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

6. 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/educate/ecese/stw/pdf/crosswalk.pdf

8. Aligning Curriculum to Ohio’s Revised Standard for Reading Excerpted from O-PAS - Gallia-Jackson-Vinton JVSD ABLE Program http://literacy.kent.edu/opas/gjv.html

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 McCormack’s (2002) Report on ESOL Curriculum Framework and ESOL Standardized Tests - MADOE

10. Webb’s 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

11. 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/crosswalk_training_37.pdf