Infusing five processes into assignments can help students hone the skills they'll need to address complex problems. The world students will enter is full of complex, unpredictable problems--and students will need sophisticated thinking skills to cope. The authors unpack five thinking processes students need to internalize through opportunities in…

Co-­teaching is the newest initiative to be implemented in school districts. Students with special needs can no longer be simply physically "included" in general education classes. These students need and deserve authentic opportunities to access and participate in the curriculum. To accomplish this goal, co-­teaching has been embraced.…

Value-added models are a specific type of "growth model," a diverse group of statistical techniques to isolate a teacher's impact on his or her students' testing progress while controlling for other measurable factors, such as student and school characteristics, that are outside that teacher's control. Opponents, including many teachers, argue…

The author, who has served as a school board member and district superintendent, advocates that school districts use an academic return on investment approach to evaluate and make decisions about spending, specifically in special education. This approach requires that schools formally evaluate all programs, efforts, and strategies by multiple…

Dueck recounts how, as a high school history teacher, he began to allow students to retake all or part of their end-of-unit tests. Influenced by the work of Rick Stiggins, Dueck prepared students for tests better by focusing on three questions Stiggins says students should be able to answer for themselves: Where am I going in this unit?, Where am…

Forty-six states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Department of Defense schools have adopted the Common Core State Standards. Adoption was only the first step. Ensuring that the standards will improve student learning will require new assessments, curriculums, instructional materials and resources, and professional development.…

Scads of pseudodiagnostic tests are peddled by commercial vendors who recognize that desperate educators will do almost anything to dodge an impending accountability cataclysm. And this "almost anything" includes buying tests that promise to help a teacher raise test scores--even if they don't. Accordingly, today's educators need to be aware of…

Student affect--the attitudes, interests, and values that students exhibit and acquire in school--can play a profoundly important role in students' postschool lives, possibly an even more significant role than that played by students' cognitive achievements. If student affect is so crucial, then why don't teachers assess it? One deterrent is that…

The skills that students need for the 21st century are not really new, assert Rotherham and Willingham. Critical thinking, problem solving, information literacy, and global awareness have been important to human progress throughout history, at least among the elites in different societies. What is new is the extent to which individual and…

Suggests that the key question in designing an evaluation effort is not "who" or "what" should be evaluated, but "why" the evaluation is being conducted. Once the purpose of the evaluation is established, the "who" and "what" follow logically. (JG)

Relates why educators should embrace tests as tools for transforming teaching and learning. States that rigorous and meaningful testing can help ensure the academic achievement of all students. Further, useful education assessments must make clear what they measure, and they must measure what educators value most. (Contains six references.) (WFA)

Outlines the services provided to schools by The Wisconsin School Evaluation Consortium. It exists to provide evaluation of the effectiveness of educational programs to its members. Includes references. (MD)

Holds that the person is central to evaluation and that persons have the power to experience meanings that they perceive, create, discover, enjoy, and act on. Explores the possible meanings that persons give to evaluation and considers the significance of the meanings for evaluation. (Author/JG)

Proposes a method for evaluating courseware as an integral part of curriculum, based both on "curriculum commonplaces" (the curriculum content and all that surrounds it) and on educational values and beliefs; an evaluative matrix is offered, with the commonplaces arrayed along one axis, values and beliefs along the other. (MCG)