Making the Most of Interim Assessment Data. Lessons from Philadelphia
Making the Most of Interim Assessment Data. Lessons from Philadelphia

Author: Jolley Bruce Christman

Publisher:

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 90

ISBN-13:

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Under No Child Left Behind, urban school districts have increasingly turned to interim assessments, administered at regular intervals, to help gauge student progress in advance of annual state exams. These assessments have spawned growing debate among educators, assessment experts, and the testing industry: are they worth the significant investment of money and time? In Making the Most of Interim Assessment Data: Lessons from Philadelphia, Research for Action (RFA) weighs in on this issue. The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) was an early adopter of interim assessments, implementing the exams in 2003. Unlike teachers in some other regions, Philadelphia elementary and middle grades teachers rated these 'Benchmark' assessments highly. However, the study found that enthusiasm did not necessarily correlate with higher rates of student achievement. What did predict student success were three factors--instructional leadership, collective responsibility, and use of the SDP's Core Curriculum. The report underscores the value of investment in ongoing data interpretation that emphasizes teachers' learning within formal instructional communities, such as grade groups of teachers. This research was funded by the Spencer Foundation and the William Penn Foundation. Five appendices are included: (1) Phase One Qualitative Research--School Characteristics 2006-07 Data; (2) Benchmark Item Analysis Form; (3) List of Topics Covered in Interviews; (4) Technical Details on Data and Methods; and (5) Technical Detail on Scales Used in Chapter 3. (Contains 8 figures and 56 footnotes.) [The Consortium for Chicago School Research provided technical assistance for the statistical analyses.].

Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I
Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2010-08-28

Total Pages: 94

ISBN-13: 0309153816

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Educators and policy makers in the United States have relied on tests to measure educational progress for more than 150 years. During the twentieth century, technical advances, such as machines for automatic scoring and computer-based scoring and reporting, have supported states in a growing reliance on standardized tests for statewide accountability. State assessment data have been cited as evidence for claims about many achievements of public education, and the tests have also been blamed for significant failings. As standards come under new scrutiny, so, too, do the assessments that measure their results. The goal for this workshop, the first of two, was to collect information and perspectives on assessment that could be of use to state officials and others as they review current assessment practices and consider improvements.

Informing the Practice of Teaching Using Formative and Interim Assessment
Informing the Practice of Teaching Using Formative and Interim Assessment

Author: Robert W. Lissitz

Publisher: IAP

Published: 2013-03-01

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1623961130

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This book focuses on interim and formative assessments as distinguished from the more usual interest in summative assessment. I was particularly interested in seeing what the experts have to say about a full system of assessment. This book has particular interest in what information a teacher, a school or even a state could collect that monitors the progress of a student as he or she learns. The authors were asked to think about assessing the effects of teaching and learning throughout the student’s participation in the curriculum. This book is the product of a conference by the Maryland Assessment Research Center for Education Success (MARCES) with funding from the Maryland State Department of Education.

SAGE Handbook of Research on Classroom Assessment
SAGE Handbook of Research on Classroom Assessment

Author: James H. McMillan

Publisher: SAGE

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 577

ISBN-13: 1412995876

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The Sage Handbook of Research on Classroom Assessment provides scholars, professors, graduate students, and other researchers and policy makers in the organizations, agencies, testing companies, and school districts with a comprehensive source of research on all aspects of K-12 classroom assessment. The handbook emphasizes theory, conceptual frameworks, and all varieties of research (quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods) to provide an in-depth understanding of the knowledge base in each area of classroom assessment and how to conduct inquiry in the area. It presents classroom assessment research to convey, in depth, the state of knowledge and understanding that is represented by the research, with particular emphasis on how classroom assessment practices affect student achieventment and teacher behavior. Editor James H. McMillan and five Associate Editors bring the best thinking and analysis from leading classroom assessment researchers on the nature of the research, making significant contributions to this prominent and hotly debated topic in education.

Using Data in Schools to Inform Leadership and Decision Making
Using Data in Schools to Inform Leadership and Decision Making

Author: Alex J. Bowers

Publisher: IAP

Published: 2014-11-01

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1623967880

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Our fifth book in the International Research on School Leadership series focuses on the use of data in schools and districts as useful information for leadership and decision making. Schools are awash in data and information, from test scores, to grades, to discipline reports, and attendance as just a short list of student information sources, while additional streams of data feed into schools and districts from teachers and parents as well as local, regional and national policy levels. To deal with the data, schools have implemented a variety of data practices, from data rooms, to data days, data walks, and data protocols. However, despite the flood of data, successful school leaders are leveraging an analysis of their school’s data as a means to bring about continuous improvement in an effort to improve instruction for all students. Nevertheless, some drown, some swim, while others find success. Our goal in this book volume is to bring together a set of chapters by authors who examine successful data use as it relates to leadership and school improvement. In particular, the chapters in this volume consider important issues in this domain, including: • How educational leaders use data to inform their practice. • What types of data and data analysis are most useful to successful school leaders. • To what extent are data driven and data informed practices helping school leaders positively change instructional practice? • In what ways does good data collection and analysis feed into successful continuous improvement and holistic systems thinking? • How have school leadership practices changed as more data and data analysis techniques have become available? • What are the major obstacles facing school leaders when using data for decision making and how do they overcome them?

New Assessments, Better Instruction?
New Assessments, Better Instruction?

Author: Susannah Faxon-Mills

Publisher: Rand Corporation

Published: 2013-09-09

Total Pages: 104

ISBN-13: 0833081888

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This report reviews the literature on how assessment affects teaching practice and the conditions that moderate that relationship. The authors identify a wide variety of effects that testing might have on teachers' activities in the classroom and a number of conditions that affect the impact that assessment may have on practice.

Learning by Doing
Learning by Doing

Author: Richard DuFour

Publisher: Solution Tree Press

Published: 2013-06-15

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 1935249894

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Like the first edition, the second edition of Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work helps educators close the knowing-doing gap as they transform their schools into professional learning communities (PLCs).

State Assessment Systems
State Assessment Systems

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2011-01-02

Total Pages: 156

ISBN-13: 0309161762

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Educators and policy makers in the United States have relied on tests to measure educational progress for more than 150 years, and have used the results for many purposes. They have tried minimum competency testing; portfolios; multiple-choice items, brief and extended constructed-response items; and more. They have contended with concerns about student privacy, test content, and equity-and they have responded to calls for tests to answer many kinds of questions about public education and literacy, international comparisons, accountability, and even property values. State assessment data have been cited as evidence for claims about many achievements of public education, and the tests have also been blamed for significant failings. States are now considering whether to adopt the "common core" academic standards, and are also competing for federal dollars from the Department of Education's Race to the Top initiative. Both of these activities are intended to help make educational standards clearer and more concise and to set higher standards for students. As standards come under new scrutiny, so, too, do the assessments that measure their results. This book summarizes two workshops convened to collect information and perspectives on assessment in order to help state officials and others as they review current assessment practices and consider improvements.

Mapping Leadership
Mapping Leadership

Author: Richard Halverson

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2017-06-29

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1118711572

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Drawing on twenty years of research in school effectiveness, this book presents a distributed model of task-based school leadership that leads to continuous school improvement. The book outlines the tasks school leadership teams must focus on to improve teaching and learning, grouped into the following five domains: Focus on Learning Monitoring Teaching and Learning Building Nested Learning Communities Acquiring and Allocating Resources Maintaining a Safe and Effective Learning Environment Recognizing that the principal is a single actor in a complex web of activity influencing student learning, the focus is not only on the principal’s role but on a range of leadership and instructional practices to be shared across the leadership team (including APs, counselors, teachers, and support personnel). These tasks, organized into 21 subdomains, have been demonstrated through extensive research to contribute to improved student learning.

Leadership
Leadership

Author: Autumn Cyprès

Publisher: IAP

Published: 2016-11-01

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 1681237148

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The purpose of this book is to examine the tensions, gaps, and intersections between the practices of leadership in educational systems, school leadership preparation programs, and the often different worlds of academia and k12 schools. Voices from both academia and k12 schools are used to illustrate the tensions that cluster around capacity, politics, and the everyday practice of inspiring, engaging, and preparing school leaders. Advance Praise for Leadership: Learning, Teaching, and Practice This is a book about experience. This is a book that draws from the knowledge—both personal and professional-- that professors and practitioners shared on their journeys through academia and the day-to-day of K-12 administration. The book is framed around the trinity of teaching, learning, and practice. It is a book that “examines the tensions, gaps, and intersections between the practices of leadership within educational systems and school leadership preparation programs.” The reader will be challenged to consider one’s own approach to leadership in education by examining each author’s perspective on leading for learning in America’s schools. ~ Professor James E. Berry, Executive Director, National Council of Professors of Educational Administration This book provides a great balance of scholarly work focused on leadership and shaped by the actual experiences of practicing administrators. It is absolutely outstanding literature for leaders. The book provides concepts and experiences that will help veteran administrators and will serve as a great resource for instructors in leadership development programs. It strikes at the heart of teaching and learning and will ultimately have a positive influence on children. ~ Lyle E. Evans, Ed.D Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources and Administrative Services, Chesterfield County Public Schools, Commonwealth of Virginia The challenges faced by school leaders today are daunting. In Leadership: Learning, Teaching and Practice, experts from across the nation bridge the gap between theory and practice. This book explores those tensions, calling us to examine our ideal view of school leadership and compare it to the reality of the current school systems in which we work. It furthers this discourse by examining the role leadership preparation programs play in preparing school administrators with the knowledge and skills necessary to be effective while retaining their humanity. An easy read that will transform how leaders think about leadership! Jessica Kemler, Principal, Babylon Elementary School Long Island, New York