Towards Coherence Between Classroom Assessment and Accountability

Towards Coherence Between Classroom Assessment and Accountability PDF Author: National Society for the Study of Education
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226901398
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
In analyses of the role of national educational assessment, insufficient attention has been paid to the central place of the classroom. Rather than encouraging a two-way flow of information, today's "standards-based" frameworks tend to direct the flow of accountability from the outside into the classroom. The authors of this volume emphasize that assessment, as it exists in schools today, consists mainly of the measurements that teachers themselves design, evaluate, and act upon every day. Improving the usefulness of assessment in schools primarily requires assisting and harnessing this flood of assessment information, both as a means of learning within the classroom and as the source of crucial information flowing out of classrooms. This volume aims to encourage debate and reflection among educational researchers, professionals, and policymakers. Five source chapters describe successful classroom assessment models developed in partnership with teachers, while additional commentaries give a range of perspectives on the issues of classroom assessment, standardized testing, and accountability.

Towards Coherence Between Classroom Assessment and Accountability

Towards Coherence Between Classroom Assessment and Accountability PDF Author: National Society for the Study of Education
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226901398
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Get Book Here

Book Description
In analyses of the role of national educational assessment, insufficient attention has been paid to the central place of the classroom. Rather than encouraging a two-way flow of information, today's "standards-based" frameworks tend to direct the flow of accountability from the outside into the classroom. The authors of this volume emphasize that assessment, as it exists in schools today, consists mainly of the measurements that teachers themselves design, evaluate, and act upon every day. Improving the usefulness of assessment in schools primarily requires assisting and harnessing this flood of assessment information, both as a means of learning within the classroom and as the source of crucial information flowing out of classrooms. This volume aims to encourage debate and reflection among educational researchers, professionals, and policymakers. Five source chapters describe successful classroom assessment models developed in partnership with teachers, while additional commentaries give a range of perspectives on the issues of classroom assessment, standardized testing, and accountability.

Towards Coherence Between Classroom Assessment and Accountability

Towards Coherence Between Classroom Assessment and Accountability PDF Author: Mark Wilson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Classrooms
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description


Knowing What Students Know

Knowing What Students Know PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309293227
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
Education is a hot topic. From the stage of presidential debates to tonight's dinner table, it is an issue that most Americans are deeply concerned about. While there are many strategies for improving the educational process, we need a way to find out what works and what doesn't work as well. Educational assessment seeks to determine just how well students are learning and is an integral part of our quest for improved education. The nation is pinning greater expectations on educational assessment than ever before. We look to these assessment tools when documenting whether students and institutions are truly meeting education goals. But we must stop and ask a crucial question: What kind of assessment is most effective? At a time when traditional testing is subject to increasing criticism, research suggests that new, exciting approaches to assessment may be on the horizon. Advances in the sciences of how people learn and how to measure such learning offer the hope of developing new kinds of assessments-assessments that help students succeed in school by making as clear as possible the nature of their accomplishments and the progress of their learning. Knowing What Students Know essentially explains how expanding knowledge in the scientific fields of human learning and educational measurement can form the foundations of an improved approach to assessment. These advances suggest ways that the targets of assessment-what students know and how well they know it-as well as the methods used to make inferences about student learning can be made more valid and instructionally useful. Principles for designing and using these new kinds of assessments are presented, and examples are used to illustrate the principles. Implications for policy, practice, and research are also explored. With the promise of a productive research-based approach to assessment of student learning, Knowing What Students Know will be important to education administrators, assessment designers, teachers and teacher educators, and education advocates.

Conceptions of Assessment

Conceptions of Assessment PDF Author: Gavin T. L. Brown
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781604563221
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 198

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Book Description
The purpose of this book is to open a new approach to the design and implementation of classroom assessment and large scale assessment by examining how the participants (ie: teachers and students) actually understand what they are doing in assessment and make recommendations as to how improvements can be made to training, policy, and assessment innovations in the light of those insights. By marrying large-scale surveys, in-depth qualitative analyses, and sophisticated measurement techniques, new insights into teacher and student experience and use of assessment can be determined. These new insights will permit the design and delivery of more effective assessments. Further, it provides us an opportunity to examine whether conceiving of assessment in a certain way (eg: assessment improves quality or assessment is bad or deep learning cannot be assessed) actually contributes to higher or better educational outcomes.

The Wiley Handbook of Teaching and Learning

The Wiley Handbook of Teaching and Learning PDF Author: Gene E. Hall
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118955870
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 704

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Book Description
Provides a comprehensive reference for scholars, educators, stakeholders, and the general public on matters influencing and directly affecting education in today’s schools across the globe This enlightening handbook offers current, international perspectives on the conditions in communities, contemporary practices in schooling, relevant research on teaching and learning, and implications for the future of education. It contains diverse conceptual frameworks for analyzing existing issues in education, including but not limited to characteristics of today’s students, assessment of student learning, evaluation of teachers, trends in teacher education programs, technological advances in content delivery, the important role for school leaders, and innovative instructional practices to increase student learning. The Wiley Handbook of Teaching and Learning promotes new, global approaches to studying the process of education, demonstrates the diversity among the constituents of schooling, recognizes the need for and presents a variety of approaches to teaching and learning, and details exemplary practices in education. Divided into four sections focused on general topics—context and schooling; learners and learning; teachers and teaching; and educators as learners and leaders—and with all-new essays that look at what has been, what is, and what could be, this book is destined to inspire thoughtful contemplation from readers about what it means to teach and learn. Examines teaching, learners, and learning from a contemporary, international perspective, presenting alternative views and approaches Provides a single reference source for teachers, education leaders, and agency administrators Summarizes recent research and theory Offers evidence-based recommendations for practice Includes essays from established and emerging U.S. and international scholars Each chapter includes a section encouraging readers to think ahead and imagine what education might be in the future Scholars from around the world provide a range of evidence-based ideas for improving and modifying current educational practices, making The Wiley Handbook of Teaching and Learning an important book for the global education community and those planning on entering into it.

From Testing to Productive Student Learning

From Testing to Productive Student Learning PDF Author: David Carless
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136467475
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
Research evidence indicates that formative assessment is one of the most effective ways of enhancing student learning. It is, however, difficult to implement successfully, principally because what is tested through summative assessment has such a powerful influence on teacher and student actions. This book scrutinizes the relationship between testing and learning from alternative perspectives to the dominant literature from the major Anglophone countries. It develops the notion of contextually grounded formative assessment practices by analyzing data from schools in the Confucian-heritage setting of Hong Kong. It explores questions such as: • Under what circumstances do tests support or hinder student learning? • How can teachers effectively prepare students for tests and appropriately follow up after tests? • What are the key socio-cultural influences impacting on testing and student learning in the classroom? • How do teachers change in their orientation towards assessment and what support do they require? This text is a valuable resource for education students, professionals and researchers, policy-makers and curriculum developers.

Learning and Doing Policy Analysis in Education: Examining Diverse Approaches to Increasing Educational Access

Learning and Doing Policy Analysis in Education: Examining Diverse Approaches to Increasing Educational Access PDF Author: Maria Teresa Tatto
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9460919332
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
This book originated in a policy analysis class at Michigan State University taught during 2010. Using Professor Tatto’s unique approach to teaching policy analysis, the professor and students agreed to construct a class that represented a reflective and grounded experience in the policy analysis of a current and relevant issue with global ramifications; we began exploring policies that were developed at the global level and that were implemented locally. We investigated the surge of globally developed standards and regulations in an effort to improve education. Our goal was to learn cross-nationally about policies that seek to reform curriculum and instruction under efficiency and global competitiveness arguments, such as Education for All (EFA) and its USA cousin No Child Left Behind (NCLB). We knew our work would be bounded by the time available in a one-semester class, and by resource constraints. We did exploratory inquiry supported by literature reviews, reports on rigorous research studies, and in one case an exploratory case study. The policies we chose to explore, such as EFA and NCLB, offered us the opportunity to examine current reform tendencies that are intended to provide access to quality education for all children, the preparation of teachers to support diverse populations, the organization of schools to accommodate these children in response to vague policy mandates, and power issues affecting the different constituencies and stakeholders. The effects of these and other policies were difficult to track because research is scant and decisions are frequently made based on ideology or political persuasion. Our purpose was to explore the critical issues that originated such policies, and to search for documented evidence regarding policy implementation and effectiveness. We investigated the factors that seemed to interfere with successful implementation, from conceptual, theoretical, and methodological perspectives. In this class we learned that there are not ready-set frameworks for policy analysis, but rather that these have to be constructed according to the issues that emerge as policies are conceptualized and implemented to fit local contexts and needs. The book pays particular attention to the contexts of policy, including the evolving conceptualization of global and local systems of governance, knowledge regimes, and policy spaces. The book is designed for faculty and doctoral students in education who are interested in understanding diverse frameworks for policy analysis, and for those in the general public who are interested in the policies we analyze here.

Understanding and Shaping Curriculum

Understanding and Shaping Curriculum PDF Author: Thomas W. Hewitt
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1452261938
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
Understanding and Shaping Curriculum: What We Teach and Why introduces readers to curriculum as knowledge, curriculum as work, and curriculum as professional practice. Author Thomas W. Hewitt discusses curriculum from theoretical and practical perspectives to not only acquaint readers with the study of curriculum, but also help them to become effective curriculum practitioners. Key Features: Emphasizes the various dimensions of curriculum practice: Becoming a curriculum practitioner requires understanding academic-practice knowledge, the forces shaping curriculum, the array of curriculum work from policymaking to evaluation, and how those are integrated forming a sense of professional practice. This book examines curriculum knowledge that is both academic and practice based. Brings theoretical concepts to life: ′Perspective into Practice′ sections illustrate the relevance of the material to both elementary and secondary school settings and contexts. In addition, end-of-chapter resources provide ideas for further discussion and assignments that address different roles and the various dimensions of curriculum practice. Examines current issues: Part of being a good practitioner is understanding the inevitability of change and the necessity to keep current about issues and trends that affect both the knowledge and the work of curriculum. Separate chapters on issues and trends give students the opportunity to explore what is happening in today′s schools and curriculum. Intended Audience: This is an ideal text for masters and doctoral-level courses on Curriculum, Curriculum Development, and Curriculum Design.

Educational Assessment in the 21st Century

Educational Assessment in the 21st Century PDF Author: Claire Wyatt-Smith
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402099649
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Signs of Change: Assessment Past, Present and Future Another Time, Another Place...Examinations Then and Now In the Temple of Literature in Hanoi, Vietnam, a series of stone stelae records the names of the handful of illustrious examination candidates who, in each century, passed the national examination to become a Doctor of Literature. Beginning in the 11thcentury,theexamswereconductedpersonallybysuccessivekingswhopursued Confucian ideals that found expression in the enormous value placed on the pursuit of wisdom and learning. In the 21st century we are both puzzled and impressed by this tradition. Puzzled by such an explicit commitment to a meritocracy in an essentially feudal society; impressed by this enthusiasm for learning and the pursuit of wisdom at the highest level of society. Yet, there are also important similarities between the 11th and 21st centuries. Then, as now, assessment was associated with excellence, high standards, pr- tige and competition—success for the chosen few; disappointment for the majority. Then, as now, the pursuit of excellence was embedded in a social context that favoured the elite and determined success in terms of the predilections of the p- erful. Then, as now, the purpose of the assessment, the way it was conducted and its impact on society all re ected the social and economic priorities of the day.

Contemporary Curriculum

Contemporary Curriculum PDF Author: John D. McNeil
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0471719439
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Practical tools for joining curriculum conversation Curriculum is a field in continual flux, the result of an ongoing discussion among teachers approaching from a multitude of perspectives. Contemporary Curriculum: In Thought and Action, Seventh Edition offers the tools to participate in curriculum discussion and to construct and implement curriculum in the classroom. The Seventh Edition provides you with practical tools for executing curriculum at all levels: policy, institutional, and classroom. You'll develop multiple strategies for dealing with curriculum problems, and build your skills in such areas as determining goals and purposes, providing optimum learning opportunities, and organizing for effective and continuous learning. This text encourages online curriculum conversation among users and two-way communication between the author and readers. With an array of thoughtful new features and content, the Seventh Edition now: * Profiles thinkers and resources who are energizing the field with "new departures" that deviate from the established views or prevailing thought discussed in each chapter * Covers political ideologies, the conflicts over school subject matter, and data-driven decision making at state, district, school and classroom levels * Examines the functioning of schools and media as democratic institutions and the relationship of citizens and the political system * Discusses the impact of the privatization of schooling and the world-wide growth of the "Silent Curriculum" With a balanced presentation of humanistic, social reconstructionist, systemic, and academic perspectives and fresh insights into key curriculum questions, Contemporary Curriculum: In Thought and Action, Seventh Edition comprises an excellent foundation for every educator from master's to doctoral level.