Getting Your Ducks in a Row: The Principle of Alignment

Harvard University Assistant Professor, Ebony Bridwell-Mitchell, is interested in understanding how organizations work — their internal processes and how they produce the outcomes they do.

Excerpt from Ebony Bridwell-Mitchell's Viewpoint article 

I spend a lot of time training school leaders. Invariably when they want to know about how to successfully plan for school improvement, the topic of “alignment” comes up. One thing I have realized from these conversations is “alignment” means many different things to many different school leaders.

According to the Glossary of Education Reform, “the term alignment is widely used by educators in a variety of contexts. For example, when teachers talk about ‘aligning curriculum,’ they are likely referring to a specific, technical process being used to develop lessons, deliver instruction, and evaluate student learning growth and achievement. On the other hand, some education reports, improvement plans, and policy proposals may refer to the ‘alignment’ of various elements of an education system without describing precisely what might be entailed in the proposed alignment process.” Because “alignment” is such an ubiquitous term, it is essential that school leaders understand the principle and know how to leverage it to improve their schools.

Read the full article here.

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