500 AP style questions with detailed answer explanations to prepare you for what you'll see on test day From key geography concepts to population, culture, cities and urban land use-there is a lot of subject matter to know if you want to succeed on your AP Human Geography exam. That's why we've selected these 500 AP-style questions and answers that cover all topics found on this exam. The targeted questions will prepare you for what you'll see on test day, help you study more effectively, and use your review time wisely to achieve your best score. Each question includes a concise, easy-to-follow explanation in the answer key. You can use these questions to supplement your overall AP Human Geography preparation or run them shortly before the test. Either way, 5 Steps to a 5: 500 Human Geography Questions will get you closer to achieving the score you want on test day.

In Grading Justice: Teacher-Activist Approaches to Assessment, new and seasoned teachers explore socially-just approaches of assessment, including practices aimed at resisting and undoing grading and assessment altogether, to create more democratic grading policies and practices, foregrounding the transformative potential of communication within college courses. The contributions in this collection invite readers to consider not only how educators might assess social justice work in and beyond the classroom, but also to imagine what a social justice approach to grading and assessment would mean for intervening into potentially unjust modes of teaching and learning by creating more just practices and policies. Scholars of pedagogy, Social Activism, and communications will find this book particularly interesting.

This book provides a refined definition of standardized educational test fairness that can be utilized in multiple contexts to better understand the experiences and perspectives of diverse groups of test takers. Globally, there has been a significant influx in the use of and dependence on standardized tests to foster educational improvements. Standardized testing programs such as TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), are designed to provide information about a country's global standing in multiple academic areas, ranking individuals and/or groups relative to the performance of others. The high-stakes nature of standardized tests has increased public concern and interest in issues related to test fairness. Since standardized test performance has a profound influence on multiple aspects of educational systems, it is imperative to better understand and examine issues of fairness.

Design Thinking in Student Affairs: A Primer constitutes such an important and timely contribution to the literature. By focusing equally on the theory, mindset, and practice of design thinking, the book fills a gap by providing a roadmap for theoretically informed practice and culture change. Authored by trusted colleagues with expertise in leadership, innovation, assessment, storytelling, equity, organizational development, change management, and student success in both Canada and the United States-thebook makes a compelling case for using design thinking to facilitate human-centered, cocreated, high-impact solutions within and beyond the traditional realm of student affairs.Given the unprecedented combination of new and exacerbated challenges facing our colleges and universities-decreasing government funding, student mental health and well-being, diversity and inclusion efforts, and affordability chief among them-who among us doesn't need another arrow in their quiver?"-From the Foreword by Janet Morrison, President and Vice Chancellor of Sheridan College, Ontario, Canada Design thinking is an innovative problem-solving framework. This introduction is the first book to apply its methodology to student affairs and, in doing so, points the way to its potentially wider value to higher education as a whole. With its focus on empathy, which is the need to thoroughly understand users' experiences, design thinking is user-centered, similar to how student affairs is student-centered. Because the focus of design thinking is to design with users, not for users, it aligns well with student affairs practice. In addition, its focus on empathy makes design thinking a more equitable approach to problem-solving than other methods because all users' experiences-not just the experiences of majority or "average" student-need to be understood. Centering empathy in problem-solving processes can be a tool to disrupt higher education systems and practices. Design thinking is a framework to foster innovation, and, by its nature, innovation is about responding to change factors with creativity. In an organization, design thinking is inherently connected to organizational change and culture because the process is really about changing people to help them rally around a disruptive idea. Implementing design thinking on a campus may in itself be disruptive and require a change management process. The beauty of using design thinking is that it can also act as a framework to support organizational culture change. Design thinking approaches, with their focus on stakeholder needs (as opposed to systemic norms), collaborative solutions building, and structured empathy activities can offer a concrete tool to disrupt harmful systems of power and oppression. Design thinking as a process is not a magic solution to equity problems, though it can be a powerful tool to approach the development of solutions that can address inequity. Design thinking is data-driven and considers both qualitative and quantitative data as necessary to gain most complete picture of an issue and its possible solutions, whether a product, program, or service. Design thinking has numerous benefits to afford students affairs. Chapter 1 outlines a case for design thinking in student affairs. Chapter 2 discusses a brief history of design thinking, noting its germination and evolution to current practice. Chapter 3 provides a detailed description of each step of the design thinking model with pertinent examples to make the steps clearer. Chapter 4 explains the intersection of equity and design thinking while chapter 5 explores the use of design thinking for organizational change. Chapter 6 presents a new model for design thinking assessment. Chapter 7 addresses the challenges and limitations of the process. Chapter 8 concludes the book by discussing the alignment of design thinking and student affairs and outlining next steps. Design thinking is an innovative process that can change the way higher education and student affairs operates, realizing the potential it offers.

For a wide variety of courses in classroom assessment. This highly respected text offers the most comprehensive discussion of traditional and alternative assessments of any classroom assessment text-explaining, giving examples, discussing pros and cons, and showing how to construct virtually all of the traditional and alternative assessments teachers use in the classroom. The author explores assessment theories and research findings as they affect teaching and learning, and examines why, when, and how teachers should use assessment in the classroom. To the text's hundreds of practical examples are added checklists to aid in evaluating assessment vehicles and scores of strategies for assessing higher-order thinking, critical-thinking, and problem-solving skills.

Assessment in schools has become a hotly debated issue in education. In the wake of political pressures for accountability, educators have sought to defend the principle that assessment should serve the interests of learners and learning. With the aim of improving learning and raising standards, this book presents a case for formative assessment, day-by-day, rather than summative assessment at the end of key stages. The author draws on and discusses the practical application of a range of theoretical and philosophical research, encouraging a holistic approach and focused teacher-intervention. The book provides material for reflection as well as practical tips, and is suitable for instrumental and classroom teachers (at all levels, but particularly 11-18), and the academic community.

This book examines the principles and practice of authentic assessment. It seeks to answer the following questions. What is authentic assessment? How is authentic assessment different from 'performance assessment' or 'alternative assessment'? How can authentic assessment support learner-centred education, especially when a performance-oriented culture favours pen-and-paper examinations? The book is structured into two major parts. The first, 'Principles of authentic assessment design', provides readers with a conceptual explanation of authenticity; the principles for designing quality authentic assessments for valid evidence of student learning; and guidance about how to develop quality rubrics to structure assessment tasks. The second part of the book, 'Theory into practice' provides examples developed by teachers to demonstrate an understanding of authentic assessment. The subject areas covered include humanities, languages, mathematics, sciences, character and citizenship. Two case studies are discussed to demonstrate how authentic assessment can be used to comprehensively address key learning objectives in a variety of curriculum contexts. This book provides practitioners with concrete examples on how to develop authentic assessment to suit their context and also enhance their students' learning. The book will also enable teachers to face assessment challenges present in our changing world. Chapter 1 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com

Alternative Assessments With Gifted and Talented Students provides a concise and thorough introduction to methods for identifying gifted students in the school setting. Including overviews of assessment tools and alternative methods of assessment, as well as pertinent discussions concerning the need to identify gifted and talented students, this book combines research and experience from top scholars in the field of gifted education in a convenient guide for teachers, administrators, and gifted education program directors. Topics covered include the need for nonverbal testing with traditionally unidentified students; the identification of students from minority populations; the value of using traditional assessments with students; the role of creativity tools as a measure of giftedness; and the use of portfolios, products, and performance-based assessment to document learning; among others. This handy guide to assessing and identifying gifted students is a necessity for anyone serving and working with this population. A service publication of the National Association for Gifted Children (Washington, DC)This designation indicates that this book has been jointly developed with NAGC and that this book passes the highest standards of scholarship, research, and practice.

Critical Perspectives on Education Policy and Schools, Families, and Communities offers scholars, students, and practitioners important new knowledge about how current policies impact families, schools, and community partnerships. The book's authors share a critical orientation towards policy and policy research and invite readers to think differently about what policy is, who policymakers are, and what policy can achieve. Their chapters discuss findings from research grounded in diverse theories, including institutional ethnography, critical disability theory, and critical race theory. The authors encourage scholars of family, school, and community partnerships to ask who benefits from policies (and who loses) and how proposed reforms maintain or disrupt existing relations of power. The chapters present original research on a broad range of policies at the local, state/provincial, and national levels in Canada and the USA. Some authors look closely at the enactment of specific district policies, including a school district's language translation policy and a policy to create local advisory bodies as part of decentralization efforts. Other chapters reveal the often unacknowledged yet necessary work parents do to meet their children's needs and enable schools to operate. A few chapters focus on challenges and paradoxes of including families and community members in policymaking processes, including a case where parents demonstrated a preference for a policy that research demonstrates can be detrimental to their children's future education opportunities. Another set of chapters emphasizes the centrality of policy texts and how language influences the educational experiences and engagement of students and their families. Each chapter concludes with a discussion of implications of the research for educators, families, and other community partners.

The third edition of Assessing Readers continues to bridge the gap between authentic, informal, and formative assessments and more traditional quantitative and summative assessment approaches. Designed to assist educators and reading specialists in making informed decisions about not only what to assess, but also how, it provides teachers with a menu of qualitative assessment options, encouraging them to consider their own values and beliefs in light of the goals they have for the students they teach. Building on nearly four decades of theory, research, and practice, it is up to date with current research and offers specific assessment, instruction, and organizational ideas and strategies. With an emphasis on comprehension, motivation and engagement, and developing strategic knowledge, Assessing Readers offers a road map for teachers trying to meet the demands of increasingly rigorous standards. Features include examples of student-centered assessment, ideas for organizing and managing differentiated instruction, sample lesson plans, and authentic case studies. Accessible and practical, the third edition empowers pre-service and in-service teachers alike, encouraging them to think about the importance of their assessment and instructional choices and supporting them with the tools they need to achieve their goals and meet the needs of all students. Changes in the Third Edition: A new focus on literacy development and developmentally responsive instruction Expanded coverage of emergent literacy and the assessment of foundational skills, including concepts about print, storybook reading, phonological and phonemic awareness, alphabet knowledge, and concept of word in text A new section on assessing vocabulary and morphological knowledge Expanded coverage of response to instruction/intervention (RTI) New information on assessment and instruction of culturally and linguistically diverse students Increased attention to issues of social justice, educational equity, and anti-bias practices

The volume unites research and practice on integrating language learning, teaching and assessment at preschool and early school age. It includes chapters written by experts in the field who have studied some of the very youngest (pre-primary) children through to those up to the age of 12, in a variety of private and state contexts across Europe. The collection makes a much-needed contribution to the subject of appropriate assessment for children with the focus of many chapters being classroom-based assessment, particularly formative assessment, or the case for developing assessment skills in relation to even the youngest children. As a whole, the book provides useful case study insights for policymakers, teacher educators, researchers and postgraduate students with interest in or responsibility for how children are assessed in their language learning. It also provides practical ideas for practitioners who wish to implement greater integration of assessment and learning in their own contexts.

This practical, very effective resource helps middle and high school teachers and curriculum leaders develop the skills to design instructional tasks and assessments that engage students in higher-level critical thinking, as recommended by the Common Core State Standards. Real examples of formative and summative assessments from a variety of content areas are included and demonstrate how to successfully increase the level of critical thinking in every classroom! This book is also an excellent resource for higher education faculty to use in undergraduate and graduate courses on assessment and lesson planning.

The common phrase, "I am not a data person," suggests that some campus professionals may not fully understand their capacity and potential to contribute to data-related activities. This book is intended to: Provide context for the levels at which professionals are comfortable using data. Help readers identify the areas where they should strengthen their knowledge. Offer tangible examples of how professionals can make data contributions at their current and future knowledge level. Inspire readers to take the initiative to engage in data projects. The book includes a set of self-assessment questions and a companion set of action steps and available resources to help readers accept their identity as a data person. The project also includes an annotated list of at least 20 indicators that any higher education professional can examine without sophisticated data analyses.

Understanding PISA's Attractiveness examines how policy makers and the media interpret the results of PISA league-leaders, losers, and slippers in ways that suit their own reform agendas. As a result, a myriad of explanations exist as to why an educational system is high or low performing. The chapters, written by leading scholars from Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the UK and the USA, provide a fascinating account of why results from PISA and other international large-scale assessments are interpreted and translated differently in the various countries. The analyses in this book bring to light the wide array of idiosyncratic projections into these international tests. In some countries, these tests are also used to scandalise one's own educational system and to generate quasi-external reform pressure. Compiled by two leading scholars in comparative education, Florian Waldow and Gita Steiner-Khamsi, this book offers a truly global perspective on the uses and abuses of PISA and will be of great interest to students and academics working in educational policy, comparative education and political science and those working on large-scale data sets.

Using Self-Assessment to Improve Student Learning synthesizes research on self-assessment and translates it into actionable guidelines and principles for pre-service and in-service teachers and for school leaders, teacher educators, and researchers. Situated beyond the simple how-to frameworks currently available for teachers and graduate students, this volume illuminates self-assessment's complexities and substantial promise to strategically move students toward self-regulated learning and internalized goals. Addressing theory, empirical evidence, and common implementation issues, the book's developmental approach to quality self-assessment practices will help teachers, leaders, and scholars maximize their impact on student self-regulation and learning.

Understanding assessment and being able to use it effectively is at the heart of successful primary teaching. Aware of current policy and research, this book looks at the role and purpose of assessment within education, as well as providing detailed practical guidance on the main types of classroom assessment, including formative, summative, formal and informal methods. Real classroom examples and activities illustrate the practical uses, benefits, and limitations of each form of assessment, enabling you to feel confident about implementing these strategies in your own teaching. Coverage includes: The assessment planning cycle Innovative forms of assessment, including portfolios, debates, role play and mind mapping Assessment of learners with diverse needs, including SEN and EAL The use of technology in assessment Engaging children through self-assessment and peer-assessment This is essential reading for all primary initial teacher education courses, including university-based (PGCE, PGDE, BA QTS, BEd), school-based (SCITT, School Direct, Teach First) and employment-based routes into teaching, and beginning teachers. Sue Faragher is Head of Al Basma British School, a large private school in Abu Dhabi.

This book is about student success and how to support and improve it. It takes as its point of departure that we--as faculty, assessment directors, student affairs professionals, and staff--reflect together in a purposeful and informed way about how our teaching, curricula, the co-curriculum, and assessment work in concert to support and improve student learning and success. It also requires that we do so in collaboration with our colleagues and our students for the rich insights that we gain from them. Conversational in style, this book offers a wide variety of illustrations of how your peers are putting assessment into practice in ways that are meaningful to them and their institutions, and that lead to improved student learning. The authors provide rich guidance for activities ranging from everyday classroom teaching and assessment to using assessment to improve programs and entire institutions. The authors envisage individual faculty at four-year institutions and community colleges as their main audience, whether those faculty are focused on their own classes or support their colleagues through leadership roles in assessment. If you plan to remain focused on your own courses and students, you will find that those sections of this book will help you better understand why and how assessment leaders do what they do, which in turn will make your participation in assessment more engaging and increase your expertise in facilitating student learning. Because the authors also aim to strengthen connections between the curriculum and co-curriculum and include examples of co-curricular assessment, student affairs professionals and staff interested in doing the same will also find ideas in this book relevant to their work. Opening with a chapter on equity in assessment practice, so critical to learning from and benefitting our diverse students, the authors guide you through the development and use of learning outcomes, the design of assignments with attention to clear prompts and rubrics, and the achievement of alignment and coherence in pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment to better support student engagement, achievement and success. The chapter on using student evidence for improvement offers support, resources, and recommendations for doing so, and demonstrates exciting uses of student wisdom. The book concludes by emphasizing the importance of reflection in assessment practices--offering powerful examples and strategies for professional development--and by describing appropriate, creative, and effective approaches for communicating assessment information with attention to purpose and audience.

This book is a step-by-step guide for improving student learning in higher education. The authors argue that a fundamental obstacle to improvement is that higher educators, administrators, and assessment professionals do not know how to improve student learning at scale. By this they mean improvement efforts that span an entire program, affecting all affiliated students. The authors found that faculty and administrators particularly struggle to conceptualize and implement multi-section, multi-course improvement efforts. It is unsurprising that ambitious, wide-reaching improvement efforts like these would pose difficulty in their organization and implementation. This is precisely the problem the authors address. The book provides practical strategies for learning improvement, enabling faculty to collaborate, and integrating leadership, social dynamics, curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and faculty development. In Chapter 2, the authors tell a program-level improvement story from the perspective of a faculty member. Chapter 3 inverts Chapter 2. Beginning from the re-assess stage, the authors work their way back to the individual faculty member first pondering whether she can do something to impact students' skills. They peel back each layer of the process and imagine how learning improvement efforts might be thwarted at each stage. Chapters 4 through 9 dig deeper into the learning improvement steps introduced in Chapters 2 and 3. Each chapter provides strategies to help higher educators climb each step successfully. Chapter 10 paints a picture of what higher education could look like in 2041 if learning improvement were embraced. And, finally, Chapter 11 describes what you can do to support the movement.

The first book to tell the story of the Advanced Placement program, the gold standard for academic rigor in American high schools The Advanced Placement program stands as the foremost source of college-level academics for millions of high school students in the United States and beyond. More than 22,000 schools now participate in it, across nearly forty subjects, from Latin and art to calculus and computer science. Yet remarkably little has been known about how this nongovernmental program became one of the greatest success stories in K-12 education-until now. In Learning in the Fast Lane, Chester Finn and Andrew Scanlan, two of the country's most respected education analysts, offer a groundbreaking account of one of the most important educational initiatives of our time. Learning in the Fast Lane traces the story of AP from its mid-twentieth-century origins as a niche benefit for privileged students to its emergence as a springboard to college for high schoolers nationwide, including hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged youth. Today, AP not only opens new intellectual horizons for smart teenagers, but also strengthens school ratings, attracts topflight teachers, and draws support from philanthropists, reformers, and policymakers. At the same time, it faces numerous challenges, including rival programs, curriculum wars, charges of elitism, the misgivings of influential universities, and the difficulty of infusing rigor into schools that lack it. In today's polarized climate, can AP maintain its lofty standards and surmount the problems that have sunk so many other bold education ventures? Richly documented and thoroughly accessible, Learning in the Fast Lane is a must-read for anyone with a stake in the American school system.

While assessment may feel to constituents like an activity of accountability simply for accreditors, it is most appropriate to approach assessment as an activity of accountability for students. Assessment results that improve institutional effectiveness, heighten student learning, and better align resources serve to make institutions stronger for the benefit of their students, and those results also serve the institution or program well during the holistic evaluation required through accreditation." - from the foreword by Heather Perfetti, President of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education Colleges and universities struggle to understand precisely what is being asked for by accreditors, and this book answers that question by sharing examples of success reported by schools specifically recommended by accreditors. This compendium gathers examples of assessment practice in twenty-four higher education institutions: twenty-three in U.S. and one in Australia. All institutions represented in this book were suggested by their accreditor as having an effective assessment approach in one or more of the following assessment focused areas: assessment in the disciplines, co-curricular, course/program/institutional assessment, equity and inclusion, general education, online learning, program review, scholarship of teaching and learning, student learning, or technology. These examples recommended by accrediting agencies makes this a unique contribution to the assessment literature. The book is organized in four parts. Part One is focused on student learning and assessment and includes ten chapters. The primary focus for Part Two is student learning assessment from a disciplinary perspective and includes four chapters. Part Three has a faculty engagement and assessment focus, and Part Four includes four chapters on institutional effectiveness and assessment, with a focus on strategic planning. This book is a publication of the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (AALHE), an organization of practitioners interested in using effective assessment practice to document and improve student learning.

This book is about student success and how to support and improve it. It takes as its point of departure that we--as faculty, assessment directors, student affairs professionals, and staff--reflect together in a purposeful and informed way about how our teaching, curricula, the co-curriculum, and assessment work in concert to support and improve student learning and success. It also requires that we do so in collaboration with our colleagues and our students for the rich insights that we gain from them. Conversational in style, this book offers a wide variety of illustrations of how your peers are putting assessment into practice in ways that are meaningful to them and their institutions, and that lead to improved student learning. The authors provide rich guidance for activities ranging from everyday classroom teaching and assessment to using assessment to improve programs and entire institutions. The authors envisage individual faculty at four-year institutions and community colleges as their main audience, whether those faculty are focused on their own classes or support their colleagues through leadership roles in assessment. If you plan to remain focused on your own courses and students, you will find that those sections of this book will help you better understand why and how assessment leaders do what they do, which in turn will make your participation in assessment more engaging and increase your expertise in facilitating student learning. Because the authors also aim to strengthen connections between the curriculum and co-curriculum and include examples of co-curricular assessment, student affairs professionals and staff interested in doing the same will also find ideas in this book relevant to their work. Opening with a chapter on equity in assessment practice, so critical to learning from and benefitting our diverse students, the authors guide you through the development and use of learning outcomes, the design of assignments with attention to clear prompts and rubrics, and the achievement of alignment and coherence in pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment to better support student engagement, achievement and success. The chapter on using student evidence for improvement offers support, resources, and recommendations for doing so, and demonstrates exciting uses of student wisdom. The book concludes by emphasizing the importance of reflection in assessment practices--offering powerful examples and strategies for professional development--and by describing appropriate, creative, and effective approaches for communicating assessment information with attention to purpose and audience.

Supervising Student Teachers clearly defines the role of cooperating teachers and guides them through their responsibilities. From preparing for the arrival of the student teacher through the writing of the letter of recommendation, the cooperating teacher learns how to create an environment that will maximize the growth of the student teacher. The opening vignettes and case studies allow the reader to experience and apply a broad range of useful, practical strategies. This book includes a solid body of research yet reads in a conversational tone. It should be the companion for every cooperating teacher, teacher educator, supervisor, and principal.

Designed to help educators recognize and nurture students with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia, this book guides readers through best practices for using creativity theory and strategies to address the learning challenges for students who have difficulty in acquiring literacy and mathematics content. Offering concrete examples of creativity assessment and pedagogical techniques, chapters are supported by rich appendices providing assessment and screening checklists, time telling objectives, learning trouble spots, a creative approach to teaching place value, and a handy cross-referencing table. Accessible and thorough, this up-to-date guide will help educators develop strategies that acknowledge students' creative strengths to address learning challenges across the literacy and mathematics curricula.