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Identifying ways to help teachers think about assessment holistically rather than as a summative piece and create a plan to assess learning through an entire unit. Good quick read.

Partnership between Uof Nottingham and Cal Berkeley to design and develop well-engineered assessment tools to support US schools in implementing the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSS).Funding is provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the University of California, Berkeley.

Always looking for resources that help math teachers think about how to promote learning in the classroom. This synopsis of formative assessment research starts with Wiliam and Black, "Inside the Black Box" from 1998 and progresses forward from there. Some nice specific tasks that are supported by links to examples.

Formative Assessment Learning Tasks. This site is the beginning of the Gates Mathematics Collaborative work in KY (Math FALs). 

This wikispace has been designed to help mathematics teachers and teacher leaders examine effective mathematics instruction, as outlined in the book Accessible Mathematics: Ten Instructional Shifts that Raise Student Achievement by Steven Leinwand. The suggestions are intended to serve as sample activities and discussion prompts for preparing all mathematics teachers to plan, teach, assess, and promote a mathematical learning environment that is considered "Common Core-ready."

What mathematical competencies must a teacher have to teach the subject well? This has proven difficult to investigate (1). A current view is that teachers' knowledge of mathematics "remains inert in the classroom unless accompanied by a rich repertoire of mathematical knowledge and skills relating directly to the curriculum, instruction, and student learning" (2). Unfortunately, there is no consensus on which "knowledge and skills" might activate teachers' inert knowledge. Two perspectives prevail, neither with a research base that enables strong claims about practice. The majority of current studies focus on explicit knowledge of curriculum content and instructional strategies. Such knowledge might be assessed directly through observation, interview, or written test (2), with a parallel research emphasis on the formal contents of teacher education programs [e.g., (3)]. A second school of thought, presented here, is that the most important competencies tend to be tacit, like skills involved in playing concert piano, learned but not necessarily available to consciousness.

Smarter Balanced consortium page for CC tools and resources

Some How tos in deveoping rubrics for communications.

We introduced Diigo to WJHS this summer and I thought I would pass this news along to everyone, but especially that group. I still think Diigo is an incredible tool for collaboration in the classroom for research, group work/accountability, formative assessment, reaching beyond classroom walls both with students and colleagues. Additionally, Sean does some nice simple video production (with totally FREE tools) that I want to share with other teachers. It's easy to do, is a way of getting information to your students easily and in a manner that allows them to access the information as many times as they like/need.

Quantitative studies of school effects have generally supported the notion that the problems of U.S. education lie outside of the school. Yet such studies neglect the primary venue through which students learn, the classroom. The current study explores the link between classroom practices and student academic performance by applying multilevel modeling to the 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress in mathematics. The study finds that the effects of classroom practices, when added to those of other teacher characteristics, are comparable in size to those of student background, suggesting that teachers can contribute as much to student learning as the students themselves.

"This report is based on evidence from a small-scale survey carried out between April and July 2009 in 35 maintained schools in England. It evaluates the extent to which the schools taught pupils to adopt safe and responsible practices in using new technologies, and how they achieved this. It also assesses the extent and quality of the training the schools provided for their staff. It responds to the report of the Byron Review, Safer children in a digital world."

Denise Finley's unique perspective on differentiating vocabulary instruction. 

A discussion draft of the framework for the national assessment of technological literacy, the first to gauge students' understanding of and skill in using a range of tools, has been presented to theboard that oversees the testing program.

The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) was developed to help guide the complex task of evaluating technology integration in the classroom. Basic technology skills and integration of technology into the curriculum go hand-in-hand to form teacher technology literacy. Encouraging the seamless use of technology in all curriculum areas and promoting technology literacy are both key NCLB:Title II-D/EETT program purposes. The Inventory for Teacher Technology Skills (ITTS) companion tool is designed to help districts evaluate teachers' current levels of proficiency with technology and is also used as a professional development planning and needs assessment resource. The TIM is envisioned as an EETT program resource which can help support the full integration of technology in Florida schools. What is in each cell? Each cell in the matrix will have a video (or several videos) which illustrate the integration of technology in classrooms where only a few computers are available and/or classrooms where every student has access to a laptop computer. Transformation The teacher creates a rich learning environment in which students regularly engage in activities that would have been impossible to achieve without technology. Active Indicator: Given ongoing access to online resources, students actively select and pursue topics beyond the limitations of even the best school library. Collaborative Indicator: Technology enables students to collaborate with peers and experts irrespective of time zone or physical distances. Constructive Indicator: Students use technology to construct, share, and publish knowledge to a worldwide audience. Authentic Indicator: By means of technology tools, students participate in outside-of-school projects and problem-solving activities that have meaning for the students and the community. Goal Directed Indicator: Students engage in ongoing metacognative activities at a level that would be unattainable without the support of technol

Creating student portfolios for access later is a very big market and three ring offers one way of doing it. Simple image upload with custom tagging. 

From Karen Frankler of the University of Wisconsin. Looks like it was designed for college, but easily adapted for upper high school, and nice framework for others. 

Examining Exemplary Mathematics Instruction in Howard County Purpose: This wiki has been designed as a repository for resources and for sharing of ideas. Each of the seven visitation teams will have an opportunity to share reflections and pose questions for further analysis. This is a public wikispace so please respect norms related to confidentiality. Keep the conversations about the work...do not include school or teacher names.