• enacted curriculum
• enacted instruction

• alignment to standards
• levels of cognitive rigor
• potential grade inflation

• classroom time usage
• teaching strategies
• custom issues

Ruby Capacity

Wanda Broyles is Principal of Harold A. Mannstein Middle School. Teachers at her school have formed professional learning communities which recently focused on curriculum. They have examined their textbooks and found them of reasonable quality, but many have expressed doubt that textbooks are being used. This concern is especially prevalent in English language arts, where teachers believe that the Internet is the source for many of the assignments. The concern in mathematics is that workbook usage predominates.

This information prompts Principal Broyles decision to focus their efforts on English language arts and mathematics. Her school features 22 sections of mathematics and 18 sections of English language arts. Because she wants substantial data for her teachers' professional learning communities, Principal Broyles chooses Ruby Capacity and elects for The Standards Company LLC to determine the emphasis on group and teacher-guided activities in addition to the normal alignment and cognitive rigor analyses. The cost is $5,000.

Principal Broyles distributes the 200 collection envelopes to her teachers. Each envelope is dedicated to a single section and a single collection day.

Ruby Capacity results indicate that a large proportion of the collected mathematics assignments were low in cognitive rigor and corresponded to individual students working out problems in workbooks. English language arts assignments, however, were mostly on grade level and featured reasonable levels of rigor. Despite many of the teachers' predictions, few of the assignments originated from the Internet.

Based on a list of recommendations provided in the Ruby report, Principal Broyles directs mathematics teachers to discuss the issue of rigor during their next professional learning community.

For next year, Principal Broyles wants her mathematics teachers to undergo training in curriculum alignment and rigor. Once completed, she plans to use Ruby Fidelity to ensure that the training guidelines are being followed over the long term.