As we near the end of the school year, your focus may be on intervention and testing. We offer three suggestions to help you prepare your students for end-of-year success.
Make sure your intervention materials are aligned to the standards you are reteaching. Using tightly aligned materials will reduce your workload and make intervention more effective. Many intervention materials are not designed to align to 100% of state standards. Make sure the material(s) you are using for intervention are aligned to the standards you are re-teaching. Verify that the citations (e.g., lessons, activities, assessments) you plan to use address both the content and rigor of the standards your students need to learn.
Check Test Prep materials to ensure alignment to the standards your students are struggling with, too. Do not assume that your test prep materials are aligned to the standards your students need to practice. Not all test prep materials are designed to address all standards. Some intend only to address the standards that have been tested historically; others only address the standards students typically struggle with.
Look before you buy: As this budget year draws to a close, you may be tempted to purchase new materials. Before you do, audit the materials you already have for each grade and subject. Check the publisher’s correlations for each of your materials to determine whether your existing materials intend to cover all of the standards. Then, find out whether they actually do by asking teachers about their experience using the materials: have they found the materials to be well aligned to state standards, are they rigorous enough for their students, and do your existing materials have all the adaptions students need. Taking time to audit your existing materials will help you identify gaps in your existing materials and use your funds strategically to purchase new materials that fill those gaps.
If you do not have the time to do this type of alignment analysis, contact us. Learning List has reviewed well over 3,000 of the most widely used instructional materials, including intervention and test prep products. Our standard-by-standard alignment report for each material and our alignment comparison tool make it easy to develop targeted intervention using your existing materials. Our alignment reports show which standards each material is aligned to and which citations in the material we have verified to be aligned to the content, context, and cognitive rigor of each standard. Finally, if you’re considering purchasing new materials, our audit tool will show whether you have gaps in your existing materials and if so, which other materials, including widely used Open Education Resources, would fill in those gaps.