Many of the videos on this site are a culmination of the work of practitioners who led breakout sessions at a standards-based grading conference held April 24, 2013 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This website is organized around three themes: SBG 101: videos designed classroom practitioners who are getting started with standards-based grading. Discipline-specific: math, science, social studies, language arts, visual arts, career & technical education videos Leadership/Change: videos for administrators and leadership teams.

In the just-released Math Publisher's Criteria document on the Common Core Standards, the authors say this about (bad) curricular decision-making: "'Fragmenting the Standards into individual standards, or individual bits of standards … produces a sum of parts that is decidedly less than the whole' (Appendix from the K-8 Publishers' Criteria). Breaking down standards poses a threat to the focus and coherence of the Standards. It is sometimes helpful or necessary to isolate a part of a compound standard for instruction or assessment, but not always, and not at the expense of the Standards as a whole.

I recently read a popular science book on a topic that I felt I needed to learn more about. The book was well written, ideas were clearly explained, and I finished the book knowing a lot more about the history of the subject than beforehand. However, I don't feel I understand the key ideas in the book any better. I won't mention the name of the book or the author because this post isn't really about that specific book. It's about how I feel books of this nature often fail to deliver on what they implicitly promise: that you will understand the science contained within their pages.

From elementary school to high school, school choice is an integral part of U.S. urban education today. In New York City, eighth graders just learned if they'd been accepted into one of their top high school selections, and in the coming weeks, families will learn where their children will be attending kindergarten in the fall.

n Chapter 2 of the book Creating & Recognizing Quality Rubrics, we describe a "rubric for rubrics" designed to assist educators to be thoughtful consumers and developers of rubrics for instructional use in the classroom. The various quality levels described by the Rubric for Rubrics are illustrated with many sample classroom rubrics. All classroom rubrics discussed in the book have been evaluated using the Rubric for Rubrics; these evaluations are included on a CD that accompanies the book.

Mike Wiser at The Quad-City Times reported today on the controversy here in Iowa around connecting student test scores to teacher evaluations (aka 'value-added modeling' or 'VAM'). Last week I shared the research and prevailing opinion of scholars supporting why this should not be done.

T he Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM), the product of a major, multiyear state-led initiative coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), present an extraordinary opportunity for districts across the country to move to higher levels of achievement for all students. These rigorous standards will require that districts reexamine what it means for all students to understand and to do mathematics in ways that prepare them for success in a rapidly changing world.

Grade 7 Summative Assessment

PARCC is a 22-state consortium working together to develop next-generation K-12 assessments in English and math.

Example item tasks...interesting reading for how students will be assessed.

Smarter Balanced is a state-led consortium developing assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards in English language arts/literacy and mathematics that are designed to help prepare all students to graduate high school college- and career-ready.

NCTM has committed itself to equity, with many of us working toward a new generation of mathematics-savvy citizens and STEM professionals representing our diverse population. We need to take stock of the record and take action from the state house to the classroom, so that our vision becomes reality and our hopes for our students are realized. Philip "Uri" Treisman is professor of mathematics and of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he directs the Charles A. Dana Center. He is a senior adviser to the Aspen Institute's Urban Superintendents' Network and recently served on the 21st-Century Commission on the Future of Community Colleges. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1992 for his work on nurturing minority student achievement in college mathematics and 2006 Scientist of the Year by the Harvard Foundation of Harvard University for his outstanding contributions to mathematics. In all his work, Treisman advocates for equity and excellence in education for all children. Philip Uri Treisman Charles A. Dana Center, University of Texas at Austin

Over the past few years, I've become convinced that today's kids are best motivated as learners when they are tackling a real-world issue in a meaningful way. That's why my #sugarkills blog and my classroom microlending project have been so successful.

"So much rides on the results of standardized tests these days. They're even talking about making student scores worth 50 percent of my own evaluation and using them to determine my pay! I don't want to spend weeks "drilling and killing" my students with test-prep work sheets. What am I supposed to do?" - A teacher's question

"You want some great ed tech tools to use in your classroom? You got em'-50, to be exact! This article written by the folks from Edudemic features an extensive list of some of the most awesome technological tools you can find for teaching and learning. There's lots to explore here, so have fun!"

Core Math Tools is a downloadable suite of interactive software tools for algebra and functions, geometry and trigonometry, and statistics and probability. The tools are appropriate for use with any high school mathematics curriculum and compatible with the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics in terms of content and mathematical practices. Java required.

When incorporated into classroom practice, the formative assessment process provides information needed to adjust teaching and learning while they are still happening. The process serves as practice for the student and a check for understanding during the learning process. The formative assessment process guides teachers in making decisions about future instruction. Here are a few examples that may be used in the classroom during the formative assessment process to collect evidence of student learning.

It's a pretty exciting time to work in my current school district. About twenty years ago, the elementary school implemented a standards-based report card. Over the past several years, we've seen a grassroots movement in the area of assessment and grading reform in our secondary buildings. Dozens of teachers and building leadership teams have visited and/or inquired about what's going on in our high school and middle school, which is one of the reasons we'll soon be co-hosting a standards-based grading conference in eastern Iowa (before you ask, we've reached our registration capacity and the waiting list has been closed as well).

For the past three years at HFS we have removed what traditionally has been known as homework and replaced it with a term by term 'Homework Challenge' and, even though we still face some of the same issues that we faced before and it is not a perfect model, it is an improvement on what we knew as homework.