From Mandate to Achievement

Book excerpt: "This engaging book will guide your journey through the morass of curriculum alignment, development, and assessment. Our school struggled through missteps in curriculum alignment and implementing common assessments without the benefit of Makas′ wisdom and experience. I highly recommend this book for teachers, administrators, and interested parents." —Robert A. Martin, Leadership Consultant Oakland Schools, Waterford, MI Raise schoolwide performance with a systematic, teacher-driven approach to curriculum development! Purposeful curriculum design is essential to attaining consistent academic improvement. Educators often find, however, that a viable curriculum based on mandated standards can be exceedingly challenging to create, implement, and sustain. In this book, curriculum consultant Elaine Makas provides a step-by-step guide to establishing the processes and documents necessary to build a stable, cohesive curriculum system that aligns to educational benchmarks. Based on the DAILY model (Data, Alignment, Instructional Pace Guides, Local Common Assessment, and Yearly Review), this system deconstructs the curriculum process into sequential steps that facilitate the development of instructional priorities, reveal students in need of intervention, and help ensure continuous process improvement. With numerous templates, samples, and reflective exercises, this book clearly demonstrates how to: Collect and analyze data, identify expectations, and recognize learning gaps Develop curriculum maps that align with standards and grade-level subject goals Pace instruction throughout the year according to specific objectives Create assessments that predict standardized test performance Conduct yearly improvement reviews and documentation revisions An essential resource for all schools or districts, whether struggling or successful, From Mandate to Achievement enables K–12 principals, district administrators, curriculum facilitators, and teacher teams to establish a consistent and accurate curriculum process that increases academic achievement and drives continuous school improvement.