Assessment
Consortium Points the Way on Proficiency-Based Learning
"David is a great resource for our region," said Nick Donohoe of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, NESSC's primary benefactor. "He has a forward-thinking view of where learning needs to go, related to policies and assessment in particular," and he's particularly good at "summarizing 'edu-ese' for state legislators and local school leaders."
“Keep Your 3, I Want My A”: What’s Up With Standards-Based Grading?
Traditional grading systems are inconsistent, subjective, more about effort than outcomes, and not closely linked to the big goal of college and career readiness. Standards-based grading is an effort to provide more accurate feedback on what students know and can do; it allows students to progress based on demonstrated mastery.
Teaching the Common Core Standards Means Designing Real and Engaging Learning Experiences
Regardless of what you call it, good teaching is good teaching. The Common Core Standards are not new when you look at them carefully. They are refreshing. There, I’ve said it.
New Assessments for New Skills
Without measurement the teaching of collaboration is extremely difficult. The current challenge is how to develop Collaborative Assessment tasks, particularly formative assessments that align with local curriculum, contexts and needs.
Pathbrite Provides E-Portfolios For All Learners
Even though e-portfolios are a natural fit for higher ed, the idea and the tools are quickly trickling down to high school age and even younger because they are great for goal setting as well as recognizing and recording the competencies students need to work towards.
FLVS Students Outperform State Averages
Based on the Spring 2013 EOC assessment results provided by the Florida Department of Education, FLVS Part Time students performed higher than the state average on the Algebra I EOC assessment by 20 percent, on the Geometry EOC assessment by 24 percent, and on the Biology EOC assessment by 3 percent.
PARCC “On Time, On Task”
PARCC chiefs and staff held calls this week to update progress and, in the light of defections, to reassure partners. The message was “PARCC is on time, on task,” and 14 states and the District of Columbia have committed to field-testing the assessment in the spring of 2014.
Teachers Now “Pinning” Common Core Resources in MasteryConnect
Recently, MasteryConnect unveiled a cool, social bookmarking feature for standards aligned resources. Much like the Pinterest paradigm of social bookmarking, teachers find or upload any resource on the web, align it to a state or Common Core standard, and “pin” it to a board or collection.
Aspire Public Schools Launch Schoolzilla
Aspire Public Schools announced that its student performance tool, Schoolzilla, will launch as an independent startup. This is the first time a public school system has developed an innovative student performance tool that is launching as an independent entity.
PARCC Unveils Pricing, Stresses Benefits of New Online Tests
PARCC, one of the two big state testing consortia, unveils pricing and a planning tool for states to help them determine what they need to do to get ready to administer the new tests. The price may be a little higher than some had hoped, but PARCC outlines big benefits compared to current state tests.