Download or read book The Knowledge Gap written by Natalie Wexler and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The untold story of the root cause of America's education crisis--and the seemingly endless cycle of multigenerational poverty. It was only after years within the education reform movement that Natalie Wexler stumbled across a hidden explanation for our country's frustrating lack of progress when it comes to providing every child with a quality education. The problem wasn't one of the usual scapegoats: lazy teachers, shoddy facilities, lack of accountability. It was something no one was talking about: the elementary school curriculum's intense focus on decontextualized reading comprehension "skills" at the expense of actual knowledge. In the tradition of Dale Russakoff's The Prize and Dana Goldstein's The Teacher Wars, Wexler brings together history, research, and compelling characters to pull back the curtain on this fundamental flaw in our education system--one that fellow reformers, journalists, and policymakers have long overlooked, and of which the general public, including many parents, remains unaware. But The Knowledge Gap isn't just a story of what schools have gotten so wrong--it also follows innovative educators who are in the process of shedding their deeply ingrained habits, and describes the rewards that have come along: students who are not only excited to learn but are also acquiring the knowledge and vocabulary that will enable them to succeed. If we truly want to fix our education system and unlock the potential of our neediest children, we have no choice but to pay attention.
Download or read book Classroom Testing and Assessment for ALL Students written by Spencer J. Salend and published by Corwin Press. This book was released on 2009-11-10 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A rare opportunity for the new generation of educators to learn alongside a well-known and experienced educator to integrate all learning styles into assessments. Principals should consider this for faculty book studies. The presented techniques will, no doubt, raise standardized test scores while teachers continue to present real curriculum."-Janette Bowen, Sixth-Grade TeacherJunction City Middle School, KSGive all students an equal chance to perform well on your classroom tests and assessments!In today's diverse classrooms, students of different socioeconomic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds and ability levels share a common learning environment. To meet each student's unique strengths and needs, educators need flexible testing and assessment strategies that fulfill the requirements for standardized assessment and accountability in ways that don't put students at a disadvantage because of their differences.Classroom Testing and Assessment for ALL Students helps both general and special education teachers meet and move beyond the challenges of NCLB and IDEA by using teacher-made tests, appropriate testing accommodations, technology-based testing, and classroom-based assessments that support the teaching and learning process so all students have the opportunity to succeed. The book offers ways for teachers to better differentiate their testing and assessment strategies through: Classroom and school-based examples in each chapterBulleted information outlining hands-on, research-based strategies for teacher implementationForms, reproducibles, stories, vignettes, reflection questions, and checklists that guide educators in applying and tailoring the strategies to their classrooms and studentsTips on using technology to help all students perform better Teachers know their students best. This resource allows teachers to design tests and assessments to accommodate the various strengths and needs of all learners in their classroom.
Download or read book Unequal By Design written by Wayne Au and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-04-26 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unequal By Design critically examines high-stakes standardized testing in order to illuminate what is really at stake for students, teachers, and communities negatively affected by such testing. This thoughtful analysis traces standardized testing’s origins in the Eugenics and Social Efficiency movements of the late 19th and early 20th century through its current use as the central tool for national educational reform via No Child Left Behind. By exploring historical, social, economic, and educational aspects of testing, author Wayne Au demonstrates that these tests are not only premised on the creation of inequality, but that their structures are inextricably intertwined with social inequalities that exist outside of schools.
Download or read book Testing for Language Teachers written by Arthur Hughes and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second edition remains the most practical guide to testing language. It has a new chapter on testing young learners.
Download or read book Tests that Second Language Teachers Make and Use written by Greta Gorsuch and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2019-10-24 with total page 555 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Classroom tests are an everyday feature of second and foreign language classrooms worldwide. Teachers spend a lot of time and energy making and using tests, and learners spend of lot of time and energy taking them. Nonetheless, such assessments are under-studied, as they are considered routine. This volume illuminates this little-researched area. Featuring fifteen classroom language tests made and used by Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Spanish teachers, the book includes parallel teacher commentary and testing content chapters that transparently probe the teachers’ processes of making and using their tests. Rather than view teachers’ tests as poor shadows of what professional test writers do, this work identifies the reasoning behind teachers’ tests. In addition, focused testing content chapters take examples directly from the actual tests and the accompanying teacher commentary. This book is an accessible, applied resource for second and foreign language teachers, language program administrators working with teachers, students in teacher preparation and enrichment programs, and scholars in language teaching, learning, and testing.
Download or read book The Testing Charade written by Daniel Koretz and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2017-08-31 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's leading expert in educational testing and measurement openly names the failures caused by today's testing policies and provides a blueprint for doing better. 6 x 9.
Download or read book This Is Not A Test written by José Vilson and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2014-05-05 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: José Vilson writes about race, class, and education through stories from the classroom and researched essays. His rise from rookie math teacher to prominent teacher leader takes a twist when he takes on education reform through his now-blocked eponymous blog, TheJoseVilson.com. He calls for the reclaiming of the education profession while seeking social justice. José Vilson is a middle school math educator for in the Inwood/Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. He writes for Edutopia, GOOD, and TransformED / Future of Teaching, and his work has appeared in Education Week, CNN.com, Huffington Post, and El Diario / La Prensa.
Download or read book The Case Against Standardized Testing written by Alfie Kohn and published by Heinemann Educational Books. This book was released on 2000 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kohn's central message is that standardized tests are "not a force of nature but a force of politics--and political decisions can be questioned, challenged, and ultimately reversed."
Download or read book Beyond Testing written by Deborah Meier and published by Teachers College Press. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beyond Testing describes seven forms of assessment that are more effective than standardized test results. These assessments are more honest about what we can and cannot know about childrens knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Readers can compare and contrast each approach to determine which is most appropriate for their school.
Download or read book Testing for Language Teachers written by Arthur Hughes and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1989-11-02 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main objective of this text is to assist language teachers in writing better tests. The author defines a good test as one that contains validity, reliability, practicality and a positive reaction. Hughes offers practical and realistic guidance on how to create a good test. The author pays special attention to the effect of testing on teaching - a test should not only be reliable and valid but should also have a positive effect on teaching. Chapters on the testing of writing, oral ability, reading, listening, grammar and vocabulary, and test administration are included. Also included are testing techniques that have been proven to be useful for teachers, and statistics that enable teachers to interpret test results. Reader activities can be found at the end of each chapter.
Download or read book Digital Disruption in Teaching and Testing written by Claire Wyatt-Smith and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-04-28 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a significant contribution to the increasing conversation concerning the place of big data in education. Offering a multidisciplinary approach with a diversity of perspectives from international scholars and industry experts, chapter authors engage in both research- and industry-informed discussions and analyses on the place of big data in education, particularly as it pertains to large-scale and ongoing assessment practices moving into the digital space. This volume offers an innovative, practical, and international view of the future of current opportunities and challenges in education and the place of assessment in this context.
Download or read book Pencils Down written by Wayne Au and published by Rethinking Schools. This book was released on 2012 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This powerful collection from the groundbreaking Rethinking Schools magazine takes high-stakes standardized tests to task. Despite overwhelming evidence that the tests are invalid ways to measure teaching and learning -- and continuing signs of their unjust effects on students and teachers -- "reformers" and policymakers continue to force high-stakes tests into the public schools. Through articles that provide thoughtful and emotional critiques from the frontlines of education, Pencils Down deconstructs the damage that standardized tests wreak on our education system and the human beings that populate it. Better yet, it offers visionary forms of assessment that are not only more authentic, but also more democratic, fair, and accurate.
Download or read book In Teachers Hands written by Richard J. Stiggins and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1992-01-01 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book marks the starting point of a profound shift in assessment priorities, detailing the results of a decade-long program of research on classroom assessment environments. It demonstrates how important sound classroom assessments are to student well-being, and provides insights into the complex demands of day-to-day classroom assessment on teachers who have been taught little about assessment in their training programs. As a nation, we spend billions of dollars on educational assessment, including hundreds of millions for international and national assessments, and additional hundreds of millions for statewide testing programs. On top of these, the standardized tests that form the basis of district-wide testing programs represent a billion dollar industry. If we total all of these expensive highly-visible, politically-important assessments, we still account for less than one percent of all the assessments conducted in America's schools. The other 99 percent are conducted by teachers in their classrooms on a moment-to-moment, day-to-day, and week-to-week basis. Paradoxically, virtually all of our national, state, and local assessment resources are being devoted to research and development for large-scale assessments. This book provides specific action programs for improving the quality of the other 99 percent--the assessments that really drive what students learn and how they feel about it.
Download or read book The Test written by Anya Kamenetz and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2015-01-06 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[The anti-testing] movement now has a guidebook. . . . Kamenetz shows how fundamentally American it would be to move toward a more holistic system." -- New York Times Book Review The Test is an essential and critically acclaimed book for any parent confounded by our national obsession with standardized testing. It recounts the shocking history and tempestuous politics of testing and borrows strategies from fields as diverse as games, neuroscience, and ancient philosophy to help children cope. It presents the stories of families, teachers, and schools maneuvering within and beyond the existing educational system, playing and winning the testing game. And it points the way toward a hopeful future of better tests and happier kids.
Download or read book Assessment Literacy for Educators in a Hurry written by W. James Popham and published by ASCD. This book was released on 2018-08-17 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is assessment literacy? It’s a handful of fundamental understandings about the testing concepts and procedures that influence educational decisions. And it just might be the most cost-effective means of real school improvement. With characteristic humor and aplomb, assessment expert W. James Popham strips away the psychometrician-speak and condenses the complexities of educational testing to six practical and action-oriented understandings about validity, reliability, fairness, score reporting, formative assessment, and affective assessment. This book is for busy educators at the classroom and leadership levels who want • Tests that are worth the valuable time they take to administer. • Tests that accurately measure what student have learned. • Tests that fairly reflect teacher and school effectiveness. • Tests that provide the instructionally useful data that will help students learn faster and better. Assessment Literacy for Educators in a Hurry is the fastest route to acquiring the measurement moxie necessary to understand and advocate for better assessment practices and build a case for stopping ineffective and harmful ones. In just a few hours’ time, you can pick up the knowledge you need to do a whole lot of good—for your students, yourself, and our schools.
Download or read book The Death and Life of the Great American School System written by Diane Ravitch and published by Basic Books (AZ). This book was released on 2010-03-02 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses how school choice, misapplied standards of accountability, the No Child Left Behind mandate, and the use of a corporate model have all led to a decline in public education and presents arguments for a return to strong neighborhood schools and quality teaching.
Download or read book Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment written by Maja Wilson and published by Heinemann Educational Books. This book was released on 2006 with total page 140 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The conventional wisdom in English education is that rubrics are the best and easiest tools for assessment. But sometimes it's better to be unconventional. In Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment, Maja Wilson offers a new perspective on rubrics and argues for a better, more responsive way to think about assessing writers' progress. Though you may sense a disconnect between student-centered teaching and rubric-based assessment, you may still use rubrics for convenience or for want of better alternatives. Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment gives you the impetus to make a change, demonstrating how rubrics can hurt kids and replace professional decision making with an inauthentic pigeonholing that stamps standardization onto a notably nonstandard process. With an emphasis on thoughtful planning and teaching, Wilson shows you how to reconsider writing assessment so that it aligns more closely with high-quality instruction and avoids the potentially damaging effects of rubrics. Stop listening to the conventional wisdom, and turn instead to a compelling new voice to find out why rubrics are often replaceable. Open Rethinking Rubrics in Writing Assessment and let Maja Wilson start you down the path to more sensitive, authentic style of writing assessment.
