ABCTE Curriculum Design & Standards Alignment Flashcards

A district's written curriculum lists a persuasive-writing unit, but classroom observations show most teachers skip it. The gap between the written and the taught curriculum is a problem with which of the following?

Answer: Curriculum fidelity

Curriculum fidelity is how closely the taught curriculum matches the curriculum as it was designed.

Bruner's spiral curriculum is best described by which statement?

Answer: Key ideas are revisited repeatedly with increasing complexity

A spiral curriculum brings back core concepts in later grades at deeper levels of sophistication.

A teacher finds that a unit's daily lessons focus on memorizing facts, but the final assessment requires evaluating arguments. What is the main design flaw?

Answer: Instruction is misaligned with the cognitive demand of the assessment

Alignment means instruction gets students ready for the same level of thinking the assessment requires.

In backward design, why does the teacher decide on acceptable evidence (assessments) before planning learning activities?

Answer: So activities can be chosen specifically to prepare students for that evidence of understanding

Defining evidence first keeps activities focused on the desired results rather than on coverage.

A school's curriculum map shows that two ninth-grade teachers teaching the same course cover very different content. What improvement is needed most?

Answer: Horizontal alignment

Horizontal alignment makes sure teachers of the same grade or course cover the same essential content.

Which practice best supports a coherent, standards-aligned unit for students who already show mastery on a pre-assessment?

Answer: Curriculum compacting, replacing mastered content with enrichment

Compacting removes content students have already mastered and replaces it with challenging, standards-linked work.

Which statement best describes the purpose of a pacing guide in a standards-based curriculum?

Answer: It lays out a timeline for when standards and units should be taught across the year

A pacing guide spreads standards across the school year so all of them get adequate instructional time.