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Tracy Tuten

How Can We Make Assessments Meaningful? | Edutopia - 170 views

www.edutopia.org/...ningful-heather-wolpert-gawron

assessment rubric learning edutopia classroom teaching howto

shared by Tracy Tuten on 09 Aug 12 - Cached
  • Criteria for a Meaningful Classroom Assessment To address these requirements, I ask myself the following guided questions: Does the assessment involve project-based learning? Does it allow for student choice of topics? Is it inquiry based? Does it ask that students use some level of internet literacy to find their answers? Does it involve independent problem solving? Does it incorporate the 4Cs? Do the students need to communicate their knowledge via writing in some way? Does the final draft or project require other modalities in its presentation? (visual, oral, data, etc...)
  • So how can high-stakes assessments be meaningful to students? For one thing, high-stakes tests shouldn't be so high-stakes. It's inauthentic. They should and still can be a mere snapshot of ability. Additionally, those occasional assessments need to take a back seat to the real learning and achievement going on in every day assessments observed by the teacher. The key here, however, is to assess everyday. Not in boring, multiple-choice daily quizzes, but in informal, engaging assessments that take more than just a snapshot of a student's knowledge at one moment in time. But frankly, any assessment that sounds cool can still be made meaningless. It's how the students interact with the test that makes it meaningful. Remember the 4 Cs and ask this: does the assessment allow for: Creativity Are they students creating or just regurgitating? Are they being given credit for presenting something other than what was described? Collaboration Have they spent some time working with others to formulate their thoughts, brainstorm, or seek feedback from peers? Critical Thinking Are the students doing more work than the teacher in seeking out information and problem solving? Communication Does the assessment emphasize the need to communicate the content well? Is there writing involved as well as other modalities? If asked to teach the content to other students, what methods will the student use to communicate the information and help embed it more deeply?
  • Another way to ensure that an assessment is meaningful, of course, is to simply ask the students what they thought. Design a survey after each major unit or assessment. Or, better yet, if you want to encourage students to really focus on the requirements on a rubric, add a row that's only for them to fill out for you. That way, the rubric's feedback is more of a give-and-take, and you get feedback on the assessment's level of meaningfulness as soon as possible.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Download the example (left) of a quick rubric I designed for a general writing assessment. I included a row that the participants could fill out that actually gave me quick feedback on how meaningful or helpful they believed the assessment was towards their own learning.
  • Tracy Tuten on 09 Aug 12
     
    Worthwhile article on designing meaningful assessments
Sarah Schaller Welsh

Freakonomics » What Should Be Done About Standardized Tests? A Freakonomics Q... - 42 views

www.freakonomics.com/...ed-tests-a-freakonomics-quorum

education

shared by Sarah Schaller Welsh on 08 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Gaston Caperton
  • Standardized tests have much in common with French fries. Both of them differ in composition as well as quality. French fries are available in numerous incarnations, including straight, curly, skins-on, skins-off, and, in recent years, with sweet potatoes. Regarding quality, of course, the taste of French fries can range substantially – from sublime to soggy. It’s really the same with standardized tests.
  • Take the No Child Left Behind Act, for instance, a federal accountability law requiring scads of standardized tests to be used in evaluating schools. Do you know that almost all of the standardized tests now being employed to judge school quality are unable to distinguish between well taught and badly taught students?
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • all schools – kindergarten through college – should employ exit exams allowing us to determine what students have actually learned. We owe it to our students to make sure that they’ve been properly taught.
  • Then there are the questions of what to do with the results. I have actually sat through an extended discussion of how we could use regression analysis to parse out the contribution different teachers made to a group of students’ performance on a set of standardized tests. The answer was, yes it was possible, and could in fact be used to award merit pay increases. But nobody left the room feeling very comfortable that there would be any gain in what we knew made for good teaching.
  • Roughly half of the nation’s students are taking tests under NCLB that are completely free of open-ended questions.
  • educators have a strong incentive to “teach to the test.” In this case, that means teaching low level skills at the expense of the more demanding material that everyone says students need to master in today’s complicated world.
  • But is it fair to give students what amounts to a counterfeit passport to college or work? And do such tests spur high school teachers and principals to aim high with their students? To both questions, the answer is, “No.” In most states today, high school exit tests serve the same role as the standardized tests mandated by NCLB: they try to jack up the floor of student achievement in the nation’s schools. The best high school exit tests would be end-of-course exams akin to the “comprehensive” exams that many colleges and universities require students to pass in their majors before graduation – tests, that is, that would raise the ceiling of student achievement.
  • High-stakes testing has narrowed and dumbed down curricula; eliminated time spent on untested subjects like social studies, art, and even recess; turned classrooms into little more than test preparation centers; reduced high school graduation rates; and driven good teachers from the profession. Those are all reasons why FairTest and other experts advocate a sharp reduction in public school standardized testing and a halt to exit exams.
  • igh school grade
  • point average is a better predictor of college success than either the SAT or the ACT.
Steve Ransom

The complete list of problems with high-stakes standardized tests - The Answer Sheet - ... - 7 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...gIQA7fNyaM_blog.html

testing standardizedtesting reasons resistance education critique teachers

shared by Steve Ransom on 01 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • focus so narrowly
  • measure only “low level” thinking processes
  • they put the wrong people — test manufacturers — in charge of American education
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • simplify and trivialize learning
  • allow pass-fail rates to be manipulated by officials for political purposes
  • they provide minimal to no useful feedback
  • unfairly advantage those who can afford test prep
  • lead to neglect of physical conditioning, music, art, and other, non-verbal ways of learning
  • keyed to a deeply flawed curriculum
  • penalize test-takers who think in non-standard ways
  • radically limit their ability to adapt to learner differences
  • encourage use of threats, bribes, and other extrinsic motivators
Roland Gesthuizen

What if the Secret to Success Is Failure? - NYTimes.com - 11 views

www.nytimes.com/...ret-to-success-is-failure.html

failure nytimes school education

shared by Roland Gesthuizen on 30 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Roland Gesthuizen on 30 Nov 11
     
    For the headmaster of an intensely competitive school, Randolph, who is 49, is surprisingly skeptical about many of the basic elements of a contemporary high-stakes American education.
Roland Gesthuizen

Should students memorise their essays? - 15 views

www.smh.com.au/...eir-essays-20101015-16nmz.html

student learning memory examination assessent testing SMH

shared by Roland Gesthuizen on 16 Oct 10 - No Cached
  • There is a moral dimension to the process. It is one thing to memorise an answer which you have prepared, but it is wrong to present an answer prepared by someone else.
  • High-stakes tests always corrupt teaching, learning and curriculum.
  • Answer memorisation is inevitable in high-stakes and somewhat predictable examinations.
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  • The reality is that many questions are answered by a process of ''recognition of sameness''.
  • Roland Gesthuizen on 16 Oct 10
     
    "Examiners will struggle because the HSC exams have a degree of predictability. They are based on known content and skills. They use the same, known format. If the exam drifts too far from past norms people scream and the media vent complaints of unfairness. The consequence is that parts of exams are readily exploited by prepared answers."
  • Roland Gesthuizen on 16 Oct 10
     
    Intersting implications when we rely on state wide examinations to assess students.
Peter Beens

Teacher Magazine: Stepping Aside: The Art of Working With Student-Teachers - 1 views

www.teachermagazine.org/...tln_norton_student_teach.html

education student teacher

shared by Peter Beens on 14 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Peter Beens on 14 Sep 09
     
    Stepping Aside: The Art of Working With Student-Teachers\n\nTeacher Leaders Network Although traditional teacher-education programs rely on veteran educators to invite student- or "practice-" teachers into their classrooms, many skilled professionals can be heard expressing some reluctance about sharing instructional responsibilities with green recruits. They may be concerned about their ability to mentor an inexperienced colleague effectively, or simply hesitant to relinquish control of instruction in an atmosphere of high-stakes accountability.\n\nIn a recent post to the Teacher Leaders Network Forum daily discussion group, veteran teacher Vicky expressed some reservations of her own about working with a student-teacher and asked for help.\n\nI may be getting the opportunity to work with a student-teacher. I was wondering about your ideas for starting the year off right, helping the student-teacher, and balancing the load of mentoring the student teacher and teaching the students myself. I'm excited about the possibility, but I'm also a pretty hands-on control freak kind of person, so I want to alternately challenge and excite the intern but not be unfair or scary. Tips?\n\nNancy, a veteran K-12 music teacher, replied:\n\nGreat questions, Vicky. My first suggestion would be adopting the perspective that you will learn as much as the novice teacher-about yourself, your beliefs, and your practice. The first step is probably building a relationship in which the novice teacher trusts you enough to share real information and opinion (and vice-versa).\n\nCreate a safe space to communicate honestly, in both directions. A student teacher who feels comfortable enough to share fears, anxieties, confusion, and frustration-and knows that he or she is not being judged, but honored as a learner by a veteran teacher who also has fears and frustrations-will be a student teacher who can grow.\n\nMy second thought is that from your students' perspective there should be two experts
Justin Medved

HOME - the movie - 0 views

www.youtube.com/watch

video Videos for:rtrevorwoods for:dharter

shared by Justin Medved on 15 Jun 09 - Cached
  • Justin Medved on 15 Jun 09
     
    We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth's climate. The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being. For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film. HOME has been made for you : share it! And act for the planet.
Kate Tabor

Alfie Kohn Rejects National Standards : Constructing Modern Knowledge - 36 views

constructingmodernknowledge.com/cmk08

kohn alfie national standards

shared by Kate Tabor on 11 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Kate Tabor on 11 Jan 10
     
    Brian Silverman says, "It should be required reading for anyone concerned with democracy and long-term viability of public education. I've often said that national standards, even those thinly disguised under mischievous pseudonyms like "common core standards" are not only a destructive force, but a solution in search of a problem. Alfie Kohn makes the case quite effectively. Mr. Kohn once again demonstrates his courage, tenacity and chutzpah by publishing his new article in Education Week's special "Quality Counts" issue. "Quality Counts" is the annual issue sponsored by standardized testing companies who rank each state's educational quality as a function of their reliance on high-stakes testing, teacher-bashing, punitive and anti-democratic education policies. The more draconian the state, the higher their "quality," according to Education Week."
danthomander

Meet the New Common Core - The New York Times - 19 views

www.nytimes.com/...meet-the-new-common-core.html

shared by danthomander on 17 Jun 15 - Cached
  • Standardized tests certainly aren’t going anywhere. States that have dumped exams aligned with the Common Core aren’t dumping high-stakes testing; they’re just switching to new tests, like the ACT’s Aspire. (Other ACT offerings include the Explore, the Engage and the Compass. Apparently standardized tests are titled by the same people who name midsize sedans.)
  • The Common Core is the way math was taught before. True, the new South Carolina standards are 92 percent aligned with the Common Core. But the Common Core was 97 percent aligned with the math standards South Carolina was using before! The term “number sentence,” which the comedian Stephen Colbert mocked, is 50 years old, and the kind of problem it describes appears in textbooks from the 1920s.
  • danthomander on 17 Jun 15
     
    "Standardized tests certainly aren't going anywhere. States that have dumped exams aligned with the Common Core aren't dumping high-stakes testing; they're just switching to new tests, like the ACT's Aspire. (Other ACT offerings include the Explore, the Engage and the Compass. Apparently standardized tests are titled by the same people who name midsize sedans.)"
Martin Burrett

Book review- When the adults change, everything changes by @pivotalpaul - 9 views

ukedchat.com/...when-adults-change

book review behaviour

shared by Martin Burrett on 12 Nov 17 - No Cached
  • Martin Burrett on 12 Nov 17
     
    "Even with 'expert' advice from consultants, self-proclaimed gurus, or politicians, managing behaviour in secondary schools is an art within itself. Different personalities, socio-economic conditions and expectations are all unique to each individual setting so no one slant on how to manage behaviour will suit all schools. Yet the role of pastoral care in many schools has evidently been diminished with the focus turning towards academic achievement in high stakes exam results, with pupils being reduced to 'units of progress'. This is not only a UK shift in focus, with many jurisdictions around the world following a similar pattern."
Maureen Greenbaum

How about no grades for classwork? It might happen in some North Texas classrooms this ... - 52 views

educationblog.dallasnews.com/...exas-classrooms-this-fall.html

wesch couros not yet grade

shared by Maureen Greenbaum on 31 Aug 15 - No Cached
  • One idea brought up by several speakers this year is a hybrid grades-free way of evaluating students. In each case, it included a high-bar pass/fail approach to class assignments, with a final, more regular grade for the entire semester. One of the speakers who presented what he called a “Not Yet” grade was “digital ethnographer” Michael Wesch, a professor at Kansas State University. That’s his photo at the top. He told the crowd that they had to inspire “wonder” in their students in order to get them to learn as much as possible. Some key quotes from him: “Low standards/high stakes are the opposite of what you want.”
  • “The new divide will be between those with wonder and curiosity and those without.”
  • Keynote speaker George Couros is a what’s called a “division principal” back home in Canada. He’s a blogger and author who is all about encouraging creativity and change in public education with an emphasis on taking advantage of digital tools. He told the conference that that it’s foolish to deny students use of their smartphones and other digital tools in the classroom — and even on exams. In 2015, being able to figure out what information is relevant is more important than memorization when most facts are a click away, he said.
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  • “The world only cares what you can do with what you know,” Couros said. He said he clashed with a teacher back home who complained that his approach would let students Google up the answers for her exams. His response: “If I can look up the answers to the questions on your test on Google, your questions suck.”
  • Students get assignments, of course. And they are expected to complete them. In fact, they are required to master them. So kids who might have been happy to get the equivalent of a C on an assignment in another classroom would be required to work at it until they hit the level defined as “mastery.” And the teachers keep track of whether the students have succeeded, whether they’re turning work in on time and whether they are responding to feedback.
  • Maureen Greenbaum on 31 Aug 15
     
    "The new divide will be between those with wonder and curiosity and those without." "The world only cares what you can do with what you know," Couros said. He said he clashed with a teacher back home who complained that his approach would let students Google up the answers for her exams. His response: "If I can look up the answers to the questions on your test on Google, your questions suck."
tnhopper

USATestprep, Inc. - Online State-Specific Review and Benchmark Testing - 4 views

www.usatestprep.com/Home

shared by tnhopper on 30 Apr 12 - No Cached
    • tnhopper
      tnhopper on 30 Apr 12
       
      testing diigo
  • untry. USATestprep has been helping teachers and students prepare for Graduation Exams, Grad
  • SATestprep, Inc. is an online resource to help students learn. Each of our products is custom-designed to help high school and middle school students understand their state's required standards and prepare them for high-stakes, standardized tests. Our subscribers include thousands of teache
Matt Renwick

Rage Against the Common Core - NYTimes.com - 22 views

www.nytimes.com/...e-against-the-common-core.html

commoncore nytimes

shared by Matt Renwick on 01 Jan 15 - No Cached
Sheri Edwards liked it
  • Race to the Top program to encourage states
  • misconception that standards and testing are identical has become widespread
  • Many teachers like the standards, because they invite creativity in the classroom — instead of memorization, the Common Core emphasizes critical thinking and problem-solving.
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  • 76 percent of teachers favored nationwide academic standards
  • unreliable and biased against those who teach both low- and high-achieving students.
  • Obama administration has only itself to blame
  • emphasized high-stakes “accountability” and market-driven reforms
  • link talented teachers with engaged students and a challenging curriculum
Steve Ransom

Principal: 'I was naïve about Common Core' - 4 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...-i-was-naive-about-common-core

commoncore testing standardizedtesting highstakestesting accountability critique

shared by Steve Ransom on 06 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • The promise of the Common Core is dying and teaching and learning are being distorted.  The well that should sustain the Core has been poisoned.
  • Whether or not learning the word ‘commission’ is appropriate for second graders could be debated—I personally think it is a bit over the top.  What is of deeper concern, however, is that during a time when 7 year olds should be listening to and making music, they are instead taking a vocabulary quiz.
  • Real learning occurs in the mind of the learner when she makes connections with prior learning, makes meaning, and retains that knowledge in order to create additional meaning from new information.  In short, with tests we see traces of learning, not learning itself.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Teachers are engaged in practices like these because they are pressured and afraid, not because they think the assessments are educationally sound. Their principals are pressured and nervous about their own scores and the school’s scores. Guaranteed, every child in the class feels that pressure and trepidation as well.
  • I am troubled that a company that has a multi-million dollar contract to create tests for the state should also be able to profit from producing test prep materials. I am even more deeply troubled that this wonderful little girl, whom I have known since she was born, is being subject to this distortion of what her primary education should be.
  • The Common Core places an extraordinary emphasis on vocabulary development
  • Parents can expect that the other three will be neglected as teachers frantically try to prepare students for the difficult and high-stakes tests.
  • They see data, not children. 
  • Data should be used as a strategy for improvement, not for accountability
  • A fool with a tool is still a fool.  A fool with a powerful tool is a dangerous fool.
anonymous

Crash Test | Texas Monthly - 24 views

www.texasmonthly.com/...-standardized-testing-in-texas

standardized testing accountability

shared by anonymous on 24 Apr 13 - No Cached
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 24 Apr 13
       
      This same accountability "fear factor" has been applied nationwide, too.
  • STAAR replaced the four tests previously required for graduation with fifteen—more than any other state. Lawmakers also mandated that the new tests, known as end-of-course exams, would count for 15 percent of a student’s grade in each subject area
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 24 Apr 13
       
      Sounds like the middle school testing requirements here in TN.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • “cult of educational testing” and argued that the accountability system was doing more harm than good
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 24 Apr 13
       
      What wonderful wording!
  • Longtime observers of education policy are openly speculating that we are seeing the beginning of the end of the accountability movement, right here in the state where it was born.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 24 Apr 13
       
      Isn't that amazing?!  How long will this concept take to catch on and make it nationwide?
  • Of course, the stakes are high not just for kids but for adults too. Teachers whose students fail to improve—or don’t improve sufficiently—can find themselves out of a job. Students at poor-performing schools can transfer to better schools in their district—and take their state funding with them.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 24 Apr 13
       
      This is happening locally - I have witnessed such!
  • Shortly before he resigned as education commissioner, Robert Scott warned that assessment and accountability had grown into something akin to a “military-industrial complex,” a kind of public policy juggernaut with its own internal momentum.
joel008

Criterion-referenced assessment - 36 views

www.unm.edu/...criterion.html

learning online education assessment testing high stakes normative criterion no child left behind

shared by joel008 on 25 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • joel008 on 25 Oct 15
     
    Criterion & norm-reference testing
Maureen Greenbaum

Daniel Pinkwater on Pineapple Exam: 'Nonsense on Top of Nonsense' - Metropolis - WSJ - 18 views

blogs.wsj.com/...am-nonsense-on-top-of-nonsense

shared by Maureen Greenbaum on 22 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • An agent I had years ago said just because it’s nonprofit and educational, don’t let them not pay you, because they’re making money.
    • Jolynn Asato
      Jolynn Asato on 22 Apr 12
       
      Wow. What is done in the name of "educational". So much exploitation by an industry that makes much money off the misery of high stakes accountability!
  • They basically turned it into test-ese.
  • and I must interject that I admire the job they did, because it makes even less sense than mine
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • We don’t count that against the kid’s grade, we put that there as a sort of brain teaser to show them that not everything is quantifiable, and to let them have a little fun,” then I’ll retract all my aspersions about how they’re money-grubbing b——- and overcharge for this stuff and sell it over and over again and underpay the poor authors they buy it off of
  • those stupid tests — and you can quote me, stupid tests
  • maybe I misjudged them. Maybe somebody working on the test was slowly going crazy, and wanted to put in something amusing for him or herself, and also for the kids.
  • I’m on this earth to put up a feeble fight against the horrible tendency people have to think that there’s a formula. “If I do the following things, I’ll get elected president.” No you won’t. “If I do the following things, my work of art will be good.” Not necessarily. “If I follow this recipe, the dish will come out very delicious.” Maybe. Trust me, there is no formula for most things that are not math.
  • Maureen Greenbaum on 22 Apr 12
     
    "Daniel Pinkwater on Pineapple Exam: 'Nonsense on Top of Nonsense'"
Roland Gesthuizen

Ravitch: No Child Left Behind and the damage done - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post - 59 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...gIQAR4gxoP_blog.html

NCLB blog USA testing performance schoolperformance

shared by Roland Gesthuizen on 30 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • with the active support of the Obama administration, the NCLB wrecking ball has become a means of promoting privatization and community fragmentation
  • NCLB cannot be fixed. It has failed. It has imposed a sterile and mean-spirited regime on the schools. It represents the dead hand of conformity and regulation from afar. It is time to abandon the status quo of test-based accountability and seek fresh and innovative thinking to support and strengthen our nation's schools.
  • Roland Gesthuizen on 30 Jun 12
     
    "This was written by education historian Diane Ravitch for her Bridging Differences blog, which she co-authors with Deborah Meier on the Education Week website. Ravitch and Meier exchange letters about what matters most in education. Ravitch, a research professor at New York University, is the author of the bestselling "The Death and Life of the Great American School System," an important critique of the flaws in the modern school reform movement that she just updated."
Jac Londe

Power Searching with Google - 91 views

www.powersearchingwithgoogle.com

google search searching

shared by Jac Londe on 12 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • ower Searching with Google Google Search makes it amazingly easy to find information. Come learn about the powerful advanced tools we provide to help you find just the right information when the stakes are high.
Jeremy Brueck

Closing in on Close Reading - 73 views

www.ascd.org/...osing-in-on-Close-Reading.aspx

Common Education reading literacy ELA Common Core CommonCore Close reading close_reading closereading

shared by Jeremy Brueck on 26 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • close reading means reading to uncover layers of meaning that lead to deep comprehension.
  • Close, analytic reading stresses engaging with a text of sufficient complexity directly and examining meaning thoroughly and methodically, encouraging students to read and reread deliberately.
  • If reading closely is the most effective way to achieve deep comprehension, then that's how we should teach students to read.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • But the teaching of reading veered significantly off track when those personal connections (also well represented on some high-stakes state assessments) began to dominate the teaching and testing of comprehension, often leaving the text itself a distant memory.
  • the shift to teaching reading as a set of thinking strategies too often left readers with the notion that the text was simply a launching point for their musings, images that popped into their heads, and random questions that, in the end, did little to enhance their understanding of the text itself.
  • examining meaning thoroughly and analytically
  • directing attention to the text, central ideas, and supporting details
  • reflecting on meanings of individual words and sentences
  • developing ideas over the course of the text
  • The best thinkers do monitor and assess their thinking, but in the context of processing the thinking of others (Paul & Elder, 2008)
  • kari schack on 26 Jul 13
     
    Close Reading
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