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Step 1: Review State
Standards
Review state
guides for the specific
content area.
Step 2: Define List
of Standards
Define key terms
in the list of standards
using state standards.
Step 3: Prioritize
Standards
Prioritize the
standards list. All
standards are important,
but teachers need to
prioritize the level of
attention each standard
should demand.
Teachers’ reflect on
experience, knowledge of
subject and
understandings of
student learning and
development. Team
members should
individually prioritize
the standards using a
rating scale – high
priority, medium
priority, low priority.
Then grade-level groups
develop one list.
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Step 4: Determine
Mastery and
Developmental Standards
Determine which
standards will drive
curriculum development.
Identify mastery and
developmental
standards. Assign
mastery standards to
grade level(s) of
school, i.e., HS, MS,
EL. As a general rule
of thumb, the final list
of standards should
include the following:
10
- 15 Mastery Standards –
Standards that are
essential for all
students to learn and be
taught at a particular
grade.
4 - 8 Developmental
Standards – Standards
fostered at appropriate
occasions throughout the
K-12 experience.
Concepts must appear at
more than one grade
level.
In
identifying
developmental standards,
remember that
developmental standards
should adhere to the
following three
criteria:
 Identify affective
outcomes (behaviors,
attitudes, and
processes)
Should not be mastered
at one grade level
Should be reinforced on
every appropriate
occasion throughout
students’ academic
career.
K-12 developmental
benchmarks should
reflect increasing
complexity and maturity.
These standards should
be included in the guide
to be developed.
Usually a prefatory
statement similar to the
one that follows,
accompanies these
standards.
Developmental standards
are essential for all
students may be
benchmarked after there
is continuing
development in all
grades.
Step 5: Determine
Content Emphasis at
Grade Levels
Determine each grade
level what content
should be emphasized.
Begin this process by
reviewing the content
emphasized in the
existing curriculum at
each grade level.
An
approach would be to
spiral the curriculum
that introduces a
concept or skill in a
simple manner for the
primary grades, broadens
the topic at the middle
school level, and
provides for more
complexity at the high
school.
Step 6: Identify
Mastery & Developmental
Benchmarks
Identify the
mastery benchmarks at
each grade level.
Mastery benchmarks are
the specific outcomes
for a given mastery
standard.
Writing mastery
benchmarks for content
standards involves
understandings between
declarative and
procedural knowledge.
Highlights of those
distinctions are as
follows:
Declarative knowledge
Provides
information
Learner
knows or understands
Includes
facts, concepts, and
generalizations
Often
can be organized as
descriptions of specific
person, places ideas,
things, or events
Procedural knowledge
Skills
Learner
demonstrates a skill or
performs a process
Steps
in a process – mental or
physical
Declarative Benchmarks
use words such as know
that or understand in
order to cue the reader.
Students understand
the basic ideas set
forth in the Declaration
of Independence and the
US Constitution, and the
figures responsible for
these documents.
Students should know how
elements are arranged in
the periodic table, how
this arrangement shows
repeating patters among
elements with similar
properties, i.e.,
numbers of protons,
neutrons, and electrons;
relation among atomic
number and atomic mass).
Procedural Benchmarks
are expressed in terms
of skills and
processes. A skill
refers to specific sets
of steps performed in a
fairly strict order. A
process is a more
general steps that are
performed with more
conscious thought.
Skills might be embedded
within the steps of a
process. The words
should+ action verb cue
the reader to a
procedural benchmark.
Students will solve
problems involving
perimeter
(circumference) and area
of various shapes, i.e.,
triangles,
parallelograms, circles.
Students will apply
reading skills and
strategies to a variety
of literary passages and
texts, i.e., fiction,
nonfiction, myths,
poems, fantasies,
biographies,
autobiographies, science
fiction, fall tales, and
supernatural tales.
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Step 7:
Secure
Teacher Review
The benchmarks
developed by the task
force should be given to
all teachers for review
for the grade level(s)
for which the teacher
are responsible.
Step 8:
Reviewing
Benchmarking Task
Begin a comprehensive
review of the
benchmarking tasks. It
is helpful to have the
following available:
Professional
recommendations
State
guides
Adopted
textbooks
Pose the question: What
should our ----- graders
know in order to achieve
this standard?
Step 9: Evaluate
Benchmarks
When benchmarks
have been tentatively
assigned, they should be
evaluated using the
following either
question criteria:
1.
Are the benchmarks few
in number so that
mastery can be
accomplished?
2. Are the benchmarks
developmentally
appropriate, challenging
and attainable?
3. Are the benchmarks
clear?
4. Do the benchmarks
progress in difficulty
and depth from year to
year?
5. Are the benchmarks
directly related to the
standards?
6.Are the benchmarks
effectively distributed
over the grades so that
one grade is not
overloaded or under
loaded?
7.Do the benchmarks
reflect the
recommendations current
research?
Step 10: Review
Teacher Recommendations
After receiving
the feedback/review from
teachers, the task force
should determine which
benchmarks will be
included in the final
version.
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Step 11: Determine
Performance Assessment
Benchmarks for Mastery
Standards
Mastery
benchmarks (statements
of the declarative and
procedural knowledge)
that students need to
know and be able to do)
only hold relevance if
students are assessed on
how well they know and
apply the knowledge and
skills contained in
these benchmarks.
Complex performance
assessments are
required.
Performance assessments
benchmarks should be
created because they do
the following:
1.
Establish clear learning
targets
2. Require students to
show what they know
3. Expect all students
to be proficient
4. Use consistent and
fair scoring guides
5. Provide multiple
opportunities to revise
and improve
6. Improve critical
thinking ability
In
order to design
performance assessment
benchmarks, an
understanding the
principals of
performance assessment
and what effective
performance activities
look like. The
components listed below
are generally found in
good performance
assessments.
Multiple
assessments for each
mastery standard and
benchmark
Spectrum
of activities – basic to
enrichment
Students
as collaborators, peer-
and self-evaluators
Traditional
tests used as concurrent
validity instruments
Apply
content knowledge and
skills to real world
situations
Demonstrate
student understanding to
external audience
Provide
evidence that standards
have been met
The construction of
assessment benchmarks
also needs to fit the
type of knowledge and
skills that is
assessed. Declarative
knowledge (what the
learner knows or
understands) requires a
different type of
assessment than does
procedural knowledge
(what the learner is
able to do).
Examples:
Declarative Mastery
Benchmark in Science
Understands
the basic
characteristics of day
and nights and their
relationship to the
rotation of the earth on
its axis.
Declarative Performance
Benchmark in Science
Compares
night and day in terms
of similarities and
differences as they
relate to the rotation
of the Earth on its
axis.
Procedural Mastery
Benchmark in Mathematics
Interprets
data using the concepts
of largest, smallest,
and most often and
middle
Procedural Performance
Benchmark in Mathematics
Determines
the absorbency of
different brands of
paper towels. Compare
and evaluate the
results.
Performance benchmarks
can be written as
activities or tasks.
Performance activities
are more general whereas
performance task are
contextualized versions
of performance and
activities. Performance
task specify how
students are to report
their written work, how
they will work, and what
sources they will use.
Performance tasks
provide clear guidance
how specific declarative
and procedural knowledge
can be applied in
situations that support
real-world contexts.
Content standards
specify what students
should know and be able
to do, performance
standard define how
good is good enough.
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Step 12: Assimilate
all Benchmarks into K-12
Format
The benchmarks
developed by the task
force committee should
be assimilated into a
K-12 format.
Step 13:
Develop
Final Product
The task force
should begin work on
developing the final
product. Standards
should now begin work on
putting the standards in
a large
scope-and-sequence chart
which is created in the
following manner:
List
the essential mastery
standards organized by
strands on the left side
Indicate
the grades across the
top
In
each cell, write the
benchmark for that grade
and standard
Step 14: Scope and
Sequence
The scope and
sequence may also
include a list of the
developmental standards
(if we deem these
necessary to include)
that will not be
benchmarked as a
prefatory list to the
scope and sequence. Any
enrichment standards
should be listed on a
separate page.
Step 15: Learning
Objectives/Essential
Questions
The final issue
with respect to
developing the guide is
the issue of whether to
include detailed
learning objectives and
or Essential Questions.
The general
recommendation is to
keep the guide as simple
as possible and to let
teachers, working in
grade level teams,
working on developing
objectives and essential
questions. This step
can be reserved for the
next phase of curriculum
writing.
Step 16: Generate the
Final Product
The final
product should include
the following:
Title
page-included subject,
content, revision date,
committee members’ names
K-12
Vision Statement for
subject content
Scope
and Sequence for Mastery
Standards (including
master and performance
benchmarks)
List
of developmental
standards (interval
grade level benchmarks
should be included if
team decides to do so)
Learning
Objectives and or
Essential Questions
Appendices –
1. Supported Curriculum
(instructional materials
– both print and
non-print) which
includes a comprehensive
K-12 listing of
instructional materials
that should be
delineated at each grade
by title and chapters,
sections, etc.
2. Program Evaluation
Format – committees must
include the following:
a. Description of
monitoring and
evaluating process
b. Timeline for
monitoring an evaluating
c. Copy of the
evaluation instrument
The
following are
suggestions for other
items that the team may
wish to include in their
appendices. Although it
is strongly recommended
that committees consider
including some of the
documents in this list,
it is optional:
Model
lessons
Types
of Assessments – both
pen and pencil and
performance-based
assessment appropriate
for a specific
subject-content area
Rubrics
and/or performance
description assessment
Curriculum
mapping format
Essential
learning at each grade
level
Specific
grade level assessments
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