Curriculum Alignment: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement

"One of the few books that takes a holistic look at alignment and helps clarify the definition of alignment. Squires helped increase my knowledge as an instructional leader and showed me that alignment can be a valuable tool when used with real intent. The book engaged me in authentic reflection on my professional practice."
―Margarete Couture, Principal
South Seneca Central School District, NY

Use the power of alignment to strengthen curriculum and raise student achievement!

Aligning what is taught, written, and tested can be a powerful, systemic way of improving school performance. This guidebook, written by a long-time educator and proponent of curriculum alignment, demonstrates how to apply specific principles and recommendations to improve curriculum, instruction, and test scores.

This resource offers school and district administrators and curriculum specialists concrete, practical guidance for aligning curriculum and instruction with state standards and assessments to improve teaching and learning. The author offers research-based strategies that reinforce the importance of curriculum alignment and shows how districts can:

• Use alignment as a major curriculum design element
• Translate research into usable strategies to achieve measurable results
• Expand options for raising test results and student outcomes
• Connect school policy with continuous school improvement
• Meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind

Comprehensive, thoughtful, and realistic, Curriculum Alignment offers a wide range of approaches to appeal to educators at every level.

David A. Squires is currently an associate professor working with doctoral students in the Educational Leadership Program at Southern Connecticut State University, specializing in curriculum, school reform, and organizational development. Previous positions include with the Comer School Development Program at Yale University; as a central office administrator for over a decade in Red Bank, New Jersey, where student achievement improved from below to above grade level; as a research specialist at Research for Better Schools in Philadelphia; as a graduate research assistant in the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh, where he received his doctorate in curriculum and super­vision with minors in language arts education and administration; and as a high school English teacher in suburban Pittsburgh and inner-city Cleveland. He heads a con­sulting firm, ABC Education Consultants, LLC, that assists school districts in writing and implementing the Balanced Curriculum.