet to be effective. The standards relate to four key features of an aligned education system: standards, assessment, resources, and accountability requirements.

• Student Standards form the base of an aligned education system; that is, student standards are developed, implemented, and revised in ways that maximize their usefulness. (Standard 4)
• Student standards inform curriculum and instruction. (Standard 5)
• Assessment drives educational improvement; that is, assessments that are used to make decisions affecting students, schools, or districts meet widely accepted technical and professional criteria. (Standard 7)
• Assessment and accountability are used to improve teaching and learning. (Standard 8)
• Resources are provided to all students; that is, all students have access to the resources they need to attain high standards. (Standard 2)
• All students are achieving at high levels. (Standard 1)
• All students are taught by teachers with the knowledge and skills to teach to high standards. (Standard 3)
• Accountability requirements reinforce the system's alignment; that is, all stakeholders are accountable for making standards-based education work. (Standard 9)
• The implementation and impact of standards-based education are tracked and reported. (Standard 10)
• Students are treated fairly in assessment programs and accountability systems. (Standard 6)