Mapping the Test Objectives to the Curriculum

Mapping the test objectives to the curriculum is an activity designed to assist faculty in determining how well their course curriculum covers the knowledge and skills tested by the MTTC tests.

The Test Objective and Subarea Matching Worksheet  is a useful tool for matching course content to the objectives of a specific MTTC test.

Because the test objectives articulate the specific knowledge and skills assessed on each MTTC test, familiarity with the test objectives is central to identifying the content knowledge and skills on which certification candidates are assessed. The objectives can be very helpful to faculty, both in advising candidates who are preparing to test and for academic purposes such as planning programs. A careful reading of the test objectives—noting subarea structures and depth and breadth of coverage of content, as detailed by the objectives—will provide a good understanding of the content covered on a particular test.

Using the Test Objective and Subarea Matching Worksheet and your knowledge of the test objectives, you can compare your institution's course offerings with the content assessed on the test, as described by the test objectives. The completed worksheet will specifically match the content assessed by an MTTC test and the particular course or courses at your institution in which that content is addressed. This information can then be used to take the following steps:

• advise candidates who are preparing to take the test for the first time, noting specific coursework they may wish to take before testing
• direct candidates who are retaking a test, noting instructional materials and texts they may wish to review
• assess for academic program planning purposes the extent to which institutional and departmental courses correspond with the certification standards as defined by the test objectives

Directions for Completing the Worksheet

Step 1: Determine the number of test objectives. MTTC test fields have different numbers of test objectives. Use the test objectives provided for the specific test field to determine the number of objectives covered by the test.

Step 2: Indicate the subarea for each objective. Using the test objectives, enter the appropriate subarea number above each objective.

Step 3: List the course names. List the courses in the institution's curriculum that candidates are typically advised or required to include in their programs of study leading to certification. List courses within and beyond the department as appropriate. To make completion of the worksheet easier, list the courses in an order corresponding to the organizational pattern of the test objectives (i.e., first identifying and listing the courses that cover the content described by the objectives in the first subarea, then listing the courses that cover the content of the second subarea, and so on).

Step 4: Match the test objectives to the courses. Read each test objective and its associated descriptive statements carefully and review the descriptions of the course offerings:

• If a listed course adequately covers the content of the objective, place an X in the column corresponding to that objective number in the row of the worksheet on which the course name is listed.
• If no specific course adequately covers the content of the objective, leave the column corresponding to the objective number blank and make a separate note.

Step 5 (optional): Identify additional resources for selected test objectives. You may want to expand the worksheet to include Internet or other instructional resources beyond required coursework that link to particular objectives.

Sample from a Completed Test Objective and Subarea Matching Worksheet

An example of a portion of a Test Objective and Subarea Matching Worksheet as it might be completed by a faculty member is shown below. It illustrates the use of the worksheet with objectives 1–15 of the English test (field 002), which has 4 subareas and 30 objectives.