U.S. Plans Major Changes in How Students Are Tested - NYTimes.com - 2 views
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The use of smarter technology in assessments,” Mr. Duncan said, “makes it possible to assess students by asking them to design products of experiments, to manipulate parameters, run tests and record data.
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not only end-of-year tests similar to those in use now but also formative tests that teachers will administer several times a year to help guide instruction
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In performance-based tasks, which are increasingly common in tests administered by the military and in other fields, students are given a problem — they could be told, for example, to pretend they are a mayor who needs to reduce a city’s pollution — and must sift through a portfolio of tools and write analytically about how they would use them to solve the problem.