Posts about why alignment matters and how to align instructional materials, including assessments, to state or national standards
Over the summer, many educators engage in instructional planning, including verifying the alignment of the materials they intend to use during the upcoming school year. Reviewing the alignment of materials is great professional development for educators. 
Having reviewed well over 2000 materials for alignment to various state and Advanced Placement standards, we share these five pointers to assist in your alignment reviews: [Read More …]
My son and daughter attend a rural school district where most teachers wear multiple hats. For example, my son’s math teacher is also a football, basketball, and baseball coach requiring him to stay at school until at least 7:00 pm most nights, and on game day he’s there until the team returns, which is often after 10:30 pm. Then, he’s back at school by 7:00 the next morning.
The challenges in this rural school are not unique; in every rural district, teachers juggle many professional responsibilities unrelated to the courses they teach. 
When, then, do they have time to ensure that their lessons implement the state standards with fidelity? The materials used in a lesson will either help students learn the knowledge and skills the standards require or distract them, undermining the lesson’s effectiveness. [Read More…]
Individual coaching conversations, professional learning communities, grade level team planning, and other informal learning situations are perfect opportunities for linking Learning List tools to support just-in-time learning. In Administrators, Are You Using Learning List to Plan for Observations?, we provided sample coaching questions related to the T-TESS Dimensions for planning and instruction. As you continue to provide coaching support, you …
The Texas State Board of Education recently released this state adopted list of materials for Career & Technology Education (CTE) and Languages Other than English (LOTE) courses. As part of the Texas state adoption process, panels of educators review the alignment of each material to the relevant state standards for the course and develop a detailed evaluation report showing the …
One of the topics we are often asked to present at conferences is how to align a material to state standards. Before you begin the hard work of aligning instructional materials, you must ensure that teachers understand the knowledge and skills each Student Expectation requires students to learn. Each Student Expectation contains three parts, which we call the “Three Cs of …
Learning List has reviewed the standards alignment of thousands materials. After reviewing a material’s alignment, we calculate the percentage of standards to which the material is aligned. When you log into LearningList.com, you will see the alignment percentage for each product. Be aware that an alignment percentage of 100%, does NOT mean that every citation (e.g., page, lesson, video) listed in the …
As standards are revised, you may have to purchase new or supplemental instructional materials to align to 100% of the new standards. When standards change, Learning List will review the alignment of materials already featured on our site against the new standards. The Learning List alignment reports will highlight changes in the standards to help you identify gaps in your current materials. As publishers submit an updated correlation …
If you’ve concluded your Beginning of Year (BOY) assessments, then you’re probably planning RtI for struggling students. When selecting instructional materials for intervention support, these two questions are critical to your students’ success: Is the material aligned to the standards students are struggling with? Does the instructional material provide sufficient practice for students to master those skills? Imagine that your …
When selecting materials for a campus, there are many benefits to choosing a publisher’s material that spans multiple grade levels. The consistency of navigation, layout of the instruction, technology specifications (for online materials), special population student support, and common professional development are significant considerations that may lead you to lean in favor of adopting a single material for multiple grade …
During the first weeks of school most teachers and principals are working together to document learning plans that support continuous improvement in areas such as planning, instruction, assessment, and learning environment. Regardless of where you teach, these plans are likely to include: Designing lessons that are aligned to standards Using formal and informal methods to measure student progress Using student …
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