There is too much testing in American Public Schools that is robbing teachers of valuable instructional time. Some of it is mandatory, but the vast majority is not, and under the control of districts, schools and even teachers to reduce. Testing Too Much? provides a rationale and set of three models to use in cutting back on testing to reclaim valuable instructional time. It also includes a high school case study describing how the themes proposed in the book can be accomplished. Instructional time is a complex subject that is discussed in detail and the underlying research why it is so important, especially for disadvantaged children. To address how best to cut back on non-mandated testing there is a chapter, written in plain terms, on how to judge the value of a test. Three models are then discussed on how to approach cutting back on testing by as much as 25% that can recapture as much as ten days or more of instruction during a typical school year. The goal of the book is to help school leaders and teachers find ways, amongst current local testing practices, to cut back, improve their instruction and the educational experiences of their students.

Examining and Facilitating Reflection to Improve Professional Practice is specifically designed and organized to be used throughout a teacher-education program from an introductory foundations course, continuing through content-specific methods classes to graduate-level theory seminars, and, ultimately onto professional development workshops. Harris and her co-authors provide a method for directly instructing students on the practice of reflection and the understanding and identification of the developmental phases of reflection, supported by theory drawn from research. By moving students beyond their commonly held belief that reflection is simply keeping a journal or summarizing the days' activities, Examining and Facilitating Reflection to Improve Professional Practice enables them to use increasingly sophisticated reflection practices that help them grow in their reflective process, ultimately improving their instructional practice. Closely aligned with the reflections standards set by INTASC, NCATE, and NBPST, this book is essential as universities and colleges seek to have reflection as a standard skill set for classroom teachers and educational administrators. Using this text as an easily accessible resource, a discussion and activities guide, and a support for professional development, Education Departments' reflection goals and objectives are met and students enter the classroom confidant in their ability to think in diverse ways, meet the challenges of the classroom, and respond to changing educational environments.

REVISE 11+ is the smart choice for 11+ Non-Verbal Reasoning preparation. This Practice Book: Perfects the key skills needed for success in the Non-Verbal Reasoning exam Supports learners with worked examples and guided practice for every topic Provides practice through on-the-page and digital questions Prepares learners for the 11+ exams by focusing on important skills and strategies to develop confidence Measures success through checkpoint assessments and simple progress tracking. Preparation is more than this Practice Book! The REVISE 11+ series supports learners at every step of the journey. All titles in the series are fully integrated and work together to provide the best support for the 11+. Consolidate learning with the REVISE 11+ Non-Verbal Reasoning Ten-Minute Tests. Take the first step with the REVISE 11+ Non-Verbal Reasoning Practice Book 1. Get exam-ready with the REVISE 11+ Non-Verbal Reasoning Assessment Book.

Published with Kappa Delta Pi, Creativity and Education in China takes readers on a journey through research-supported ideas and practical examples of creative and innovative schooling within a changing regime. Analyzing the consequences of exam-centric accountability on the creative and critical capacities of Chinese students, author Carol A. Mullen's dynamic portrait of a country serves as both a cautionary tale and an inspiring example to emulate. Examining creative endeavors and breakthroughs within a competitive, globalized educational landscape, the chapters are organized around environmental and global issues impacting education, expressions of creativity within pre-K-12 schools in China, and creative innovation in higher education learning environments. Presenting captivating cases from the field, the book offers novel approaches to fostering creativity as a natural, integrated part of high-stakes education systems in Eastern and Western cultures alike.

This study examines the implications for evaluation and assessment when more responsibility for the learning process is given to the learner. The text includes sections on peer assessment, self-assessment, styles of evaluation, references, and the roles of teacher and learner.

Learn how to assess students in a way that truly impacts learning. In Rigor and Assessment in the Classroom, bestselling author Barbara R. Blackburn provides a broad range of practical strategies for increasing the rigor and usefulness of your formative and summative assessments. You'll discover how to... Create an environment where students are expected to learn at high levels; Evaluate and check student learning in a way that ensures growth; Strengthen the validity and reliability of your assessments; Plan assessments in conjunction with planning the instruction; Differentiate assessments to increase the rigor for all students; Enhance the effectiveness of your grading system and feedback; Use performance-based assessment to enhance rigor; and Design clear, reader-friendly rubrics and scoring guides. Each chapter includes ready-to-use tools, examples across the subject areas, and "Think About It" questions to help you reflect on what you've read. Many of the tools are also offered as free eResources at www.routledge.com/9781138936140, so you can easily print and distribute them for classroom use.

Using Grading to Support Student Learning offers an accessible foundation for using grading practices to support student learning through classroom assessment. Purposeful, defensible grading and reporting mechanisms cannot be neglected in today's reform climate, and new approaches are needed to understand and refine the roles of homework, formative and summative assessments, and standards across grade levels. Evidence-based and full of illustrative examples, this book bridges research and theory on grading and assessment with classroom practices for pre-service and in-service teachers and fresh perspectives for educational researchers studying grading practices.

This collection of essays focuses on both how and why assessment serves as a key element in the teaching and practice of technical and professional communication. The collection is organized to form a dual approach: on the one hand, it offers a landscape view of the activities involved in assessment - examining how it works at institutional, program, and classroom levels; on the other, it surveys the implications of using assessment for formulating, maintaining, and extending the teaching and practice of technical communication. The book offers teachers, students, scholars, and practitioners alike evidence of the increasingly valuable role of assessment in the field, as it supports and enriches our thinking and practice. No other volume has addressed the demands of and the expectations for assessment in technical communication. Consequently, the book has two key goals. The first is to be as inclusive as is feasible for its size, demonstrating the global operation of assessment in the field. For this reason, descriptions of assessment practice lead to examinations of some key feature of the landscape captured by the term 'technical communication'. The second goal is to retain the public and cooperative approach that has characterized technical communication from the beginning. To achieve this, the book represents a 'conversation', with contributors chosen from among practicing, highly active technical communication teachers and scholars; and the chapters set up pairs of opening statement and following response. The overriding purpose of the volume, therefore, is to invite the whole community into the conversation about assessment in technical communication.

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The South African curriculum has experienced many changes since 1994. There was outcomes-based education (also known as Curriculum 2005), then the Revised National Curriculum Statements, followed by the National Curriculum Statements (NCS). In January 2012, Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements (CAPS) were introduced to replace the NCS. All these changes have been confusing to the average teacher, with the assessment of the young learner being particularly challenging. Assessment in the Foundation Phase guides teachers and student teachers towards understanding assessment as a means for ensuring that learners have attained the necessary outcomes, and doing it effectively for optimal teaching and learning. Assessment in the Foundation Phase sets out recommended techniques and tools to assess learners' knowledge, skills, attitudes and values, and applies these to all subjects prescribed by CAPS. Its goal is to inspire teachers to prepare learners to meet the challenges of future learning through quality assessment and in so doing, support learners in gaining the capacity for lifelong learning. A chapter on e-assessment introduces a useful perspective on this burgeoning field. Assessment in the Foundation Phase is aimed at teachers and student teachers. Reda Davin was a senior lecturer and programme manager in BEd (ECD), PGCE (ECD) and Foundation Phase progammes for 31 years. She holds a DEd degree and MDiac in play therapy and is the Head of Department: Foundation Phase Teacher Training at AROS in Pretoria. She is the editor and co-author of four books on early childhood teaching. Mariana Naude is a lecturer in mathematics for undergraduate student teachers (Foundation Phase) at Aros in Pretoria She is the co-editor of various text books published by Van Schaik Publishers, including Teaching Foundation Phase mathematics: a guide for South African students and teachers and Teaching life skills in the Foundation Phase.

In the wake of initiatives such as No Child Left Behind and the use of high-stakes testing, the emphasis in schools has been on drill and practice for the test. Genuine understanding and critical thinking have been increasingly shortchanged. As a result, students have fewer opportunities to advance their insight into cognitive and emotional challenges, even though both teachers and parents recognize the importance of developing deliberative and reflective thinking skills. This book uniquely combines two things. First, it provides resources for classroom teachers in grades 3 - 6 that make it possible for them, at a moment's notice, to take advantage of a teachable moment by drawing students into productive intellectual discussions. Second, it gives the reader an overview of the rationale and the research base for engaging students in educational activities that are truly intellectual and that are not limited to training for testing success.

In the wake of initiatives such as No Child Left Behind and the use of high-stakes testing, the emphasis in schools has been on drill and practice for the test. Genuine understanding and critical thinking have been increasingly shortchanged. As a result, students have fewer opportunities to advance their insight into cognitive and emotional challenges, even though both teachers and parents recognize the importance of developing deliberative and reflective thinking skills. This book uniquely combines two things. First, it provides resources for classroom teachers in grades 3 - 6 that make it possible for them, at a moment's notice, to take advantage of a teachable moment by drawing students into productive intellectual discussions. Second, it gives the reader an overview of the rationale and the research base for engaging students in educational activities that are truly intellectual and that are not limited to training for testing success.

Hamm and Adams present models to help teachers identify student learning problems-recognizing when to re-teach, when to move ahead, and when to explain or give more examples. Activating Assessment for All Students takes all of these into account when it provides differentiated science/math methods and goes on to suggest ways that formative assessment practices can inform differentiated teaching, learning, and assessment. These methods promote success for more students by helping teachers develop informative assessment for lessons and related tools for reaching the varying levels of student competencies within their classes. This book builds on the expanding knowledge of what works in classrooms and suggests approaches that can open up individual and group possibilities for science and mathematics instruction. It intends to help you answer the following questions: * What is differentiated instructional assessment? * How can I amplify the results of DI by using formative assessments? * How might quality assessment tools (like portfolios) benefit all students? * How will I know that differentiated formative assessment works?

There has been an increase in awareness (and perhaps occurrence) of individual and organized cheating on tests. Recent reports of widespread problems with state student accountability tests and teacher certification testing have raised questions about the very validity of assessment programs. While there are several books that specifically detail the issues of test security cheating on assessments, few outline the statistical procedures used for detecting various types of potential test fraud and the associated research findings. Without a significant research literature base, the new generation of researchers will have little opportunity or incentive to improve on existing methods. Enlisting a variety of experts and scholars in different fields of testing, this edited volume expands on the current literature base by including examples of detailed research findings arrived at by statistical methodology. It also provides a synthesis of the current state of the art with regard to the statistical detection of testing infidelity, particularly for large-scale assessments. By presenting methods currently used by testing organizations and research on new methods, the volume offers an important forum for expanding the literature in this area.

There are dozens of myths surrounding educational reform today, maintaining the school's role in economic competitiveness, the deficiency of teachers, the benefits of increased testing, and the worthiness of privatization. In this volume, the editors argue that this discussion has been co-opted to reflect the values and worldviews of special interest groups such as elites in power, politicians, corporate educational foundations, and the media. Prominent educational writers tackle contemporary issues such as neoliberalism, suburban schooling, charter schools and parental involvement. They expose the "logic behind the talk" and critically examine these problematic beliefs to uncover meaningful improvements in education which are better grounded in the social, economic, political and educational realities of contemporary society.

There have been many important changes in the participation of women and men in American society over the past quarter-century. Tests play a role in those changes by providing evidence of the diverse achievement and proficiency of women and men. They aid the learning process and reflect inequalities in opportunity to learn and participate. In addition, they provide useful information in considering what alternatives in education and work make most sense for individuals and influence views about groups of students, educational programs, and a wide range of issues. For all of these reasons, it is important that tests assess fairly and reflect accurately the ways young people are and are not achieving as well as desired. The test performance of women and men is a research topic of historical interest and has received much attention in recent years. Because of this increased interest, there is a great deal of new research and data available. The purpose of the study presented in this volume was to review this new information with two objectives in mind: *to clarify patterns of gender difference and similarity in test performance and related achievements, and *to see what implications those findings might have for fair assessment and, as a corollary, examine the assessment process as a possible source of gender differences. This study is interested in tests used in education to assess developed knowledge and skill. In order to gain a broader view of gender similarity and difference, the contributors looked at other types of measures and other characteristics of young women and men. Their hope is to contribute to a firmer basis for insuring fairness in tests--an objective which is particularly important as the field moves increasingly to new forms of assessment in which there is less experience.

Present Successes and Future Challenges in Honors Education is the first volume in an edited series examining the proliferation of honors programs and colleges in American higher education. While honors education has become ubiquitous in American higher education, this transformation has happened without systematic attempts to align what honors means across institutions, and absent a universally agreed upon definitions of what honors is and what it might aspire to be in the future. This generates possibility and flexibility, while also creating rather serious challenges. The contributors document the decades-long structural transformations that led to the rise of honors education while also providing perspective on the present and future challenges in honors education. The chapters address such issues as ensuring equity in honors, how we ought to think about student success and frame this for external stakeholders, and how the diffusion of honors-inspired pedagogies elsewhere in the university forces us to rethink our mission and our day-to-day practice. Throughout, their investigations are grounded in the present while turning a keen and perceptive eye to the future.

This volume explores the application of computer simulation technology to measurement issues in education -- especially as it pertains to problem based learning. Whereas most assessments related to problem solving are based on expensive and time consuming measures (i.e., think-aloud protocols or performance assessments that require extensive human rater scoring), this book relies on computerization of the major portion of the administration, scoring, and reporting of problem-solving assessments. It is appropriate for researchers, instructors and graduate students in educational assessment, educational technology, and educational psychology.

The rising reliance on testing in American education and for licensure and certification has been accompanied by an escalation in cheating on tests at all levels. Edited by two of the foremost experts on the subject, the Handbook of Quantitative Methods for Detecting Cheating on Tests offers a comprehensive compendium of increasingly sophisticated data forensics used to investigate whether or not cheating has occurred. Written for practitioners, testing professionals, and scholars in testing, measurement, and assessment, this volume builds on the claim that statistical evidence often requires less of an inferential leap to conclude that cheating has taken place than do other, more common sources of evidence. This handbook is organized into sections that roughly correspond to the kinds of threats to fair testing represented by different forms of cheating. In Section I, the editors outline the fundamentals and significance of cheating, and they introduce the common datasets to which chapter authors' cheating detection methods were applied. Contributors describe, in Section II, methods for identifying cheating in terms of improbable similarity in test responses, preknowledge and compromised test content, and test tampering. Chapters in Section III concentrate on policy and practical implications of using quantitative detection methods. Synthesis across methodological chapters as well as an overall summary, conclusions, and next steps for the field are the key aspects of the final section.

This book is about doing what's right for public education in the United States in this age of intensive curriculum convergence, planned instructional standardization, and oppressive accountability procedures. Information is presented about why and how educators, parents, students, community members, and policy-makers have decided to protest against current state and federal educational policies and procedures. The practical experiences of parents, teachers, principals, school superintendents, school board members, and professors are analyzed in chapters of this book. Their first-hand experiences with the various components of the current reform movement are poignantly presented. Through their voices the frustrations with the serious flaws associated with this reform agenda are passionately and logically articulated. They comprehensively explain their personal and professional motivations for organizing and fomenting a rethinking in school reform implementation procedures and they advocate their "smarter approach" to school reforms in our country. The book includes key references that elucidate the need to seriously re-think the directions and strategies of contemporary schooling in order to maintain enlightened creative instruction based on exciting student-centered curriculum experiences and professional educational judgments.

This book is about doing what's right for public education in the United States in this age of intensive curriculum convergence, planned instructional standardization, and oppressive accountability procedures. Information is presented about why and how educators, parents, students, community members, and policy-makers have decided to protest against current state and federal educational policies and procedures. The practical experiences of parents, teachers, principals, school superintendents, school board members, and professors are analyzed in chapters of this book. Their first-hand experiences with the various components of the current reform movement are poignantly presented. Through their voices the frustrations with the serious flaws associated with this reform agenda are passionately and logically articulated. They comprehensively explain their personal and professional motivations for organizing and fomenting a rethinking in school reform implementation procedures and they advocate their "smarter approach" to school reforms in our country. The book includes key references that elucidate the need to seriously re-think the directions and strategies of contemporary schooling in order to maintain enlightened creative instruction based on exciting student-centered curriculum experiences and professional educational judgments.

Continuity and Innovation in Honors College Curricula is the second volume in the edited series Honors Education in Transition, which examines the proliferation of honors programs and colleges in American higher education. While honors education has become ubiquitous in American higher education, this transformation has happened without systematic attempts to align what honors means across institutions, and absent a universally agreed upon definitions of what honors is and what it might aspire to be in the future. This generates possibility and flexibility, while also creating rather serious challenges. This book examines dynamic attempts to think creatively about curriculum, a hallmark of honors in higher education. The authors document and discuss innovative attempts ranging from service-learning to international education to innovative ways to blend disciplinary models of pedagogy with honors teaching. Throughout, their investigations are grounded in the present while turning a keen and perceptive eye to the future.

Continuity and Innovation in Honors College Curricula is the second volume in the edited series Honors Education in Transition, which examines the proliferation of honors programs and colleges in American higher education. While honors education has become ubiquitous in American higher education, this transformation has happened without systematic attempts to align what honors means across institutions, and absent a universally agreed upon definitions of what honors is and what it might aspire to be in the future. This generates possibility and flexibility, while also creating rather serious challenges. This book examines dynamic attempts to think creatively about curriculum, a hallmark of honors in higher education. The authors document and discuss innovative attempts ranging from service-learning to international education to innovative ways to blend disciplinary models of pedagogy with honors teaching. Throughout, their investigations are grounded in the present while turning a keen and perceptive eye to the future.

Present Successes and Future Challenges in Honors Education is the first volume in an edited series examining the proliferation of honors programs and colleges in American higher education. While honors education has become ubiquitous in American higher education, this transformation has happened without systematic attempts to align what honors means across institutions, and absent a universally agreed upon definitions of what honors is and what it might aspire to be in the future. This generates possibility and flexibility, while also creating rather serious challenges. The contributors document the decades-long structural transformations that led to the rise of honors education while also providing perspective on the present and future challenges in honors education. The chapters address such issues as ensuring equity in honors, how we ought to think about student success and frame this for external stakeholders, and how the diffusion of honors-inspired pedagogies elsewhere in the university forces us to rethink our mission and our day-to-day practice. Throughout, their investigations are grounded in the present while turning a keen and perceptive eye to the future.

Bring SAT Math prep into the classroom to enhance student learning! In this new copublication from Routledge and test-prep experts A-List Education, you'll learn how the updated SAT exam is closely aligned with the Common Core, making it easy to weave test prep into your curriculum and help students hone the skills they need for college readiness. The book is filled with practical examples of how the Common Core State Standards are connected to specific sections, question types, and strategies applicable to the SATs, so you can simultaneously prepare your students for the test while improving their overall math and reasoning skills.