Boosting Learner Agency with Student Self-Assessment

Posted on January 28, 2020January 27, 2020 by coreeducation

Writing for KnowledgeWorks, Sarah Pazur reports on the results of a program to increase learner agency through self-assessment in FlexTech High Schools. Excerpts of the piece appear below: Teachers who leverage the power of self-assessment can significantly raise student achievement by teaching students self-regulatory processes. At FlexTech High Schools in Michigan, educators piloted three tools Read more about Boosting Learner Agency with Student Self-Assessment[…]

Time to Help Teachers Be Advocates for Students, Not Their Judge and Jury

Posted on January 22, 2020January 21, 2020 by coreeducation

A recent article by Michael Horn of the Christensen Institute reviews the problem with teachers being both evaluators and facilitators of student learning. Excerpts from the piece appear below: In her bestselling book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” Stanford professor Carol Dweck wrote, “When teachers are judging [students], [they] will sabotage the teacher by Read more about Time to Help Teachers Be Advocates for Students, Not Their Judge and Jury[…]

Frameworks for Evaluating Cognitive Complexity in Assessments

Posted on October 17, 2019October 11, 2019 by coreeducation

Achieve is excited to release three new frameworks – one each for mathematics, reading, and science – for the educator community working on high-quality student assessments. The frameworks, which were developed by content experts and practitioners, can be used to evaluate the cognitive complexity of assessment items (the tasks students must complete on a test) Read more about Frameworks for Evaluating Cognitive Complexity in Assessments[…]

Learn Next: A Toolbox for Educators to Transform Practice

Posted on October 31, 2018October 26, 2018 by coreeducation

Every student deserves access to powerful learning experiences – experiences that help them develop agency, grow their skills and expand their curiosities. Many schools are shifting their practices to be more student-centered in hopes of ultimately developing these qualities in students. We know in transformative environments that the learning and facilitation looks very different. This Read more about Learn Next: A Toolbox for Educators to Transform Practice[…]

What Students Can Show Us About How School Is Letting Them Down-and How to Fix It

Posted on October 10, 2018October 5, 2018 by coreeducation

Three years ago, TNTP set out to understand how so many students could graduate from high school unprepared for the lives they want to lead. To find out, they followed nearly 4,000 students in three large urban districts, one small rural district, and one charter network with three schools in separate cities to view school Read more about What Students Can Show Us About How School Is Letting Them Down-and How to Fix It[…]

The Research Base for Formative Assessment

Posted on August 1, 2018July 30, 2018 by coreeducation

Mary Ryerse and Susan Brookhart, writing for Getting Smart, recently analyzed the research base for formative assessment. Excerpts from their piece appear below: The original research base on formative assessment is most typically traced back to the 1998 publication Assessment and Classroom Learning (Black & Wiliam, 1998), the first widely cited review of literature on Read more about The Research Base for Formative Assessment[…]

What Predicts College Completion? High School GPA Beats SAT Score

Posted on July 12, 2018July 6, 2018 by coreeducation

Preston Cooper, writing for Forbes, has reviewed a new article by Matthew Chingos of the Urban Institute that finds high school GPA to be a better predictor of college completion than SAT score. For excerpts from the article, see below: For obvious reasons, students who exhibit better academic preparation in high school are more likely Read more about What Predicts College Completion? High School GPA Beats SAT Score[…]

Achieve: Do not use SAT or ACT as state summative assessment

Posted on June 12, 2018June 10, 2018 by coreeducation

Achieve released a new brief warning against the use of ACT or SAT exams as the summative high school assessment for English language arts (ELA) and mathematics. Achieve highlighted three reviews of these tests, looking at their alignment to states’ college- and career-ready academic standards and how using the tests for accountability would impact students, Read more about Achieve: Do not use SAT or ACT as state summative assessment[…]

50-State Comparison: State Summative Assessments

Posted on June 7, 2018June 4, 2018 by coreeducation

The Education Commission of the States’ Comparison on State Summative Assessments was just updated and now includes information on the assessments that each state is using to meet federal requirements in 2017-18. As a condition of receiving federal funds, the Every Student Succeeds Act requires state education agencies to implement statewide assessments in mathematics and Read more about 50-State Comparison: State Summative Assessments[…]

Ten Principles of Building High-Quality Systems of Assessment

Posted on March 7, 2018March 1, 2018 by coreeducation

How do state and district leaders cut through the clutter to make decisions on assessments for student success? Finally, there is unprecedented support on how to answer this question with the release of Ten Principles for Building a High-Quality System of Assessments, a collaborative effort led by Jobs for the Future (JFF), a national nonprofit Read more about Ten Principles of Building High-Quality Systems of Assessment[…]

What’s Working in America’s Public Schools

Posted on February 28, 2018February 23, 2018 by coreeducation

Earlier this month, John White, Louisiana state superintendent of education and board chair of Chiefs for Change, wrote a piece for the Washington Post that explored the progress made in America’s public schools over the past decade. Excerpts appear below: On the extremes of the right and the left, there is a growing desire to Read more about What’s Working in America’s Public Schools[…]

February Issue Brief: Performance Assessment

Posted on February 27, 2018February 23, 2018 by coreeducation

Educators seeking to measure student attainment of 21st century skills and deeper learning are increasingly looking to performance assessment as a way to assess student performance meaningfully. ESSA’s innovative testing pilot and new test-optional college admissions policies are removing roadblocks that once stood in the way of widescale adoption of performance assessment. In this month’s Read more about February Issue Brief: Performance Assessment[…]

The Promise of Performance Assessments

Posted on February 5, 2018February 1, 2018 by coreeducation

As states, districts, and schools are expanding instruction to include the competencies associated with college, career, and civic readiness, they are also developing ways to measure mastery of these deeper learning and higher-order thinking skills. These measures include performance assessments, such as portfolios, capstone projects, and senior defenses, alongside classroom performance. Meanwhile, more than 900 Read more about The Promise of Performance Assessments[…]

10 Evidence-Based Policies and Practices for Assessment

Posted on December 20, 2017December 15, 2017 by coreeducation

The Meadows Center at the University of Texas at Austin has released a piece outlining 10 evidence-based policies and practices for high-quality assessment in schools, along with the research supporting them. These policies/practices include the following: School leadership ensures that teachers have a shared understanding of the curriculum and standards across the grades. Schools use Read more about 10 Evidence-Based Policies and Practices for Assessment[…]

School Districts where Students Learn Most

Posted on December 19, 2017December 15, 2017 by coreeducation

New data from researchers at Stanford, based on some 300 million elementary-school test scores across more than 11,000 school districts, reveals the school districts where children are showing the most growth. The results do not follow conventional wisdom. Districts with high growth are scattered across the country, in contrast with sharp geographic divisions on proficiency Read more about School Districts where Students Learn Most[…]

New Online Tracker Shows How States Will Hold Schools Accountable Under ESSA

Posted on November 17, 2017November 11, 2017 by coreeducation

Achieve has released an online tracking tool that summarizes components of states’ accountability plans as submitted to the U.S. Department of Education under the requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The tool also allows for users to compare states’ accountability metrics. As part of ESSA, every state was required to create and submit Read more about New Online Tracker Shows How States Will Hold Schools Accountable Under ESSA[…]