School Curriculum Alignment Solution

Compared to similar senior high schools in a large metropolitan School District, students at the high school where you are principal are scoring below average on the School District's high school proficiency test for math. Describe a process for curriculum alignment and show how this can elevate and facilitate student achievement in math.

As the principal of the school, the first decision that I would make would be the selection of the type of curriculum alignment solution to undertake with respect to the presented problem; this because not all authors view curriculum alignment in the same way. For example, Crowell and Tissot (1986) define curriculum alignment as a congruence of all curricular elements to be established by linking curricular objectives with instructional efforts.

On the other hand, Reichman and Rayford (1988) note that:

Curriculum alignment is the process of coordinating instruction so that a particular curriculum builds on skills students have learned in previous courses while providing skills for future success (p.1)

I would choose Reichman and Rayford's approach because math, at the senior high school level, is clearly a skill that has been learned in previous courses and is clearly in need of development for future success at my school. Further, I would choose this approach because it is specificall

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of the curriculum content. (4) There need to be staff development workshops. (5) There is a need to monitor and assess teaching content so as to determine that teachers are, in fact, teaching what was suppose to be taught. Regarding math objectives for curriculum alignment, Savard and Colyon (1982) have made an important point. This point is that objectives have to be translated into concrete behavioral terms. There is a need for these objectives to be translated to behavioral terms not only at the primary level of goal setting (the primary level being to pass the proficiency test with higher scores) but also to specify those sub-objectives which, as they are learned, lead in a step-by-step manner to the primary objective. I would incorporate two additional elements in the designed curriculum alignment plan. The first of these has been discussed by Stevens (1984) who studied a large urban school using a curricular alignment solution to its testing problems. She found that the most effective catalyst to making sure that teachers limited instructional efforts to set curricular objectives was an accountability plan. Not only did accountability improve the primary objective of increased student achievement (as measured by te
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Approximate Word count = 1421
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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