What if there was a better way to collect and interpret assessment data that could strengthen the link between teaching and learning? "Student Assessment: Better Evidence, Better Decisions, Better Learning" is the innovative guide to show you how it is done and done right. This unique book offers a new assessment model focused on…

Education can be transformed if we eradicate our fixation on big data like standardized test scores as the supreme measure of equity and learning. Instead of the focus being on "fixing" and "filling" academic gaps, we must envision and rebuild the system from the "student" up--with classrooms, schools and systems…

This paper provides practical guidance for scholars and practitioners looking to develop more rigorous, comprehensive, and inclusive research that could guide proactive efforts to improve access, experiences, and outcomes for college students with disabilities. To do so, we (a) identify critical challenges affecting research and assessment related…

Photographs offer teachers a way to collect and explore student work that might other wise go unnoticed or minimally examined. A teacher might use photographs to analyze students' strategies and work to promote future instructional practices that result in higher student achievement. As a tool, photographs document student understanding and…

This article provides an overview of the instructional activity implemented to introduce the authors' first-grade students to the concept of measuring, collecting, and recording temperature data as part of a unit on weather. The activities introduced involved approximately one week of instructional time. However, the application of the skill…

Old habits die hard, particularly when they are part of the unexamined norms of schooling. In "Why Are We Still Doing That?," the best-selling authors of "Total Participation Techniques" lead a teacher-positive, empathetic inquiry into 16 common educational practices that can undermine student learning: (1) Round robin reading;…

The recommendations in this brief create a framework for using data effectively to make instructional decisions. The availability of student-level data for educators has pushed forward the movement to strengthen the role of data to guide instruction and improve student learning. While improvements in technology and assessments, as well as recent…

Student engagement is an important consideration for teachers and administrators because it is explicitly associated with achievement. What the authors call the ABC's of engagement they outline as: Affective engagement, Behavioral engagement, and Cognitive engagement. They also present "Three Things Every Teacher Needs to Know about…

The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what the nation's students know and can do in subjects such as civics, geography, mathematics, reading, U.S. history, and writing. The results of NAEP are released as The Nation's Report Card. NAEP is a congressionally…

Special educators are required to collect data on student progress and use it as formative data to inform instructional decisions. Being told to collect student data without being shown how to effectively and efficiently collect it, may cause teachers to become overwhelmed. This article provides three easy-to-use templates to facilitate quick data…

Rhode Island educators believe that implementing a fair, accurate, and meaningful educator evaluation and support system will help improve teaching and learning. The primary purpose of the Rhode Island Model Teacher Evaluation and Support System (Rhode Island Model) is to help all teachers improve. Through the Model, the goal is to help create a…

Archaeology provides the chance to ask questions about human culture, past and present, using artifacts as evidence. By studying archaeology, students learn about how people in their region found and prepared food, responded to changes in their environment (e.g., flooding, earthquakes, droughts), and interacted with other peoples. This article…

The purpose of this Guidebook is to describe the process and basic requirements for the student learning measures that are used as part of the teacher evaluation and support process. For aspects of the process that have room for flexibility and school/district-level discretion, the different options have been clearly separated and labeled with a…

3rd Edition! When should we assess, and when should we evaluate? What might be the results of evaluating too early or too much? How do we know if we are evaluating the right things? How do we know what makes sense for the learner and for the course? These questions are at the heart of "Making Classroom Assessment Work." This book combines powerful…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is one approach to teaching science that supports the notion that students construct knowledge within contextual settings, and that critical thinking and application are best fostered within these realistic contexts. In other words, learning activities are best applied when they are authentic or embedded in real-life…