A Study On Alignment Between Curriculum Standards And Achievement Assessment In Primary Mathematics

Since the 1990s, standard-based curriculum reform has been implemented widely in the world .The alignment between curriculum standards and achievement assessment has increasingly become a major topic in curriculum field. In our country, this alignment is just a new topic in curriculum reform. With the advancement of new curriculum reform, curriculum researchers and implementers are paying more attention to the students achievement based on curriculum standards, which contributes to the research of the alignment topic. Educational administrative departments emphasize the quality of curriculum implementation and actively carry out assessment testing the result. As for math teaching in primary school,the final test paper is generally made by math teaching researchers. Educational policy makers in district and county will adopt this kind of test paper. This arouses several problems. Is the test paper consistent with the curriculum and in which aspects are they related? In response to the practice of achievement assessment, exploring the strategies and methods of alignment will be the urgent task of curriculum researchers.The research consists of six chapters. The first chapter is the introduction part which mainly deals with the origin, the early contents and also the innovation of the alignment. Chapter2 studies the basic theories .This chapter mainly includes three parts. First is the introduction of core concepts including assessment, achievement assessment ,curriculum standards, alignment ;the second part is the study on the analytic models of the alignment of achievement assessment and curriculum standards, which include Webb's model,"SEC"model,Achieve model etc. The third part is the study on achievement assessment which includes value orientation, the types and the basic questions in primary mathematics achievement assessment.The third chapter is about the methodology and designs adopted in the study. Chapter3 includes six parts. The first is the analysis of study framework; second is the study methods .Our paper mainly adopts the quantity research method which is supplemented by the quality research method. The former is used to refer to and adjust Webb's model, thus we form our own analytic tools of alignment between achievement and curriculum standards. The latter is mainly used as interview method. Thirdly the study objects come. We have two kinds of objects. One is grade 2, grade3, grage5 final test paper. According to the qualitative method, we choose the papers from 8 counties, 4 districts in J province. For the other objects, we interview the math researchers from J province. The fourth is the process of data collection; the fifth, we deal with the data; last but not the least we discuss the validity, reliability, and morality.The fourth and fifth chapters are the findings of the study. In chapter 4, according to the qualitative statistics, we analyze the features of the alignment between achievement assessment and curriculum in math teaching in primary school. We analyze the characteristics from different perspectives, namely whole level, district level, county level and grade level. In the fifth chapter, according to the interview, we analyze the major factors which affect the alignment between achievement assessment and curriculum. These factors include: the orientation of test making, the understanding of the relationship between test making and curriculum, the professional competence of test makers, etc.Chapter6 is the conclusions and suggestions. We draw conclusions from two aspects: one is the basic features of the alignment between achievement assessment and curriculum standards in math teaching in primary school. The other is affecting factors. Among them, the orientation of test making is the key factor; the understanding of the relationship between test making and curriculum is the core factor; the professional competence of test makers is the direct factor. This paper is aimed at improving the alignment between achievement assessment and curriculum standards in math teaching in primary school. So we put forward the following advice. First, we must by all means promote the professional development of subject teaching researchers; second, education policy makers need to improve the evaluation systems, be less score-orientated, study and compile the textbook in depth. Finally, it is necessary for us to study and revise the curriculum standards in order to form the evaluation system of the test making.In a word, we explore little the alignment between achievement assessment and curriculum standards in the curriculum field. The exploration of the topic and its actual practice in teaching are all in a pilot phase. It is of profound significance for the promotion of the achievement assessment in other subjects in our country. It will help the study of other subjects transform from an experimental one to a more standardized, scientific and technical one.