After you tag an asset with concepts, or if your asset is already aligned to any standards, you should load the related standards found by the alignment system.
Load Standards
To see the standards matches from the Align Assets By Concept page, click Load Standards NOW. (Select "Always load standards without prompting" if you want these to load automatically in the future.)
The "Standards Matches" section displays the standards that are connected to the concepts tagged or to standards you may have already have "Accepted."
When reviewing the standards you will notice the following:
- The standards are displayed by state, then by weight (displayed under the state name). The weight is calculated based on the strength of standard's connection to the confirmed concepts. This weight can be used to set a tolerance above which all standards matches are considered appropriate alignments.
- The only standards listed in the "Match Legend" section are those associated with the selected project.
- If the "Match Legend" authority is in green font, then there is at least one standard listed for that authority. If the authority is in gray font, then there are no standards for that authority.
- The text of the standard initially appears in red. When accepted, they turn green. If rejected, they turn gray.
- Information about the state and grade appear to the left of the standard.
- The standards document title and year are listed below the standard text.
Getting More Information
Click on the Book icon on the right of the screen to see a "Breakout of Standards Main Ideas" - the confirmed concepts that match the standard, color coded according to their rankings. The more "Central" and "Related" terms that match the standard, the stronger the match.
Click on the “i” icon to see the "Standards Hierarchy" - upper level of the standards document.
Selecting Standards
After you click Load Standards NOW, the font color of the standards found by the system are red. These "red text" standards are the ones that the system generated based on your concept profile. It is now your task to make decisions about whether these standards match the requirements of the project.
You can accept a standard or reject a standard for alignment. When you do this, the system can better find or eliminate other suggested standards because it learns what is related and what isn't. To accept or reject a standard:
- Read through each standard in red. These standards were discovered by the system.
- Click the box to the left of the standard text.
- If you want to align to the standard, click Accept. Allow the system to refresh. The standard turns green, indicating that the asset is now aligned to it. If you do not want to align to the standard, click Reject; the standard turns gray, indicating no alignment.
You can clear a decision made to include or reject, select the standard and click Clear. This returns the standard to its original state in red.
Selecting Multiple Standards
To select multiple standards at the same time, you can use the "Select All" and "Selected All Predicted" boxes.
- Clicking the box next to "Select All," checks every standard listed (whether you've already made a decision about them).
- Clicking the box next to "Select All Predicted" checks every standard that is still "red text," or system-generated.
Organizing and Filtering Standards
There are a variety of options for organizing and filtering your standards matches. They are located at the top of the section.
Show References: Grouped or Individually
Because some states have adopted or produced similar versions of Common Core and NGSS, some standards can be grouped together if they cover similar skills. This allows you to select all the standards in a group at once, making the alignment work more efficient. "Grouped" is selected by default.
When "Grouped" is selected, standards that cover the same skill are then called out as having a "Multiple Reference." For example, in the following image, 10 documents each have a standard covering the same skill.
To select all the standards in the group, click the outer box, which auto-checks the boxes for all standards grouped together.
If you want to look at the standards individually within the group, you can click the Show All, which you can see in blue below.
Click "Individually" if you would rather list all standards individually with no groupings.
Organize By: State or Score
By default, the list of standards is sorted by "Score" (weight), showing first the standards that most closely match to your concept criteria.
To sort the list in alphabetical order by state, click "State." When grouped by state, any grouped Multiple Reference standards are listed first.
Handpicked Standards Filter: Standards Collection or Entire License
These options are related to the documents/authorities that are presented in the standards matches. The default for an assignment or project is always "Standards Collection." This forces the list of standards matches to include only the set list of documents specified for a project. If you were to click "Entire License," you would see standards from every authority and document included in your license.
Standards Set Selection
The "Standards Set" limits which states or authorities you can see. "Default Set" includes the specific document list for the project. If, however, you you need to switch between multiple standards collections for a project or you only want to view a single state at a time, you can use the drop down menu to change the authorities you see. In the image below, you'll see "Custom Sets" with a list under it as well as "Individual States." The "Custom Sets" are specific Standards Collections, and the "Individual States" are the individual authorities. To change your view, make a selection and then click View.
Display Filters and Delivery Tolerance
The Delivery Tolerance field allows you to limit the list of predicted standards according to their weight. You can set a tolerance and also check the "Above tolerance only" option to filter the list of standards to only those whose weight is above the tolerance.
For example, with the Delivery Tolerance set to 70 and "Above tolerance only" checked, you only see standards whose weight is above 70.0.
If you check "Accepted only", you see only standards that you have accepted.
Note Regarding Alignment V2
If you are aligning a project that uses V2 Alignment (an older alignment system), the process is similar but the buttons are Include and Exclude and results are presented on tabs.
