Aligning Directly to Standards

When you are aligning an asset, you may choose to align by searching for standards by state or standards authority.

To align an asset to a standard:

1. Click the Search Standards link at the top right side of the "Standards Matches" section of the Align Assets By Concepts page. (If you don't see this option, click Load Standards Now.) Alternatively, choose Standards > Search Standards from the top menu.

The Search Standards page appears. You see a map of the states, similar to this:

2. Click on the state either on the interactive map or using the alphabetically arranged list. A list of documents in the system for that state appears.

For example: Above, there are four documents listed for New Mexico. These are color coded to tell you which documents are enabled and in your license:

  • Blue - currently in the license agreement and enabled for alignments.
  • Black - in the license agreement but disabled in the alignment system.
  • Gray - not in the license agreement for this account. These colors will indicate the same information on the following screens.

3. Once you select a document, choose a subject. The red heading at the top of the screen shows the path you have taken.

Each document displays the year it was released in parentheses and may display notes about its effectiveness.

4. Once you select a subject, you see a list of grades or grade bands. If any grades were released in a later year, the year is displayed in parentheses.

5. Once you select a grade, the top levels (strands) of the document are displayed. At the top right hand of the screen, you also see "Alignment Mode."

Select On and then click Change. This adjusts the tool so that alignments can be performed using the Standards Search Tool.

6. Once the Alignment Mode has been turned "On," information about your asset displays in a red box above the top levels (strands) of the document you have selected.

Note: Leaving the "Alignment Mode" turned "Off" limits you to viewing the standards in a "Read-only" mode.  Alignments can only be made once the "Alignment Mode" has been turned "On."

7. Click on the strand of your choice, and you encounter the next level of the document.

You can easily identify the lowest level of the document – the level to which you want to align – by the "Blue Book" next to the standards. Click a Blue Book to see the concepts and topics connected to the standard. For example, here is the lowest level of a document:

Clicking on the Blue Book for 3.NBT.A.1 in the image above gives you:

8. To directly align a standard to your asset, click the box of the standard you want and then click the Handpick: Include button.

The screen refreshes and displays a chain link and a number next to the standard that has been aligned. The number indicates the number of alignments made to this standard in the account.

Align Multiple Assets

You can align more than one asset at a time using the Search Standards link:

In the red box, click the blue link [change asset]. A pop-up window displays.

  1. Choose an Asset Type.
  2. Use the fields to search for the asset you want and click Query.
  3. Below, the aligner has searched for all Mathematics Assets. The results are displayed on the right of the window. Check the assets you would like to load, and click Load.

The red box at the top of the screen now displays all of the assets you would like to align at once. Below, two assets have been loaded to align at one time.

Keyword Search

You can also use the Search Standards page to search for words appearing in a standard. To do this:

  1. Select a state and a standards document.
  2. At page listing subjects, enter the word in the Keyword box located in the top right corner of the page.
  3. Click Go. A list of results from the document, subdivided by strand, are displayed.

Above, the aligner searched for the keyword “money.”

To continue:

  1. Click the strand to see a list of the standards with the keywords you searched for highlighted.
  2. Click the link. It takes you to the page listing all standards from this document, grade, and strand.
  3. The alignment mode will be off if you enter the page using a keyword search. To turn the alignment mode on, move the radio button to “on” and click Change. The screen re-configures.
  4. You can search for the asset to align using the [change asset] link in the red box and following the same instructions outlined above.

Alternatively, you can use the drop-down menu to select the asset type. (If only one asset type is in the system, this drop-down menu does not display.) Then use the box immediately to the right of asset type to enter the Unique ID of the asset you would like to align to the standard. Click a handpick button (Include or Exclude) to include or exclude these standards.

Note:

  • You can enter different Unique IDs next to different standards and align them all at once by clicking on the Include button in the red box.
  • You can also enter several Unique IDs, separated by commas, next to one standard to align multiple assets to that standard.