Standards Collections

A Standards Collection (or Standards Set) is a group of standards that are to be aligned or reported on together. Some examples of Standards Collections are:

  • All science standards in two states that are not from Physics courses
  • ELA reading standards in grades 9-12
  • Content standards in 15 states

When creating standards collections, keep in mind how you will use these collections. Will they be aligned in a specific project? Will certain Asset Collections require specific groups of standards? Standards collections can be used when making assignments and when determining phases of Projects.

Understanding the Hierarchy

Before beginning, familiarize yourself with the hierarchy of standards as indicated below.

Creating a New Standards Collection

Standards collections are groups of standards that will be used to align a group of assets. 

To begin creating a custom standards collection:

  1. From the Standards menu, select Create Standards Collection. This takes you to a page for creating a Standards Collection.
  2. Enter a descriptive name in the Collection field. The default name is “Untitled” with a date and time stamp.
  3. On the left side of the screen, there is a list of Available Filters.

On the right side of the screen, you see the entire list of authorities that are available in your license. This is because you have not yet selected anything to limit the standards set.

There are two ways you can identify the standards you might want in a collection: selecting from the Standards Tree or selecting multiple other filters. These two methods are described below.

Selecting from the Standards Tree

The first and most common way to create a new standards collection is by selecting filters from the Standards Tree. The benefit of using the Standards Tree is that you get the exact set of standards that you intend to use in your collection.

To use the Standards Tree:

  1. Click on the plus sign next to the checkbox beside Standards Tree. This opens a list of all authorities included in your license.
  2. Continue to check the plus sign at each level until you get to the level of standard you want to select. Typically this is going to be the document level, as indicated in the screenshot below. A document includes the subject and year.

Each available filter is hierarchical, and you can select a standard filter at any level in the hierarchy by checking the box to the left of the desired filter. A collection can contain items as narrow as an individual standard, or as broad as an entire state. Wherever you place your check mark, your standards collection will contain all of the standards below the checked box.

Note: When used in an alignment project, only the lowest level standards appears.

Important: You must make selections across a single consistent level. For example, if you select the Document level in one state, you can not select the Grade/Course level in another state. 

On the right side of the screen, you can view the Active Filters. This displays any filters you have selected on the Available Filters (left) side of the screen.

Selecting Multiple Filters

A second option for creating a standards collection is by using the general filters below the Standards Tree. For example you can filter to all standards in Math, Grade 6 in 5 States. This option means that if you have an older and a newer set of standards for an authority, you will get both sets of standards.

If you make multiple selections under a single filter type, all the standards are added as active.

Note about "Standard Course" Filter: Use this filter for course-related standards that are captured through standards relationships and not directly. When selecting from this filter, you may select only the lowest level of standards.

Important: If you make multiple selections under different filters, only the standards your selections have in common are added as active. Therefore, if you select different filters that have no standards in common (such as selecting a Strand filter and a Subject filter that have no standards in common), the Active Filters section tree disappears. In the example below, the subject Mathematics has been selected as a subject filter and the Reading Strand has also been selected. Because these have no standards in common, the tree has disappeared and no filters are active.

Advanced Options

Using both Standards Tree and other Filters together:

  • If you are very familiar with standards and you want to reduce the number of filters you need to select, you can select items in both the Standards Tree and the other options. For example, you can select, Georgia Standards of Excellence and Texas Essential Knowledge And Skills under the Standards Tree and also Mathematics under subject.  This will give you only standards in Math in both of those publications.

Inverting a filter:

  • You can invert a specific filter using the “invert” link, which adds everything but that criteria to the collection. For example, if you want all Math standards in a North Carolina document except the Geometry course, you can select the Geometry course as a filter and then invert it, so you will receive everything but that course.

Once you have selected all filters, and the Active Filters side displays the filters you want to use, click Publish.

Editing a Standards Collection

To edit a collection, select Manage Standards Collection from the Standards menu. This takes you to the main Collection screen, where you can make changes to the collection and publish it again.

To delete an active filter:

  • Click the “delete” link next to that filter if it is available, or uncheck the box next to that filter in the Available Filters section. You may need to click "details" in order to see the "delete"

To see details of a filter:

  • Click the “details” link next to that filter.

Archiving a Standards Collection

To archive a standards collection:

  1. Select Manage Standards Collections from the Standards menu.
  2. Select the standards collection from the Active Collections drop-down menu, and click Archive. Once a subset is archived, it is no longer available to use.

Standards Collections Conflict 

Certain standards collections, though supported by the alignment system, may not be fully supported by the Search Standards tab on the Alignment page (see Tagging and Aligning). In order to prevent an issue, you will receive an error on the Standard Collection page if your collection is incompatible.

Collection filters that are not supported by Search Standards include: 

  • Selection of a "State", either through the State filter or at the State level in the Standards Tree filter, that is not a US State, District of Columbia, Achieve, or NGA Center/CCSSO (i.e. Canada)
  • Selection from the Standards tree at a level beneath the Section (Grade or Course) level

Additionally, collections that are very complex, including many different filters may exceed technical limitations.