Alignment, in the curriculum sense, is the relationship between the test and the written curriculum. The goal of curriculum alignment is to find a happy-medium between back loading and front loading, or a system where the curriculum and the test are lined up and compliment each other because they are developed together.
Currently, my school is in the process of alignment. Currently, according to the school board, alignment has been successfully accomplished in the fields of social studies and science from throughout the K. To 12 system. However, prior to this alignment, and currently in all other subject fields, the school is back loading. The primary reason for this is that my school caters to a low-income population and, due to the new No Child Left Behind provisions, must perform well on the exams in order to stay licensed. Thus, in reaction to this, the curriculum was changed in order to meet the demands of the pre-designed test. Now, for example, English classes are devoted to such areas as vocabulary and reading comprehension opposed to creative writing or literary interpretation....
This fact to shows that my school, out of necessity, tends to teach to the test. Further, this shows the need for the alignment process to continue, so that there is a better balance between the classroom work and the
testing.
In an ideal situation, as has recently been implemented in the science and social studies curriculums, the curriculum and the tests will be written simultaneously. The benefit of such an alignment process is that the curriculum will still be able to preserve some of its local flavor and have this be part of the assessments but, at the same time, make sure the curriculum also works on the
core competencies that are part of the national
standardized test. The result of such an aligned curriculum system is that the assessment process will be more meaningful due to its connectedness with the curriculum, and thus more beneficial to the students.
Bibliography
English, F.W. (2000): Deciding What to Teach and Test: Designing, Aligning and Auditing the Curriculum. (Millennium Ed.) Thousand Oaks, CA.: Corwin Press, Inc.
Linn, Robert L. And David M. Miller. (2004): Measurement and Assessment in
Teaching. New York: Prentice Hall.
Popham, James W. (2003): Test Better, Teach Better: The Instructional Role of Assessment. Baltimore: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
