The study aims to evaluate alignment between English curriculum standard and reading questions in Senior High School Entrance Exam (SHSEE) under the context of China’s Gansu Province. The sample of this study are Junior High School English Curriculum Standard and reading questions in SHSEE English exam paper. Survey of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) (Porter’s model) is adopted to produce alignment indices (AI) and critical value as well as topographical maps to display the degree of alignment both at overall level and cognitive and content level.The findings are as follows: first, there is no statistically significant between curriculum standard and reading questions in SHSEE English paper. Second, the distribution of content areas and cognitive levels between curriculum standard and exam content is unbalanced. Third, both curriculum standard and SHSEE exam papers over- emphasized “comprehending and integrating”and minimally represent “appreciating and evaluating” as well as “transferring and applying”. This study evaluated curriculum alignment in the context of current worldwide standards-based education reforms and provides evidence of alignment in Gansu province first time based on content analysis. It is also provide evidence of alignment evaluation in language-related discipline field of China, which may give insights to other disciplines related to language and humanities.
Li et al. (Thu,) studied this question.