Using Crosswalks for Alignment Pros and Cons

1
Using Crosswalks for Alignment Pros and Cons

• Consortia Conference Call
• March 15, 2005
• Regie Stites
• SRI International

2
What is a Crosswalk?

• A crosswalk (or content mapping) is a relatively
  simple procedure that typically involves
• Content analysis
• Side-by-side comparison
• A crosswalk is not all there is to alignment

3
4 Uses for Crosswalks

• Compare standards and standards
• New standards to old standards
• Your standards to other states standards
• Compare standards and curriculum
• Content standards to curriculum frameworks
• Compare standards to assessments
• Content standards to assessment content
• Compare standards or assessments to external
  benchmarks
• Adult ed standards to K-12 or vocational skill
  standards
• Adult ed standards to proficiency or
  certification standards

4
Some Pros

• Crosswalks should be used to
• Clearly and simply communicate connections
• Crosswalks are useful for explaining and training
  on standards
• Reveal gaps and suggest filler
• Crosswalks are useful for writing and revising
  standards
• Support an argument for face validity
• Crosswalks are useful for getting buy-in on
  standards

5
Some Cons

• Crosswalks should not be used to
• Link standards and assessments
• Crosswalks are not good for calibrating standards
  to test content
• Write standards to match test content
• This is not good practice no matter how it is
  done
• Support an argument for external validity
• Crosswalks are too superficial to support
  external validity

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Some Examples

• Aligning standards with standards
• Iowa crosswalk of employability standards and
  career development standards
• Aligning curriculum content with standards
• Ohio crosswalk of state Reading standard with
  ABLE program curricular materials and activities
• Aligning assessment content with standards
• Massachusetts crosswalk of ESOL Curriculum with
  ESOL Standardized Tests

7
Iowa Crosswalk of Employability Skills and Career
Development Standards
Excerpted from Iowa Department of Education
School to Work Initiative http//www.state.ia.us/e
ducate/ecese/stw/pdf/crosswalk.pdf
8
Aligning Curriculum to Ohios Revised Standard
for Reading
Excerpted from O-PAS - Gallia-Jackson-Vinton JVSD
ABLE Program http//literacy.kent.edu/opas/gjv.htm
l
9
W test item measures the standard WELLM test
item measures the standard MODERATELY WELLI
test item measures the standard INDIRECTLY (i.e.,
test item is intended to measure something else,
but in so doing, measures this learning standard
as well)
Excerpted from Dori McCormacks (2002) Report on
ESOL Curriculum Framework and ESOL Standardized
Tests - MADOE
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Webbs Criteria

• Categorical concurrence
• Extent to which assessment items address same
  content as standards
• Depth-of-knowledge consistency
• Extent to which cognitive complexity of responses
  to assessment tasks matches what learners should
  know and be able to do as stated in the standard
• Range-of-knowledge correspondence
• Proportion of indicators of standards covered by
  assessment items
• Balance of representation
• Extent to which assessment items are distributed
  evenly across indicators

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Some Resources

• Norman L. Webb (1999). Alignment of Science and
  Mathematical Standards in Four States
• http//www.ccsso.org/content/pdfs/AlignmentPaper
  .pdf
• CCSSO Alignment Analysis Web page
• http//www.ccsso.org/Projects/Alignment_Analysis/
  
• Ohio Performance and Accountability System
  (O-PAS), Adult Basic and Literacy Education
• http//literacy.kent.edu/opas/
• Career and Life Skills Standards Crosswalk
  (Hawaii Department of Education)
• http//wetserver.net/doe/website/livefiles/crossw
  alk_training_37.pdf