How Does Aligned·By·Design Benefit Teachers?

Teachers face a fundamental barrier obstructing their efforts to meet high-stakes student achievement goals.  The road-block is systemic and fundamental.  It exists because state content standards are neither teachable nor measurable.   

The standards are not teachable, because they do not precisely define or communicate what students need to know.  Their lack of teachable detail makes it impossible for the standards to be perfectly aligned with the state assessment or used as an accurate measure of student learning.

To compensate, individual teachers sift through assessment materials released by the state in the hope of ‘discovering’ the instructional content they need to prepare students for high-stakes test proficiency.  Research by the American Federation of Teachers and others confirms this root problem and the reality that teacher are unable to use state standards as the primary input guiding their development of instructional curriculum. 

It is no wonder that the study concluded that our standards-based state systems have neither improved instruction nor resulted in projected student achievement gains. 

The innovative Aligned·By·Design Model eliminates this root problem.  It allows educators to specify the content knowledge covered by the standards, the curriculum and the assessment in identical, fine-grained detail.   This process enables the precise definition, sequencing, alignment and clear communications of the specific “what to teach” content knowledge.  It renders the standards teachable, useful and measurable.

The model’s unified approach to system and student-achievement issues, its state-of-the-art technology and integrated tools and processes, empower teachers to achieve previously out-of-reach student performance objectives, ensuring that they:  

• Never need to ‘teach to the test’

• Know exactly what the state expects their students to learn and the specific content knowledge and skills to be assessed

• Can validate that their lesson plans and instructional materials are in precise alignment with, and identical to, the fine-grained content knowledge and skills specifications in both the state standards and the state assessment

In addition to removing a fundamental barrier to student achievement gains, the system’s user-friendly automation tools, optimized data structure, real-time information capabilities and continuous improvement strategy provide significant additional benefits for teachers, who:

• Receive real-time, in-depth data and targeted information on student achievement progress to help them make instructional adjustments throughout the year

• Have perfectly aligned, knowledge-referenced test items at their finger-tips to quickly specify and build tests for instructional content

• Use data-supported automation tools to easily and accurately develop Individual Education Plans or shorter-term, targeted remediation plans for individual students or student groups

• Can assess the effectiveness of each lesson plan and any instructional material and determine in real-time what’s working and what’s not in any class, and individually, for every student

• Have access to data-informed administrators and time-sensitive resources to address at-risk learner issues before they become serious

• Communicate, coordinate and track support requests and requirements easily and automatically with school and district administrators and other teachers

• Use dynamic tools for improved, high-value communications and classroom transparency with parents and students

Related Pages

• Back to Education Community Benefits

• District and School Leader Benefits

• State Education Leader Benefits

• Parent and Student Benefits

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To learn more about how the Aligned·By·Design Initiative supports teachers and enables improved schools and student achievement, please contact us.