Category Archives: Assessment

Reshaping National Assessment Policy

Harold Berlak, an experienced educator writes: “Dozens of professional educational associations corporate lobbies, think tanks, have offered proposals for reauthorizing ESEA/ NCLB. I summarize and offer commentary on key proposals of three prominent organizations….”  They are The Forum on Educational Accountability, Broader Bolder Approach to Education (an offshoot of Economic Policy Institute), Forum for Education [...]

Social and Emotional Learning Impact

CASEL, the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning has promoted a thorough study, “The Impact of Enhancing Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: A Meta-Analysis of School-Based Universal Interventions,” on the impact on social and emotional learning. Encompassing 213 studies involving 270,000 students, the authors find significant impacts from practices not only on academic learning but [...]

Charter School Funding: Bugaboo Factor

100s of charter school studies have assessed the viability of the movement particularly on student achievement as measured by standardized tests. One study shows charter schools students do better than comparison groups, another shows they are about the same, another shows charter school students do poorer than comparison groups. Two major criticisms of these studies [...]

Multiple Assessments: Hope Survey

What effect is the current standards movement and teaching to the test having on our students? What do you know about how students at your school view the school environment? Now your school can find out by seeing the school from the eyes of your students based on their responses on the Hope Survey. This [...]

Alternative Education: Standards, Descriptions, Action

Several helpful documents are available for describing, implementing and evaluating alternative education programs. The first three refer to alternative education broadly, that is, providing a choice of programs for all students. The last one is more attuned to at-risk students. Ray Morley and the Iowa Association of Alternative Education prepared a thoughtful document, Alternative Learning [...]

A Second Side to the Story

What Doesn’t Get Measured Doesn’t Get Done

Students Describe a Better Approach to Learning

8 Year Study: New Books

Charter Schools: State by State

Amazing Learning Alternative

No Child Left Behind