What is the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and how will it affect our school or district
0 Comments Posted Tuesday, May 15, 2012
DORA on Pennsylvania RtI List
0 Comments Posted Thursday, June 30, 2011
The Gold Standard of RtI Implementation
Discovering the best way to implement RtI in your school or district
5 Comments Posted Friday, September 19, 2008
Out of Control
It's bad enough that children are increasingly losing control over their personal opinions and insights for the sake of making the right scores on high-stakes tests. It's awful when they become ill over it--when it's not about educating children as much as it is about controlling them.
2 Comments Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Let’s Go Learn Co-Founder Featured in District Administration Article
District Administration has released an article highlighting the need for diagnostic assessment in the classroom. Featured in their article is Dr. Richard McCallum, co-founder of Let's Go Learn.
0 Comments Posted Friday, March 07, 2008
Response to Intervention: What You Need to Know
Whatever your political leanings may be, you can probably see the argument that NCLB has in many ways been good for low-achieving students. Titles 1 & 3, among others, have channeled funds directly toward students who need help, whether during the day or after school. An outgrowth of the focus on low-achieving kids has been a movement to systematize and structure the types of interventions schools offer for such students. This process has been codified in what is termed "Response to Intervention," or RtI.
4 Comments Posted Friday, February 15, 2008
Speaking Out Against Graduation Exams
Educators and school board members alike are speaking out against the proposed graduation exam requirements in Pennsylvania. With the number of benchmark assessments on the rise across the country, there are many who feel that assessments are the only way to hold both teachers and students accountable for their learning. But in Pennsylvania, they disagree.
0 Comments Posted Tuesday, January 22, 2008
U.S. Flatlines on PISA
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recently released the results of its Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
0 Comments Posted Monday, December 10, 2007
Another Vote against Oral Reading Measures
Teachers have long used oral reading measures as a standard of reading assessment. Meanwhile, opponents have launched a variety of criticisms, pointing to the social stigma associated with reading out loud and claiming too great a focus on "sounding right." But new research from the University of Maryland presents fresh, concrete data against oral reading measures and in favor of silent reading comprehension in student assessment.
1 Comments Posted Thursday, November 29, 2007
Never Underestimate the Importance of Informal Assessment
Documenting student reading behavior has always been a challenge, and with the stress now on formal reading assessments, it's important to remember that reading is a distinctly personal process--and to remember that we're not teaching reading; we're teaching children.
4 Comments Posted Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Separate the Chaff from the … What? – The Irony of Reading Research
"Scientifically-based reading research" (SBRR) is a term that has been widely used since the passage of NCLB and the Reading First Act, and the publication of the National Reading Panel's five essential elements of reading instruction in their report "Teaching Children to Read." Unfortunately, SBRR today, as informative and unbiased as it sounds, is not used by the powers that be to truly tease out the very complex nature of reading and learning to read.
0 Comments Posted Thursday, October 25, 2007
D for Missing Assignments
The National Panel for Assessment and Educational Progress, which bills itself as the nation's "report card," recently released the results of its periodic assessment of a sampling of children's reading and math skills around the nation. According to the report card, children seem to be doing significantly better in math and moderately better in reading. However, the report card also shows that the achievement gaps between white children and their Black and Hispanic counterparts have changed very little.
0 Comments Posted Thursday, October 11, 2007