Assessment
Measurement is Friend Not Foe to Creativity
A writer in the Daily Iowan is worried about automated essay scoring killing creativity. He confused two issues. The online scoring engines use the same rubrics to score essays as human graders. The answer is more assessment not less, but much of it will occur in the background behind engaging learning activities.
How Formative Assessment Supports Writing to Learn
One MIT prof thinks he can game one engine and the New York Times and NPR do stories on his anecdotal claims and miss the evidence of many large scientific studies including the study released this month. ASAP was designed to create evidence that supports the use of automated essay scoring to affordably incorporate more writing on their annual tests and avoid tests limited to multiple choice items. ASAP has provided sufficient evidence to support widespread use of automated scoring.
Better Tests, More Writing, Deeper Learning
In a recent private vendor demonstration, nine testing companies showed that “Machine scoring engines did as well or better than the human graders,” as reported by Dr. Mark Shermis. In an open competition, top engines will share $100,000 prize purse to be awarded May 9 in Washington DC.
School Board Members Consider Digital & Deeper Learning
Bob Wise, Mark Edwards and Tom Vander Ark discussed digital learning at NSBA in Boston. Another session considered the potential for the Common Core to encourage deeper learning.
Less Grading, More Teaching, Deeper Learning
Less grading, more teaching. More feedback, less waiting. Fewer worksheets, more writing. Less multiple choice, deeper learning. These are the reasons I’m spending a good portion of 2012 working on online assessment. Better assessment tools means better state tests and richer teaching and learning.
SmartTech: Tab Testing, Apps, Biz Models, & Better Higher Ed
Tablet testing. We think there’s a pretty good chance that both PARCC and SBAC will allow tablets (iPads specifically) for testing. That would be good news for all the districts buying tablets but as Tom discussed in getting ready for online assessment, there are many issues…
Deeper Learning Not Lighter Journalism
One thing that really disappoints me is newspaper reporters that try so hard to be cute that they miss–or botch–a story. Stephanie Simon from Reuters is a pandering case in point. After a number of my colleagues invested a lot of time with her discussing the Hewlett Foundation sponsored Automated…
The 10 Big Issues of Our Time
The introduction of real college and career ready expectations is occurring simultaneously with the shift from batch-print to personal digital learning. These two shocks to the American education ‘system’ lead to at least 10 big issues that need to be addressed.
Webinar: The Comprehensive Assessment Consortia
Two state consortia—Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium—are hard at work putting ambitious designs in place for new assessment systems. They have released materials and will soon select contractors to build assessments and the infrastructure to support them. What do their current plans look like?
New Survey Shows Demand for Personalized & Adaptive Learning Assessments
The Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) and Grunwald Associates LLC released today "For every child, multiple measures," a study that evaluates parent and teacher support for timely, actionable assessments that monitor individual student performance.