• SEC Alignment results: NAEP Mathematics 2007 by State Standards and Assessments
• Alignment Content Analysis of NAEP 2007 Mathematics Assessment
• SEC Alignment Maps:  NAEP Math 07 by State Standards and Assessments 

Why is alignment important?

There are a number of reasons for the heightened interest in the alignment of state content standards with state assessments, as well as with curriculum materials and instruction in classrooms. The policy demands of accountability systems increase the need for schools to focus curriculum and instruction on what will be measured system-wide. In addition, the reauthorization of ESEA under No Child Left Behind legislation has placed greater responsibility on states to implement assessment and accountability systems that are aligned with state content standards. Evidence needs to be provided of how the degree of alignment is measured. State funds under NCLB can be used by states to conduct alignment studies.

Methods of measuring and reporting on alignment can allow all parties to see where standards and assessments intersect and where they do not. Recent advances have been made in developing and applying more detailed, in-depth measures of the degree of alignment of assessments and the content standards or curriculum guiding instruction. Many states are seeking ways to tighten the link between their policies for the content of instruction, such as standards documents or curriculum frameworks, and the statewide assessment instruments used to measure achievement.

How does CCSSO support states in alignment analyses?

The Council's goal is to assist chief state schools officers and state and local education leaders in making informed decisions about how to improve their capacity for determining the alignment of content standards, assessments and instruction. The Council has worked to promote development and application of models for alignment analysis that will assist states and districts. Our goal is for educators and policymakers to make informed decisions about the design of alignment studies based on local needs, and to provide leadership to states and districts in carrying out alignment analysis using one of the available models.

The Council has been active in developing, testing, and applying two models in conducting alignment analyses, the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) Model and the Webb Model.

WebEx Seminar: SEC Alignment Content Analysis-State and College Board Standards

- SEC alignment Content Analysis ppt – John Smithson

- College Board Standards/Alignment Discussion ppt – Natasha V. and Christine C.

SEC Model:

SEC Produces alignment analyses of standards, assessments, and instructional content by use of a content matrix or template for core academic subjects that allows comparison across schools, districts or states.

The Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) alignment methodology has been field tested and demonstrated with 11 states and four large urban districts. The model was developed by Andrew Porter (now at Vanderbilt University) and John Smithson from Wisconsin Center for Education Research. Development and application of the model was supported by CCSSO through grants from the National Science Foundation and through a state collaborative project. The SEC model produces alignment analyses of standards, assessments, and instruction by use of a common content matrix or template that allows comparison across schools, districts or states. The content matrix and language has two dimensions for categorizing subject content: Content Topics and Cognitive Demand (or expectations for student performance).

In this approach State Standards or assessments, as well as survey data on instruction, are systematically categorized according to a common framework of content topics by cognitive demand. For example, the dimensions of cognitive demand has five categories for mathematics: (a) memorize, (b) perform procedures, (c) communicate understanding, (d) generalize/prove, and (e) solve non-routine problems. For standards or assessment documents, four educators in the content area code each assessment item or benchmark into the two-dimensional matrix. To produce data on instructional content, surveys are conducted with teachers who report the time spent teaching content in their class over a one-year period using the same content matrix.

Highly accessible content maps and graphs are used to visually portray differences and similarities in content from instruction to standards to assessments, and written interpretations of the content charts are provided. Also, statistics of alignment for each grade and subject are computed. A new, Internet web-based survey, analysis, and reporting system will reduce time and costs and greatly increased accessibility to a variety of users.

• How SEC Measures Alignment: excerpt from an article by Andrew Porter
• SEC Alignment Analysis PowerPoint: (2005) describes history of SEC as an alignment tool
• "Alignment of Assessments, Standards, and Instruction Using Curriculum Indicator Data," Andrew Porter & John Smithson, NCME Annual Meeting, 2002.
• Content Coding Procedures
• Content Coding Conventions
• Coding Record for 4 Subjects

Webb Model:

The Webb Model developed by Norman Webb from the University of Wisconsin, provides a reliable set of procedures and criteria for conducting alignment analysis studies, which combine qualitative expert judgments and quantified coding and analysis of standards and assessments. The product of the analysis is a set of statistics for each standard and grade on the degree of intersection, or alignment, between the content embedded in state content standards and the content in state assessments. The Webb model has been used in alignment studies with more than 10 states, partly through SCASS collaborative projects managed by CCSSO. The model has been used for language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies.

What alignment models did CCSSO examine?
How did CCSSO compare models?