Alignment

While I have focused on mathematics education at the classroom level, there are both logical and empirical reasons to believe that substantial and sustained improvement in math achievement requires attention to school and district level variables that provide the support for effective classroom practice in mathematics. At the broadest level this raises questions about how to achieve alignment among mathematics content standards, performance standards, accountability systems, curriculum, teaching materials, assessment, classroom practice, and the preparation and professional development of mathematics teachers.

Differences in mathematics achievement among schools and districts serving students of similar economic and racial/ethnic backgrounds are likely to reflect, in part, differences in the alignment of components of policy and practice. When these differences occur within states where every school is operating under the same state standards and accountability system, they point to the important role of organizational and management variables at the local level in enhancing student learning. There are thousands of schools across the nation serving large numbers of low-income and minority children that manage to generate high mathematics achievement. We need to learn how to clone these schools. When the differences occur across states, they point to the importance of state-level policies in supporting mathematics achievement for all students within a state.

North Carolina and Texas managed to lead the nation in math gains in the 1990s. They did so despite high minority enrollments, lower than average per pupil expenditures, and average class sizes. What North Carolina and Texas had in common was an aligned series of policies, including state standards for math content in each grade, an assessment system designed to measure achievement of those standards, and accountability at the school level for performance.