Align curriculum maps, map topics, lesson plans, and assignments to standards

Aspen IMS supports standards-based instruction by providing districts with Common Core, state, and district-created standards .

Aspen IMS is automatically subscribed to Academic Benchmarks, the preferred standards data services provider to K–12 education.

You can align your curriculum maps, each map topic within a map, and each lesson plan within a map topic to any of these standards. This helps teachers plan to teach appropriate topics and use the right methods to ensure they are meeting the demands their students’ education requires.

Note: Teachers can also align lesson plans to standards in the Staff view.

You can also align several curriculum maps to the same standards at one time. For example, you might select all Science department curriculum maps and apply Science & Engineering standards to them at the same time.

To align curriculum maps, map topics, and lesson plans to standards:

Log on to the District view.
Click the Assessments tab, and then the Curriculum Maps side-tab.
Select the curriculum map you want to add standards to, and then click Chart. The curriculum map appears.

Do one of the following:

To align the entire curriculum map with standards, select the map topic header, and then click in the Standards box.
To align a specific topic to standards, select the topic, and then click in the Standards box.
To align a lesson plan to standards, select the lesson plan, and then click in the Standards box.

The Standards pop-up appears.

Note: If standards were aligned to the map topic header (course overview), the categories you are limited to for all other map topics in this map appear next to the Narrow by category drop-down; you cannot select standards that reside in other categories for a map topic.

Click the Narrow by category drop-down to select one of the following categories of standards you want to add to your topic or lesson plan:

Common Core
State
NEASC 21st Century
The category you selected appears with a new drop-down next to it, and the standards within the category appear in a list.

To further filter the list of standards available, select a sub-category within the category you first selected.

After you select that filter, another drop-down appears. You can continue to filter the list of standards by selecting categories from the drop-downs provided.
Click Show details to show the details of each standard in the list. Then, click Hide details to hide them.
Select the standards you want to align to the topic or lesson plan, and then click OK. The standards appear on the curriculum map in the Standards box.
Note: To remove a standard, click the X next to the standard ID in the Selected Standards box.

To view a specific standard aligned to a topic or lesson plan, click the standard ID in the Standards box.

The standard description appears.

Note: In addition, you can enter and edit standards when you create or edit an entire topic or lesson plan. Standards also appear in the printed version of the curriculum map.

T eachers can view the standards aligned to a curriculum map topic or lesson plan in the Staff view .

To align several curriculum maps to the same standards at one time:

Occasionally, your district might want to quickly align several curriculum maps to the same standards.

Log on to the District view.
Click the Assessments tab, and then the Curriculum Maps side-tab.
Select the curriculum maps you want to add the same standards to, and then click Show Selected on the Options menu. Only the curriculum maps you want to define the same standards for should appear.
On the Options menu, click Add Standards. The Standards pop-up appears.

Note: If standards have already been defined for all of the maps you selected, those standards appear already highlighted and selected in the Standards pop-up.