Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to examine whether curriculum alignment between district curriculum and important state curriculum documents had an affect on California Assessment Program (CAP) achievement scores. The study examined the areas of reading, written language, and mathematics for grade six and the areas of reading and mathematics for grade eight. Further, this study explored the correlations between CAP scores and several demographic variables: socioeconomic status (SES), parent education index (PEI), limited English proficiency (LEP), years in alignment, district size, and school size. Methodology. This study included 331 schools in thirty-nine districts. All of the districts involved were members of the Curriculum Alignment, Comprehensive Assessment (CAS2) Program Consortium. The CAS2 consortium is composed of school districts throughout California interested in aligning local objectives and instruction with external assessment programs, including CAP. Two instruments were employed to collect the data: the 1989 CAP test was used to measure the academic achievement of sixth and eighth grade students and a questionnaire was developed to assess whether or not sample districts had attained a level of significant curriculum alignment in the subjects of interest. Responses to the questionnaire provided the basis for dividing sample districts into separate groups: those having schools with an aligned curriculum and those having schools without an aligned curriculum. Findings. The major findings indicated that schools in districts with significant curriculum alignment scored significantly higher than schools in districts without significant alignment on CAP reading and CAP mathematics for sixth grade. The findings also indicated that a strong, significant, positive relationship existed between socioeconomic status and CAP achievement and between parent education levels and CAP achievement. Conclusions. Although the findings were mixed regarding the effects of curriculum alignment on CAP scores, there was evidence that significant alignment did make a positive contribution to CAP achievement. Further research on the effects of curriculum alignment on standardized test scores is recommended. It was also concluded that the student background factors of socioeconomic status and parent education levels were powerful predictors of student achievement on the CAP test.