assessment

Showing 111 posts tagged assessment

7 current influencers on education

  1. More challenging student populations: more poverty and mobility;

  2. Common core: different and higher standards;

  3. Online assessment: the rubber hits the road  Sprint 2015;

  4. Bottoms-up student, parent, teacher app adoption;

  5. App explosion and the proliferation of point solutions;

  6. The shift to blended learning; and

  7. Device deployments (often without a plan).

Test Groups Weigh Unified Accommodations Policies The list of accommodations—providing extra time, allowing the use of dictionaries, and reading test directions aloud, to name a few—has ballooned in the No Child Left Behind Act era. Schools have been under pressure to demonstrate how well they are educating all students, including those with special needs. Some researchers estimate as many as 100 different accommodations are used for students with disabilities and English-language learners in states and local districts. But that may be changing as two groups of states labor to design new assessments for the Common Core State Standards to replace the wide variety of standardized reading and mathematics tests used now. With a rollout of the new assessments expected in 2014-15, test developers are aiming not only to streamline the types of testing supports offered to special education students and English-language learners, but also to make sure the tests are designed to be as broadly accessible as possible to all students, regardless of their profiles. photo via flickr:CC | DaveBleasdale High-res

Test Groups Weigh Unified Accommodations Policies

The list of accommodations—providing extra time, allowing the use of dictionaries, and reading test directions aloud, to name a few—has ballooned in the No Child Left Behind Act era. Schools have been under pressure to demonstrate how well they are educating all students, including those with special needs. Some researchers estimate as many as 100 different accommodations are used for students with disabilities and English-language learners in states and local districts.

But that may be changing as two groups of states labor to design new assessments for the Common Core State Standards to replace the wide variety of standardized reading and mathematics tests used now. With a rollout of the new assessments expected in 2014-15, test developers are aiming not only to streamline the types of testing supports offered to special education students and English-language learners, but also to make sure the tests are designed to be as broadly accessible as possible to all students, regardless of their profiles.

photo via flickr:CC | DaveBleasdale

“A statement I have always hated, and one I used as a teacher is: ‘They struggled on this unit, but we have a test coming up next week on material they are more comfortable with, so that should pull their grade up.’ We move on knowing there are holes. When do those holes get plugged? Maybe they never do. And don’t even get me started on the messages we send to students. Something like ‘The quality of our work and whether we have done it correctly does not matter. Time does.’”

Assessment All the Time? Why Not?
Where Are All Those Edtech Dollars Going? The largest segment of the $7.76 billion ed-tech market, according to the industry group SIIA is “instructional support,” which accounts for up to 38 percent of the market — and that’s increased by 12 percent over the previous year. It’s also worth noting that companies that create content services have almost as large a market share — 36 percent — as those working in instructional support. It’s not clear how they define “edtech” here, but if you’re looking for the next buck in education; do not collect $200, go directly into learning analytics. photo via flickr:CC | oceandesetoiles

Where Are All Those Edtech Dollars Going?

The largest segment of the $7.76 billion ed-tech market, according to the industry group SIIA is “instructional support,” which accounts for up to 38 percent of the market — and that’s increased by 12 percent over the previous year.

It’s also worth noting that companies that create content services have almost as large a market share — 36 percent — as those working in instructional support.

It’s not clear how they define “edtech” here, but if you’re looking for the next buck in education; do not collect $200, go directly into learning analytics.

photo via flickr:CC | oceandesetoiles

Why Kids Should Grade Teachers A decade ago, an economist at Harvard, Ronald Ferguson, wondered what would happen if teachers were evaluated by the people who see them every day—their students. The idea—as simple as it sounds, and as familiar as it is on college campuses—was revolutionary. And the results seemed to be, too: remarkable consistency from grade to grade, and across racial divides. Even among kindergarten students. A growing number of school systems are administering the surveys—and might be able to overcome teacher resistance in order to link results to salaries and promotions. photo via flickr:CC | ragesoss

Why Kids Should Grade Teachers

A decade ago, an economist at Harvard, Ronald Ferguson, wondered what would happen if teachers were evaluated by the people who see them every day—their students. The idea—as simple as it sounds, and as familiar as it is on college campuses—was revolutionary. And the results seemed to be, too: remarkable consistency from grade to grade, and across racial divides. Even among kindergarten students. A growing number of school systems are administering the surveys—and might be able to overcome teacher resistance in order to link results to salaries and promotions.

photo via flickr:CC | ragesoss

Denver Turnaround Initiative Showing Achievement Gains

One year into an aggressive, expensive school turnaround initiative, some of Denver’s lowest-performing public schools are showing marked academic improvement by providing an education nearly identical to that of the highest-performing charter schools in the country.

All the schools that now make up Denver’s Summit School Network, in an impoverished corner of northeast Denver, are using an approach backed by research from Harvard economist Roland G. Fryer and the university’s Education Innovation Laboratory, or EdLabs. The research identifies five tenets of high-performing charter schools: extended school day and year, strong school leadership, data-driven instruction, increased math tutoring, and a “culture of high expectations.”

2011 NAEP Science Scores, Achievement Levels, and Achievement GapsAverage NAEP Science Scores and Achievement Levels by State Fewer than one-third of American 8th graders are proficient in science, but most students are improving, and achievement gaps are closing between students who are black or Hispanic and their white peers, a special administration of the test known as “the nation’s report card” shows. The National Assessment Governing Board released findings Thursday morning on earth, life, and physical sciences mastery on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. Excellent resource to see where your state’s 8th-graders fall (SPOILERS: WI is 14th, go North Dakota, DC will make you cry). High-res

2011 NAEP Science Scores, Achievement Levels, and Achievement Gaps
Average NAEP Science Scores and Achievement Levels by State

Fewer than one-third of American 8th graders are proficient in science, but most students are improving, and achievement gaps are closing between students who are black or Hispanic and their white peers, a special administration of the test known as “the nation’s report card” shows.

The National Assessment Governing Board released findings Thursday morning on earth, life, and physical sciences mastery on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP.

Excellent resource to see where your state’s 8th-graders fall (SPOILERS: WI is 14th, go North Dakota, DC will make you cry).

For Exams, is Using the Internet Considered Cheating? Students sit in the test-taking room, with full access to computers and wireless connections. As they work on national exams, they can be seen accessing the Internet from time to time. Are the results from this test going to be corrupted because these test-takers are not isolated from global information resources? What is high-tech cheating exactly? Is it really a problem, or do our old-school definitions of cheating need rethinking? photo via flickr:CC | gordasm

For Exams, is Using the Internet Considered Cheating?

Students sit in the test-taking room, with full access to computers and wireless connections. As they work on national exams, they can be seen accessing the Internet from time to time. Are the results from this test going to be corrupted because these test-takers are not isolated from global information resources?

What is high-tech cheating exactly? Is it really a problem, or do our old-school definitions of cheating need rethinking?

photo via flickr:CC | gordasm

Stop Complaining About Teacher Assessments; Find Alternatives State agencies today certify teachers using an accumulation of academic credits and assessments that do not discriminate between good and poor performers. Nearly all graduates pass criteria that have no known association with teaching and learning in elementary and secondary classrooms. But when teacher-preparation organizations say that state-standards tests and value-added metrics are neither reliable nor valid, they sound like unions arguing against teacher evaluation—placing blame on imperfect assessments rather than finding alternatives and testing them. photo via flickr:CC | aturkus

Stop Complaining About Teacher Assessments; Find Alternatives

State agencies today certify teachers using an accumulation of academic credits and assessments that do not discriminate between good and poor performers. Nearly all graduates pass criteria that have no known association with teaching and learning in elementary and secondary classrooms. But when teacher-preparation organizations say that state-standards tests and value-added metrics are neither reliable nor valid, they sound like unions arguing against teacher evaluation—placing blame on imperfect assessments rather than finding alternatives and testing them.

photo via flickr:CC | aturkus

New Guide Released for Creating Principal Evaluations The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality has released a “practical guide” designed to help states and districts create meaningful principal evaluation systems. The guide is based on research into the current state of school leader evaluations as well as lessons learned from evaluation designers. It takes its readers through eight steps, from creating goals for an evaluation system, to selecting the measures that will be used, to evaluating the system after it has been put in place. High-res

New Guide Released for Creating Principal Evaluations

The National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality has released a “practical guide” designed to help states and districts create meaningful principal evaluation systems.

The guide is based on research into the current state of school leader evaluations as well as lessons learned from evaluation designers. It takes its readers through eight steps, from creating goals for an evaluation system, to selecting the measures that will be used, to evaluating the system after it has been put in place.