Designed to improve equity, MMAP (the Middle School Math Through Applications Project) draws traditionally underserved students, such as minorities and girls, into higher mathematics. The plan features an assessment strategy based on what students are learning, definitions of quality work, student accountability, and encouragement of further…

Dissatisfied with the mismatch between letter grades and their new (state-mandated) curricular emphases, the Tucson (Arizona) Public Schools began experimenting with rubric descriptions of student progress. The prototype progress report assesses students in two general categories: learner qualities and content areas. Frequent communication with…

The High Expectations Learning Process for Standards-Driven Units of Study (HELPS) enables teachers to connect classroom teaching to standards and assessment. Workshops take teachers through a seven-step process: identifying standards, developing ideas for a culminating event, aligning this event with standards, identifying unit blocks, creating…