Archive
component:how.assessment
The Case for Authentic Learning
It was John Dewey who created the notion of “learning by doing.” His famous line was, “Education is not preparation for life: Education is life itself.” And years later it was Jerome Bruner who stated that it wasn’t enough to learn, say, history. The more successful approach would be to teach students to think like a historian. The ideas of these education philosophers, and others such as Johann Pestalozzi, are making something of reappearance in the call for more authentic learning experiences in an age of extensive testing. Authentic learning could be defined as learning that involves real-world tasks and problems.
Q&A: It’s About Time For Proficiency-Based Learning
Diane Smith for the Business Education Compact (BEC) released "It's About Time: A Framework For Proficiency-Based Teaching & Learning" this year in response to a need expressed by the Oregon Department of Education (ODE), which identifies the ways that eliminating seat time and moving toward proficiency-based teaching and learning can improve student achievement.
ASAP Case Study
A Getting Smart case study on the Automated Student Assessment Prize (ASAP) that invited teams to build software systems that could grade written responses on state standardized tests as accurately as trained experts.
Second $100k Hewlett Prize Takes on Short Answer Challenge
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is sponsoring the Automated Student Assessment Prize (ASAP) to improve the quality of student assessment in America and, as a result, increase the quantity and quality of student writing.
What the PGA Can Teach Us About Value-Added Modeling
Value-added modeling, or VAM, is an analogous method of attempting to gauge teacher effectiveness. Technically, SGP is most similar to a variation of VAM known as Student Growth Percentiles (we’ll distinguish the two as SGPGolf and SGPEd). Like SGPGolf and unlike more traditional VAMs, SGPEd does not attempt to explicitly account for the myriad drivers of results such as peer effects, poverty, gang involvement, or home life.
Hewlett Foundation Launches Prize for Short Answer Scoring
The Hewlett Foundation launched a $100,000 prize for scoring short answer student responses today on the Kaggle platform. After successfully tackling essay scoring, this prize takes on the more difficult challenge of scoring, with a high degree of accuracy, constructed responses of less than 150 words.
Does Online Assessment Increase or Reduce Bias?
Dr. Mark Shermis addressed a question about the possible bias of online assessment and said, "Automated essay scoring software will ultimately make it easier to administer more writing assignments, raising the literacy bar for all school children."
Improving Urban Education Options: A Digital Portfolio Approach
There are three key strategies to improving urban schools: bring high expectations to life, create and portfolio of quality options, and phase in personal digital learning
Prize Means More Writing, Deeper Learning for American Students
With the support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Open Education Solutions announced the winners of the $100,000 Automated Student Assessment Prize (ASAP) this morning in Washington DC. The top three teams, made up of international data scientists, developed predictive algorithms that were able to score thousands of essays very quickly with remarkable accuracy compared to expert graders.
Hewlett Foundation Announces Winners of Essay Scoring Technology Competition
A British particle physicist and sports enthusiast, a data analyst for the National Weather Service in Washington, D.C., and a graduate student from Germany won the $60,000 first prize in a competition to design innovative software to help teachers and school systems assess their students’ writing. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation sponsored the contest and awarded $100,000 to the top three research teams – none of whom have a background in education.