Deep Curriculum Alignment

357 Pages·2001·0.8 MB·English

by  Fenwick W. English

Cover

Deep Curriculum Alignment : Creating a
Level Playing Field for All Children On
title:
High-stakes Tests of Educational
Accountability
author: English, Fenwick W.; Steffy, Betty E.
publisher: Scarecrow Press
isbn10 | asin: 0810839709
print isbn13: 9780810839700
ebook isbn13: 9780585386379
language: English
Curriculum planning--United States,
Educational tests and measurements--Social
subject
aspects--United States, Educational
accountability--United States.
publication date: 2000
lcc: LB2806.15.E52 2000eb
ddc: 375/.001/0973
Curriculum planning--United States,
subject: Educational tests and measurements--Social
aspects--United States, Educational
accountability--United States.
Page i
Deep Curriculum Alignment
Creating a Level Playing Field for All Children on High-Stakes Tests of
Educational Accountability
Fenwick W. English
Betty E. Steffy
The Scarecrow Press, Inc. A Scarecrow Education Book Lanham,
Maryland, and London 2001
Page ii
Some images in the original version of this book are not available for
inclusion in the netLibrary eBook.
SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
A Scarecrow Education Book
Published in the United States of America by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
4720 Boston Way, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.scarecroweducation.com
4 Pleydell Gardens, Folkestone
Kent CT20 2DN, England
Copyright © 2001 by Fenwick W. English and Betty E. Steffy
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
English, Fenwick W.
Deep curriculum alignment: creating a level playing field for all children
on high-stakes tests of educational accountability / Fenwick W. English,
Betty E. Steffy.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8108-3970-9 (alk. paper) — ISBN 0-8108-3971-7 (alk. paper) 1.
Curriculum planning—United States. 2. Educational tests and
measurements—Social aspects—United States. 3. Educational
accountability—United States. I. Steffy, Betty E. II. Title.
LB2806.15 .E52 2000
375'.001'0973—dc21
00–051613
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Page iii
Contents
Introduction
v
1Facing the Scourge of the Test Score Zeitgeist
1
• Culprits
• Some popular myths about tests
• The nature of curriculum alignment
• Key concepts of this chapter
• Applications
• References
2Understanding the Dynamics of the Playing Field
25
• The basic construct: the curriculum and the test
• The United States: one nation—except for a curriculum
• The genius of the norm-referenced standardized test: an exam that doesn't
need a curriculum or political decisions to determine passing or mastery
scores
• Understanding the forces that comprise the “playing field”
• The fallacy of “value added” measures: using test score gains to pay
teachers
• The ‘‘teaching to the test” conundrum: what is ethical?
• Key concepts of this chapter
• Applications
• References
3Initiating Actions to Level the Competitive Playing Field
55
• Frontloading or backloading?
Page iv
• Curriculum as organizational memory
• Where to start the alignment process?
• Steps in developing a frontloaded curriculum
• Key concepts of this chapter
• Applications
• References
Engaging in Deep Curriculum Alignment
4 87
• The emerging research on curriculum alignment
• The Zellmer study
• The Price-Baugh study
• The Moss-Mitchell study
• The practice of pedagogical parallelism
• A step-by-step guide to pedagogical parallelism as the key to deep
curriculum alignment
• Key concepts of this chapter
• References
Creating a Viable Alternative to Testing as Mass Inspection
5 115
• Problems with current forms of high-stakes accountability tests
• Positive trends in state assessment programs
• Re-asserting the primacy of curriculum in the testing debate
• The terrain of struggle: what does it mean to teach social justice?
• Colleges of education: solutions or problems?
• Key concepts of this chapter
• Applications
• References
Author Index
145
Subject Index
149
About the Authors
157
Page v
Introduction
When one considers in its length and in its breadth the importance of this
question of the education of a nation's young, the broken lives, the
defeated hopes, the national failures, which result from the frivolous
inertia with which it is treated, it is difficult to restrain within oneself a
savage rage.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1959)
A cross the landscape of America, high-stakes testing continues to leave
in its cyclonic path defeated hopes and broken lives. It has been
estimated that between 114 and 320 million tests are given per year in
American schools (Madaus and Kellaghan, 1992, p. 126). Like Alfred
North Whitehead (1959), we have worked along this highway for nearly
three decades, bolstering the shaken confidence of dedicated teachers
and administrators by showing that nothing is “wrong” with them, and
certainly nothing “deficient” or “inferior” about their children.
If ever there was a misguided policy initiative, it is that somehow high-
stakes testing can drive quality into the public schools by ratcheting up
the consequences for not doing well on them. This approach is nothing
more than mass-legislated inspection decried and condemned by the
father of quality, W. Edward Deming (1986), who said that “Inspection to
improve quality is too late, ineffective, costly” (p. 28).
Legislators, and those who advise them, appear to believe that the
solution is to simply scare the daylights out of teachers and
administrators so that they teach better. Improvement means better test
scores.
The confusion that such emphasis on tests creates in the minds of
teachers and administrators is legion. The temptation to engage in drill
and kill exercises is nearly overwhelming and drowns out even common
sense.