After the Essential Standards are identified for the separate grade levels, as discussed in my previous blog post, they must then be aligned across the grades, PK-12, to determine the instructional progression of those priorities from one grade level to the next by referring to the grade levels above and below each one. And this alignment must be seamlessly apparent from pre-kindergarten through high school to ensure that the organization of learning progressions, carefully built into the design of the state standards, remains intact.
Reprinted here from my Part 2 blog are the six Essential Standards process steps. The third step describes in detail the PK-12 alignment process, and the related fourth step serves as a “cross-check” to ensure that the aligned Essential Standards include the standards emphasized the most on state assessments.
Step 1: Make initial selections using the four selection criteria. Reach initial consensus.
Step 2: Bold selections for each grade or course on Google sheets or Excel spreadsheets.
Step 3: Align Essential Standards PK-12. Resolve uncertainties. Reach group consensus.
Step 4: Look for connections to external assessments (i.e., state tests).
Step 5: Acquire feedback from all school district educators.
Step 6: Revise, publish, distribute. Review annually to make changes or adjustments as needed.
BENEFITS OF PK-12 ALIGNMENT
· A system-wide set of aligned Essential Standards ensures instructional equity and access for all students as they progress from grade to grade and course to course.
· Cross-grade teacher conversations take the “guesswork” out of what students will need to know and be able to do in the next grade level or course.
· Cross-grade alignment clarifies instructional responsibility. Each teacher can see which Essential Standards are their instructional responsibility within the PK-12 spectrum.
· Students’ “mastery” of the Essential Standards can be confirmed with credible assessment evidence by the end of each school year.
STEP 3: HOW TO ALIGN THE ESSENTIAL STANDARDS, PK-12
Here is a summary of how I lead groups through what I have found to be the most dynamic step of the entire process—the “vertical alignment” discussion that takes place across the PK-12 spectrum.
Cross-grade alignment begins within each grade band. Team members meet simultaneously within separate grade bands to look for the “flow” of Essential Standards from one grade to the next (i.e., from PK to 2, from 3 to 5, from 6 to 8, and from 9-12). Studying the side-by-side grade-level Essential Standards bolded or highlighted in adjacent columns on the Google sheets or Excel spreadsheets, team members look for gaps (an Essential Standard missing between two grades), overlaps (an Essential Standard that repeats in three, four, or more consecutive grades), and omissions (an Essential Standard missing from two, three, or several consecutive grades) within the grade band selections, confirming their selections or making needed changes.
When all four grade-band teams are finished with their own grade-band alignment, they meet as a PK-12 group to take an in-depth, collective look at the selections of Essential Standards across all the grades. I let everyone know that grade-band team members, beginning with pre-kindergarten and ending with high school, will next share their selections on the spreadsheets, one grade at a time. I ask everyone to choose a spokesperson for their group to tell why they chose certain standards as priorities over others, and then to request feedback from the other three grade-bands.
The goal is for everyone to look closely at the identified selections of the grades below and the grades above the current one in focus, commenting, suggesting changes, and/or asking for further clarification whenever needed. Before volunteers from each of the grade bands begin the share-out process, I alert everyone to keep in mind this question: “At any point should an Essential Standard become a supporting standard—especially when you see a certain selected standard “overlapping” in multiple consecutive grades?
SPOTTING A DISCREPANCY OR NEED FOR REVISION
One great benefit to having so many “eyes” scrutinizing all four grade-band selections is that sometimes educators in other grade-spans can be more objective in spotting a discrepancy or need for revision that might otherwise go unnoticed by those who work so closely with those grade-specific standards every day. Often, I have seen and heard secondary educators pose thought-provoking questions and perspectives for elementary educators to consider regarding the standards they selected as priorities, and vice versa. The conversations are rich and deeply thought-provoking as each grade-band team shares its selections.
This is the opportunity educators rarely have, to respectfully ask questions of colleagues in different grades, so that the entire group can reach a PK–12 collective agreement as to which standards have been selected as the priorities at each grade level.
STEP 4: LOOK FOR CONNECTIONS TO EXTERNAL ASSESSMENTS
(i.e. STATE TESTS)
As teams are identifying Essential Standards by referencing the established criteria (readiness, endurance, leverage, and external exams), they naturally will discuss which standards they think (or know) will have the greatest number of corresponding questions on their annual state assessments. I encourage educators to delay being too mindful of “what’s on the test?” while they are making their initial selections of Essential Standards. Their focus should be primarily on the other three criteria; that fourth criterion will provide a “confirmation check” for their selections in Step 4 of the process.
“WORKING SMARTER, NOT HARDER”
Reflecting on the process at the end of the day, teachers will often say and/or write as feedback, “The power of this collaborative process has to be experienced to be believed!”
The voluminous numbers of standards do not need to remain a daunting challenge for today’s busy educators. By “working smarter, not harder,” teams can collaboratively select and align those Essential Standards to deeply emphasize and then focus their units of study, instruction, and assessments to help all students achieve them.
For more in-depth information on Essential Standards, including several powerful testimonials to the benefits of aligning standards across the grades from district leaders, here’s the link to Volume One of my Integrated Teaching and Learning series: https://www.larryainsworth.com/#VolumeOne and to the Essential Standards workshops at www.larryainsworth.com/workshops.
For continuing information about all the “timeless essentials” for creating integrated units of study, I hope you will follow me on Facebook, Linked In, and/or Instagram!
I am always happy to answer questions you may have about Essential Standards and any of the other “timeless essentials” presented in the three-volume series. Please feel free to contact me at larry@larryainsworth.com .