Curriculum Alignment Matrices are guidelines used by educational professionals to determine what should be taught and when it should be taught. These documents provide details that should be extremely useful to instructional leaders and teachers.
• New Mexico's standards with benchmarks are extended to the performance objective level in the first column.
• Next appears the International Center for Leadership in Education's Curriculum Survey of Essential Skills, correlated to New Mexico's performance objectives. Each skill has a national ranking number, indicating how essential it is said to be for "the world of work." 1-34 is high, 35-74 is medium, and 74 and above is low.
• The next three columns contain importance indicators. An L (low), H (high), or M (medium) in the NMSBA/CRT/DIBELS column is meant to signify the relationship between the performance objective and success on the assessment.
Performance objectives marked H must be taught prior to the testing window, those marked M ought to be maintained throughout the year and those assigned L may be introduced at any point, but will not be essential for success on this year's assessment.
• The 4th column uses L, M and H to indicate the importance of the skill for "life after school." H is an absolute necessity outside public education for success, M is essential, and L is nice to know.
• Column 5, labeled "Priority," weighs the two prior rankings equally to create an "average importance" of the skill for both assessment and life skill purposes. H indicates this objective must be taught and mastered before March, an M indicates that the objective must be taught throughout the year and an L indicates that the objective can be taught after March. Given the complexity and organization of the NM Stadards with Benchmarks, all objective must be taught for mastery.
• At the elementary level, LCPS' Proficiencies for Promotion are correlated in the next column to the NM performance objectives.
• At the secondary level, it is the College Board's Standards for College Success (Advanced Placement Curriculum) that is matched to the NM performance objectives.
• At the elementary level, the Essential Proficiencies for Promotion ensure that we are teaching for minimum mastery and promotion and success in ensuing grades in elementary schools.
• At the secondary level (grades 6-12), using the AP Materials column ensures that we are not only teaching for content mastery of what is being assessed, but for preparation for higher education and the world of work.
The following items may prove useful in dealing with the Curriculum Alignment Matrix:
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