Education’s Systemic Problems

Teachers and administrators understand that if the content being taught and assessed in the classroom is not closely aligned with the standards, classroom instruction will be off target and students will miss the learning objectives mark.

Content knowledge is the unifying factor connecting teaching and learning and the cornerstone of standards-based education. System alignment requires that state content standards set forth, clearly and specifically, the sequential content knowledge and skills students need to learn.

To date, no state has assured the alignment of its classroom instruction and teaching materials to their content standards and assessments. The lack of a truly aligned state model has consistently limited state, school district and teacher efforts to achieve student learning objectives.

The problem is systemic and results from a fundamental deficiency in our current approach to standards-based education. It begins with a universal absence among state standards of precise, knowledge-referenced detail to define the specific, sequential grade and course content to be taught and assessed. The problem derails efforts to achieve true alignment between state-defined frameworks and the classroom curriculum and assessments.

Not only has it rendered today’s content standards neither teachable nor measurable, but the problem is the primary cause of other serious impediments to student achievement progress, including:

• States and districts unable to provide teachers, parents and students with clear, detailed guidance on ‘what should be taught’ and ‘what students should learn’

• Ineffective, off-target and misleading efforts to ‘align’ standards with curriculum and assessments

• Teachers unable to validate if their instructional materials exactly matches the content standards and the assessment, and if it is a good fit for their classroom

• Assessments, not standards, guiding instruction leaving teachers obliged to ‘teach to the test’ to prepare students for high-stakes tests

• Imprecise data misleading school, district and state decisions about student learning needs and resources allocations resulting in ineffective and costly outcomes

The problem undercuts the best efforts of administrators, teachers, students and parents to meet learning objectives. Unresolved at its root, it will significantly impede the pending state and classroom implementation of the new common core state standards, which will ensure a continued shortfall in our nation’s quest for improved student academic performance.

An innovative, student-centric solution to education’s systemic problems is now available to support states, districts and teachers in their implementation of the common core standards. The web-based Aligned·By·Design System is a systemic, evidence-based solution that follows the proven quality processes using state-of-the-art process automation and management technology.

It supports the integration and alignment of all education processes and initiatives, providing a complete, intuitive tool set, empowering the comprehensive aligned instructional model and inherently improves performance of the processes essential for education systems to:

• Improve instructional quality

• Accelerate achievement progress

• Increase education system efficiency and performance

Related Pages

• Education’s Systemic Challenges

• The Aligned·By·Design Initiative

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To learn more about how the Aligned·By·Design Model can solve education’s systemic problems and enable the restoration of our nation’s global prominence in student achievement, please contact us.