Instructional Alignment in Nepal: Analysis of the integrated reading curriculum, assessments, and teacher classroom instruction

• In Event: Tools for analysing education systems

Proposal

In most education systems, there is an expectation that curriculum standards, national and classroom level assessments, and teachers’ classroom instruction will align with each other and with the learning needs of students. However, these components to the instructional process are often developed through separate processes in which alignment is assumed but not necessarily ensured. The Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) methodology is an educational research tool for analyzing alignment among different components of academic content, such as curriculum standards, classroom instruction, and assessments (Blank, Porter, & Smithson, 2001; Smithson, 2013). SEC involves coding and rating of the academic content embedded in instructional documents (e.g. curriculum, assessments) by an expert panel, and surveying of teachers on their classroom instructional content coverage.

This study was conducted through a partnership between the RISE Programme and RTI International, which was supporting the Government of Nepal through the Early Grade Reading Program II (EGRP II). Nepal was rolling out its new grades 1-3 integrated curriculum (IC), and in that context we used the SEC methodology to understand:
• The extent to which the IC was responding to the learning needs of students (i.e. in terms of content coverage and progression).
• The implementation of the new IC by teachers and identification of content areas where additional support for teachers may be needed.
• The alignment of the CB-EGRA assessment with the IC, and content areas where additional alignment may be useful.

The grades 1 through 3 integrated curricula reveal broad content coverage, covering more than 10 distinct reading topics per grade across all 5 levels on the cognitive demand scale. In grade 1, comprehension receives the most emphasis, with 22% of coverage, followed by writing processes (21%). Phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary each receive about 10% of coverage. The CB-EGRA, an early grade reading assessment, prioritizes comprehension (32% of topic coverage) and phonics (25%) in grade 1, while by grade 3 more focus is placed on writing and less on phonics. On average, the IC and CB-EGRAs across each grade achieve an alignment score of 0.42 on the 0 to 1 scale, considered a moderate level of alignment. The assessments tend to cover a narrower set of content and, for most topics, much narrower levels of cognitive demand than the IC. Finally, grade 1 teachers’ instruction is well-aligned with the IC, suggesting appropriate levels of training and support to enable them to implement the prescribed content.

The detailed findings provide a diagnostic analysis of curricula, assessment, and teacher content coverage, informing adaptations to coverage and teacher training and support to assist in the quality implementation of the new curriculum.

Authors

• Jodie Fonseca, RTI International

• Michelle Kaffenberger, RISE Programme, University of Oxford