The material(s) teachers use in the classroom and for remediation can either prepare students for success or contribute to poor test performance. For this reason, it is that imperative teachers and students use instructional materials that are aligned to the content, context and cognitive demand of each standard.
Evaluating instructional materials for alignment can be a daunting and time-consuming task. School districts spend an average of $6,000 in staff time reviewing the alignment of one K-12 instructional material. Learning List’s detailed alignment reports are designed specifically to help educators quickly assess whether and precisely where their comprehensive or supplemental materials are aligned to a particular standard or group of standards.
This is important because not all standards are tested equally on state assessments. For example, the bundle of standards referred to as Figure 19 were tested more frequently than any other standards on the 2013 and 2014 “Reading STAAR (State of Texas Assessments for Academic Readiness)” and on the “English Language Arts End-of-Course (EOC)” assessments. Figure 19 accounted for:
- 46% of the 6th grade 2013 Reading STAAR test;
- 52% of 6th grade 2014 Reading STAAR test;
- 50% of the 2013 English II Reading EOC; and
- 28% of the 2014 English II EOC.
When reviewing state test data, subscribers can use Learning List’s alignment reports to ensure that the materials they are using are aligned to the critical Figure 19 standards. If their material is not aligned to 100% of those standards, Learning List’s Fill-in-the-Gap™ tool instantly identifies other materials, including open educational resources, which align to the remaining standards.