Using the Standards Alignment Report in Power Curriculum

Bill Blynt
Sep 28, 2009

For those districts participating in a Power Curriculum workshop, the standards alignment report can be a big asset.  This report allows curriculum personnel, principals and teachers to track where each state standard is being addressed and the importance that standard has been assigned in a course curriculum.  This report provides a clear picture of how standards have been clustered into topics, identifies the priority attached to each standard and shows how the course developers have initially reviewed and determined if the standard reflects knowledge or a skill that must be taught to their students.

When reviewing the report it is important to understand that the report raises more questions than it provides answers.  The report helps a review team as it moves a course from draft status to implementation.  Questions raised by the report may have legitimate answers that can be justified based on factors identified by the course development team.  Things to look for as a team reviews the Standards Alignment Report include:

  • Standards identified as Essential that are not aligned to a topic or aligned to only one topic.
  • Standards identified as Compact that are aligned to multiple topics.
  • The percentage of Essential standards exceeds 50%, those identified as Important exceeds 30% or those identified as Compact exceeds 20%.
  • The designation of the standard as Know or Do does not accurately reflect the purpose of the standard.


A review of the report can be undertaken at a number of levels.  Reports can be generated for individual courses, at specific grade-levels, for a curriculum area K-12, or for an entire district.  The information can be extremely beneficial as districts compare their standards-driven course curriculum with state assessment performance data.  Adjusting courses is easily accomplished if a discrepancy is identified.  Using Toolbox, state standards can be re-assigned to topics or have their prioritization ranking changed based on the finding of a curriculum review or data analysis.

The Standards Alignment Report is a very useful tool.  It can be easily generated by going to the Tools tab in Toolbox.  The seventh entry in the drop-down screen provides you access to your district report.

Interested in Power Curriculum for your district?  Contact Client Services at 866-955-3276 or info@LEARNINGFOCUSED.com.