Traditional letter and number grades are inaccurate and harmful to children, while research indicates that standards-based grading is both more accurate and better for all stakeholders. However, despite standards-based report cards (SBRCs) coming in many forms, the best number and arrangement of performance level descriptors (PLDs) remains…

At any point during the school year, a teacher may find out the gap between what students know and need to learn is not large at all. In fact, formative assessment data may show a handful of students already have mastered the content for a specific unit of study. While some learners will achieve grade-level standards at the pace outline by a…

After the authors reviewed the "State of State Standards--and the Common Core--in 2010" they found that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were clearer and more rigorous than the English language arts (ELA) standards in 37 states and stronger than the math standards in 39 states. States were encouraged to adopt the CCSS. By 2013 the…

The purpose of this study was to gauge the degree to which selected NWEA MAP Growth assessments are aligned to the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) and the extent to which MAP Growth reports can be used by school divisions to gauge student achievement relative to grade level and to identify learning gaps. The study was delimited to four MAP…

This document offers a brief guide to understanding Virginia's system for holding schools accountable for raising student achievement. Virginia's accountability system supports teaching and learning by setting rigorous academic standards--known as the Standards of Learning (SOL)--and through annual statewide assessments of student achievement.…

In this report, the authors present findings from their analysis of social studies state standards. The following questions guided their work: (1) To what extent do middle and high school (grades 8-12) history and civics state standards support teaching about political parties? For the states that do include language about political parties, what…

As states begin to demand more rigor on their high-stakes tests--and the tests evolve to incorporate revised academic standards--many officials are gambling that an initial wave of lower scores will give way to greater student achievement in the future. Changes to statewide tests and subsequent plummeting scores sparked controversy and emergency…

States with an alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS) that received a flexibility waiver from some of the requirements of No Child Left Behind are required to phase out their use of this assessment. And, on August 23, 2013, the U.S. Department of Education published a proposed rollback of regulation that allowed the…

This content analysis explored how Civics and Government textbooks and the Virginia Standards of Learning for Civics and Government courses reflect citizenship outcomes, specifically deconstructing the unique needs of marginalized students. The coding frame was constructed by using themes and categories from previous literature, specifically…

This report presents a multi-year study of how states are implementing their state college- and career-readiness standards. In this report, the Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB's) Benchmarking State Implementation of College- and Career-Readiness Standards project studied state efforts in 2014-15 and 2015-16 to foster effective…

Concerns about academic standards, whether created by states from scratch or adopted by states under the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) banner, have drawn widespread media attention and are at the top of many state policymakers' priority lists. Recently, a number of legislatures have required additional steps, such as waiting periods for…

At the beginning of the last decade, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002. Key provisions of this act focused on holding schools accountable to ensure that all students met state established standards. In Virginia, the state Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments form the basis of…

Evaluation of instructional personnel is standard procedure in our Pre-K-12 public schools, and its purpose is to document educator effectiveness. With Race to the Top and No Child Left Behind waivers, states are required to implement performance-based evaluations that demonstrate student academic progress. This three-year study describes the…

The purpose of this study was to analyze outstanding agricultural education teachers' attitudes towards mathematics integration. An investigation into the collaboration efforts being made between the agricultural education and mathematics departments was also included. The objective of this study was to identify the primary themes to integration…

On June 24, 2010, the Virginia Board of Education unanimously adopted a statement expressing its continuing commitment to Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOL) and opposition to making participation in federal grant and entitlement programs contingent on word-for-word adoption of the newly developed Common Core State Standards in reading and…