Aligning Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment to Implement College- and Career-Ready Standards

We work with educators to improve the quality of curriculum, instruction, and assessment to help ensure students graduate ready for college or a career. Our expertise in this area includes building teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge, developing professional collaboration and job-embedded learning, and aligning instruction, curriculum, and assessment to standards.

Significant Work

Southeast Comprehensive Center (SECC): The SECC provides professional development and technical assistance to the state education agencies of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina to build their capacity to support districts and schools engaged in improvement efforts, including support for high-quality teachers and instruction. Work varies by state.

Texas Comprehensive Center (TXCC): The TXCC provides professional development and technical assistance to the Texas Education Agency and the state’s 20 regional education service centers to build their capacity to support districts and schools engaged in improvement efforts, including support for high-quality teachers and instruction.

Race to the Top Reform Support Network: SEDL is working with ICF International and other partners to advance education innovation and reform. Current work involves assisting with Communities of Practice addressing stakeholder engagement, school turnaround, and teacher and leader effectiveness.

Center for High-Performing Schools: Through this Center, SEDL builds the capacity of district and school leaders and educators to improve teaching and align curriculum, instruction, and assessment to national and state standards.

• Georgetown County School District: In South Carolina, SEDL is providing professional development and support on content-area literacy strategies at two high schools to boost student achievement. The work involves developing professional learning communi­ties and aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment to standards.
• Pecos Valley Regional Education Cooperative: In New Mexico, SEDL is providing one year of support to districts in the Pecos Valley Regional Education Cooperative in implementing the Common Core State Standards. This support includes professional development and technical assistance on the use of SEDL's Professional Teaching and Learning Cycle, a job-embedded process for developing professional learning communities; strengthening staff development; and aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment to state standards.

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Resources

	The Professional Teaching and Learning Cycle: Introduction The professional teaching and learning cycle (PTLC) is a professional development process in which teachers collaboratively plan and implement lessons aligned to state standards. PTLC is a critical component of the Working Systemically approach that directly impacts classroom instruction and student learning.
	Using Formative Assessment to Improve Student Achievement in the Core Content Areas: Southeast Comprehensive Center Briefing Paper, January 2012 Since 2001, federal laws such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004 have made raising student achievement standards the center of our national conversation. Consequently, educators have increasingly turned their attention to exploring the potential of formative assessments as one approach to increasing student outcomes in order to meet federal and state accountability requirements.
	Lesson Study: Teachers and Students Learning Together The Lesson Study approach helps teachers deepen their content knowledge, adopt effective teaching strategies, and reflect on student learning. This multimedia package uses math instruction as an example and is designed for trainers and team leaders.
	Class Time and Student Learning: Texas Comprehensive Center Briefing Paper, Number 6 This brief examines the complex issue of the impact of class time lengths on student achievement, with a focus on the school year, school day, and how classroom time is spent.
	Technology as a Catalyst for School Communities: Beyond Boxes and Bandwidth This book tells the stories of educators at three schools who developed communities of practice as part of their effort to integrate technology into classroom instruction.
	Professional Learning Communities: An Ongoing Exploration This book reviews the five dimensions along which a school staff must operate to develop a professional learning community and discusses the role such a community plays in school reform.
	Professional Learning Communities: Communities of Continuous Inquiry and Improvement This literature review includes examples of schools that have organized professional learning communities and discusses five dimensions of those communities: supportive and shared leadership, shared values and vision, collective creativity, supportive conditions, and shared personal practice. The publication also discusses steps for transforming a school into a professional learning community.
	Professional Learning Communities: What Are They and Why Are They Important?: Issues About Change, Volume 6, Number 1 This lucid review of the research on professional learning communities defines five important attributes of professional learning communities and identifies the outcomes they deliver to staff and students.
	Professional Learning Communities Assessment-Revised (PLCA-R) Online The Professional Learning Communities Assessment-Revised is a questionnaire that measures staff perceptions of school practices related to six dimensions of a professional learning community and its related attributes.

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