Prioritization

The design and development of our assessments emphasizes the needs and desires of the learners.  In this design process, it is important that we prioritize the standards into those that are key to our curriculum and a foundation to our assessment.  These standards scaffold our unit structures and content designs.  The standards that are not seen as direct priority are used as supplements to the assessments in the bundling process.  All of the standards are targeted and assessed at some point within each content's curriculum, just in different variations and order seen it their original form.  The targeting of standards by unit and assessment of standards shows how each of the standards have been given a priority and have been bundled in different formats to meet the needs of the learners within the Social Science curriculum.

Process

Standards are reviewed based on subject level determination of standard categories initially.  These categorical based reviews look at each of the standards individually as a component of our curriculum.  Those that are assessed directly or stand-alone are priority.  Those that can be multiplied and bundled become supplementary.

Standards are also reviewed based on cross-subject determination.  Those that meet the needs of the subject level standards also become priority.  Those that are added within the assessments but do not directly scaffold the assessment become supplementary. 

This process allows subject-level and cross-subject standards to fit into each curriculum differently.  As the assessments continue to evolve, the priority schedule is a foundation to how the standards fit into the district needs and curricular design.  Standards within the English Language Arts and Technology fit into all areas in different roles.

Prioritization of the standards is a lengthy process housed in the professional learning community.  Updated standards are compared to those used recently and how they currently align with the curriculum.  It is determined by subject level specialists which standards are priority to the curriculum as well as those that need implemented.  To meet the needs of scope and sequence and proper assessment implementation time in each classroom, the bundling process determines how supporting standards fit within the assessments housing the priority standards.  Those that are met in multiple assessments fit under that supporting role.

This process continues as we test, adjust, validate, and gather data for our aligned assessments.