Individual benchmarks in the MISIC document and your local set can differ in four ways (match in content and cognitive complexity but not in grade level, currently no local benchmark is written but it is taught, a MISIC benchmark might not be taught locally, or it could be in the local set but not in the MISIC set), or they could match in content and cognitive complexity as well as grade level.

One way to get a handle on the degree of difference is to record how they differ. The attachment lists the five categories of comparing benchmarks, you might choose to color code or create another system for record keeping.

This activity can be valuable when a district is deciding whether or not they will join MISIC, when deciding if they will adopt the MISIC curriculum or correlate local benchmarks with MISIC while continuing to teach the local benchmarks, or when a district is deciding how much support and/or professional development time teachers will require to guarantee their curriculum.

This activity is best for teachers who are looking at the MISIC curriculum for the first time. A suggested format for this assignment might be working within grade spans for the first review (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12), then articulating their findings in a K-12 group.

Choices may need to be made when dealing with mismatched benchmarks. Any benchmarks that are not a "perfect" match should be discussed within the department. The group may need to come to consensus on how to remedy grade level mismatches or how many local benchmarks they would add to the MISIC set, for example.

Some discussion questions that may aid a group are given here. You may consider working through the answers to these questions before the review of benchmarks and local curriculum is done.

-How will we deal with benchmarks not in "perfect" alignment?
-How do we know we're teaching a benchmark at the appropriate cognitive complexity?
-Will we change entirely to the MISIC standards and benchmarks, will we create a document to reference our local standards and benchmarks to those of MISIC, or will we create a new document merging both?