ABSTRACT
Course alignment is an approach to constructing a knowledge base for teaching and teacher preparation characterized by coherence, continuity, consistency, and trustworthiness that supports continuous program improvement. This approach involves within and across course alignment, and alignment between courses and clinical experiences. The knowledge distributed across the teacher preparation program in courses or modules and clinical experiences is interconnected, developmentally sequenced, cumulative, and increasingly complex. The instruments used to facilitate course alignment are a course alignment document and an organization structure. The course alignment document supports the interconnectedness among course descriptions, state and national standards, course objectives, course assignments, and the knowledge for teaching (resources). The organizational structure is represented as a sequence of four blocks each containing courses, clinical experiences, state and national standards, and key assessments. Courses in a particular block have interconnected assignments and experiences; and have learning objectives linked to the state and national standards located in the block. Candidates’ performance on key assessments indicates their progress towards competent teaching and can indicate strengths and weaknesses in the knowledge base and clinical experiences.
