Alignment and Articulation
Articulation and Alignment: Statistics in West Virginia Middle and High Schools
Amanda M. Crorken
University of Phoenix
Articulation and Alignment: Statistics in West Virginia Middle and High Schools
The implementation of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act establishes a necessity of every state to ensure that there is proper vertical alignment of curriculum in every subject (Clarke, Stow, Ruebling & Kayona, 2006; DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, 2008). With a national push to align standards vertically, most states have worked toward creating and instating new standards. Clarke, et al. (2006) state the importance of standards is to give educators direction, focus, and accountability of the curriculum that they present in their classrooms.
Organizations Selected For the purpose of this analysis, the author has chosen to analyze the adjacent organizations of middle school, grades six through eight, and high school, grades nine through 12. The analysis focuses on the Next Generation Mathematics Content Standards and Objectives, as presented by the West Virginia Department of Education (2011). Because of the amount of standards presented, the analysis will be confined to a topic of the mathematics curriculum, statistics. The West Virginia Department of Education (2011) divides the mathematics standards for grades individually. Thus the author will be aggregating the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade curricular standards into a middle school category and aggregating the ninth, tenth, 11th, and 12th grade curricular standards into a high school category.
Analysis of Curriculum Articulation and Alignment There are apparent weaknesses with the statistics standards, including wording and alignment. The author divides these into two subheadings to discuss separately. Both of these weakness will be combined to articulate an improvement plan that when implemented could reduce or eliminate the weakness discussed in the next two sections.
Curriculum
Amanda M. Crorken
University of Phoenix
Articulation and Alignment: Statistics in West Virginia Middle and High Schools
The implementation of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act establishes a necessity of every state to ensure that there is proper vertical alignment of curriculum in every subject (Clarke, Stow, Ruebling & Kayona, 2006; DuFour, DuFour, & Eaker, 2008). With a national push to align standards vertically, most states have worked toward creating and instating new standards. Clarke, et al. (2006) state the importance of standards is to give educators direction, focus, and accountability of the curriculum that they present in their classrooms.
Organizations Selected For the purpose of this analysis, the author has chosen to analyze the adjacent organizations of middle school, grades six through eight, and high school, grades nine through 12. The analysis focuses on the Next Generation Mathematics Content Standards and Objectives, as presented by the West Virginia Department of Education (2011). Because of the amount of standards presented, the analysis will be confined to a topic of the mathematics curriculum, statistics. The West Virginia Department of Education (2011) divides the mathematics standards for grades individually. Thus the author will be aggregating the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade curricular standards into a middle school category and aggregating the ninth, tenth, 11th, and 12th grade curricular standards into a high school category.
Analysis of Curriculum Articulation and Alignment There are apparent weaknesses with the statistics standards, including wording and alignment. The author divides these into two subheadings to discuss separately. Both of these weakness will be combined to articulate an improvement plan that when implemented could reduce or eliminate the weakness discussed in the next two sections.
Curriculum