This is meant to support states who find they need additional flexibility beyond the three options listed in the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) February 2021 letter to state chiefs. This rationale accompanies the Assessment Flexibility Guidance (ED614803) posted by the Center for Assessment on March 9, 2021. State leaders should select and…

Student ratings are not leaving today or anytime soon. However, as the title of this article indicates, student ratings are not the only option to provide evidence in the evaluation of teaching. There is a broad range of alternatives to consider beyond student ratings in the delicate decision-making processes to improve teaching and determine the…

The Regulations of the Commissioner of Education provide that an intermediate-level science test is to be administered in Grade 8 to serve as a basis for determining students' need for academic intervention services in science. The New York State Grade 8 Intermediate-Level Science Test consists of two required components: a Written Test and a…

As your school district undertakes the process of evaluating its K-12 reading program, literacy curriculum, or literacy instructional practices, this book will be your go-to resource. Pennell offers a step-by-step guide for educators, school leaders, or professional learning communities to evaluate high-quality instructional materials and…

As states are continuing to refine teacher evaluation models, there are opportunities for student learning in the arts to be documented and connected with teacher evaluation. The Tennessee Portfolio of Student Growth in the Arts ("the Portfolio") has provided a new perspective on documenting the relationship between student growth and…

This paper provides a brief literature review related to art teacher candidate dispositions and offers an assessment model that engages candidates in collecting and analyzing evidence of their professional dispositions. Engaging teacher candidates in "assessment as learning" simultaneously serves as one model for assessing studio habits…

Five years after the publication of "Leaders of Their Own Learning," EL Education is back with a new companion guide to help you tackle the common challenges of student-engaged assessment. This unique, student-centered approach to assessment equips and compels students to understand goals for their learning and growth, track their…

School-based mentoring (SBM) is any intervention that takes place within the school building that connects young people with an adult. In contrast to community-based mentoring, mentor-mentee matches in SBM programs typically meet for shorter periods of time (e.g., one hour per week instead of four hours per week), have a shorter duration, and set…

Children's social-emotional and self-regulation skills are critical for success in school and, ultimately, in the workplace. How can educators determine the most effective approaches for measuring students' interpersonal competencies? And how can they use the data to improve their own practice? Relevant for school leaders, educators, researchers,…

The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials for Learning (National AEM Center) at CAST is a technical assistance (TA) center funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The purpose of the Center is to improve educational and employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities through TA activities that increase both the…

Faculty are often evaluated on perceptions of their teaching effectiveness, their service activities, and their research productivity. To meet their institutional standards in each area, the faculty must properly allocate and manage their time. Administrators and department chairs have the means to facilitate or hinder faculty research…

This book shows how to develop assessments that undergraduate psychology faculty and administrators can use when designing pedagogies, courses, and curricula around student learning goals, including those identified by APA's "Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major." The contributors are veteran educators who offer expert…

This White Paper offers a framework for art educators to evaluate the alignment of their assessment methods and goals/objectives for student learning. This effort is an attempt to develop "understandable guidelines" for classroom assessment, specifically attending to the issue of validity. Assessments are valid insofar as they produce…

Many argue that the conventional high school transcript has become irrelevant to today's best practices in teaching, learning, and assessment. With more and more school leaders turning to alternate, competency-based approaches for learning, crediting and transcripts can follow suit by drawing on badging, micro-crediting, digital portfolios of…

Curriculum is a critical force through which students receive the tacit message of their value in society. They learn which groups of people are valued and whose stories are worth learning. For too long, some students' and communities' stories have been deemed unworthy. Students need opportunities to see themselves and others portrayed in texts in…