Leveraging data for change and improvement is the least discussed but most difficult step to implement in the assessment cycle. This practical book closes the loop by linking the higher education assessment process with change management frameworks, allowing for greater institutional adaptability, improvement, and innovation. Seasoned assessment…

Even though digital technologies are ubiquitous in education, assessment methods continue to employ traditional assessments even though they are inadequate to provide information about a student's reasoning and conceptual understanding. Digital-based assessment models allow students to demonstrate higher-order skills while integrating digital…

The pandemic affected the lives and social-emotional experiences of every student to some extent. Along with the unprecedented closures of schools across the country in March 2020, virtually all social activities ceased. Students were cut off from their teachers, with uneven access to live instruction and hands-on, collaborative learning. There…

The Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning (C-SAIL), examines how college- and career-readiness (CCR) standards are implemented, if they improve student learning, and what instructional tools measure and support their implementation. This brief presents findings from C-SAIL's Implementation Study, which uses interview and survey…

Guidelines for evaluating responses to requests for proposals (RFPs) for state-level educational assessment programs are presented. The guidelines articulate key choice points, options, and considerations by state (and district) testing directors as they solicit services for large-scale assessment from commercial testing companies. Focus is on…

Defines education's new paradigm as schooling based on decision making, the critical thinking skills serving it, and the knowledge base supporting it. Outlines a model decision-making process using a hypothetical breakfast problem; a late riser chooses goals, generates ideas, develops an action plan, and implements and evaluates it. (4 references)…

Originally part of a symposium on educational media for the deaf, the paper presents guidelines and suggestions for the use of games and simulations in the education of this population. Steps in the design of games, such as determining the educational goals and objectives of the games, are discussed. (PHR)

The Primary Trait System (PTS) of scoring was devised by the National Assessment of Educational Progress to score large numbers of natural writing samples. Essentially, PTS permits evaluation of writing in an objective way, but one that does not rely on scoring surface features such as mechanics, grammar, or spelling. While the assessment value of…

Following through on the principles and guidelines from the ASCD book Staying Centered: Curriculum Leadership in a Turbulent Era, Steven J. Gross gives the reader a blueprint for extending the legacy of curriculum innovation for 10 years or more. Firsthand accounts from innovative schools and districts flesh out the key challenges to overcome,…

Delineates some of the general difficulties encountered while introducing simulations/games into a secondary school system with emphasis on time, spatial organization, and methods of evaluating learning. Sixteen references are appended. (Author/LLS)

Suggests that modeling the writing process be carried one step further by the classroom writing teacher to the publishing component, and recounts some of the benefits to be gained by doing so. (NKA)

In an undergraduate course in international economics, students are required to answer all questions on examinations and to assign weights to the questions to be used in calculating grades. Seventy-three percent of the students like this format. One surprising result is that poorer students have a much better perception of their knowledge level…

Presents activities, techniques, and processes developed by classroom teachers to evaluate student learning. The authors included those evaluative techniques which assisted student growth along informational, cognitive, social and affective dimensions. (Author/DB)

Examines the consequences of assigning student grades using test-score averaging on course materials, tests, and learning. Proposes an alternative method of grading based on progressive improvement by the student that emphasizes the learning of concepts. (MDH)

The Internet has become a powerful force in transforming organizations in both private and public sectors, including public education. Some educational reformers now view virtual schools, in which the majority of course content is delivered online, as a viable alternative and innovative means of educating K-12 students. As of September 2007, 42…