Using Power Standards to Build an Aligned Curriculum

"This is the first book that I have encountered, in all my years of leading districts through curriculum alignment, that makes the process manageable and doable."
—Jody L. Ware, Superintendent
Mundelein Consolidated High School, IL

"This book will allow schools and districts to effectively align standards, curriculum, and assessments to establish continuity between departments and across grade levels."
—Sharon Madsen Redfern, Principal
Highland Park Elementary School. Lewistown, MT

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Align your curriculum for success with Power Standards

Schools continually face the challenge of developing a useful, aligned curriculum that can effectively support student achievement and assessment. This book gives administrators and teachers the tools to make it happen. Award-winning educator Joe Crawford describes how to build the aligned curriculum that is so crucial to student success. The key is identifying Power Standards—the most critical skills that all learners must have. These skills are then taught in a logical sequence of instruction throughout the year. Key benefits of this process include:

• A standards-based curriculum developed by teachers and leaders
• Consistent objectives throughout the school
• A common assessment system for measuring student success
• A one-page curriculum outline that eases communication with all stakeholders

This manual is loaded with examples, practical advice, and checklists. Readers also have access to a corresponding Web-based software package that facilitates the process electronically and stores the curriculum plan on the Internet. Lead your school to excellence with Power Standards!

Based on the author's many years of using this process,road blocks, issues, and problems are discussed in the book and helpful hints and ideas for best solving the issues are presented. Additionally, the author's experiences in Total Quality Management are used to build the continuous improvement process into the entire system, along with the Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle to ensure the work is sustained and constantly improved. This book is intended to help local educators create the guaranteed, viable curriculum so important to improving student performance.

Software available with this bookoffers real-time data to classroom teachers not only of which students passed and failed the formative assessments and which items were right and wrong, but the software also lists all students who demonstrated mastery of each Instructional Objective and which students did not demonstrate mastery. This is invaluable information in a standards-based curriculum with a re-teaching loop. The software also offers electronic curriculum mapping abilities and the ability to create and score surveys and retired national assessments as well as the storing of all district assessment data.