Based on Success for Our Youngest Learners
“We can’t be part of a professional learning community because we can’t/don’t assess our preschoolers and we can’t/don’t collect data.”
Not true.
First of all, early childhood educators can’t, nor should they, think about assessments like a third-grade teacher does. Read more
This entry is the ninth in a blog series called Pandemic Response and Educational Practices (PREP), which aims to highlight and further the important work educators are doing amid the worldwide COVID-19 crisis.
Based on FAST Grading: A Guide to Implementing Best Practices
With almost all schools in the United States and Canada closed, and countless more around the world, leaders and policymakers share a legitimate concern about educational equity in grading. While some students have been able to continue their lessons with online learning, many others cannot. Some families lack computers and internet connectivity. Other families have a computer and internet service, but with parents and siblings all competing for the same computer and bandwidth, it is almost impossible for any individual child to have continuous access to online learning. Read more
In our recent publication, Beyond the Grade, our primary goal was to highlight practices proven to boost student achievement. As we began our study, we noticed assessment and grading topics being used interchangeably.
With refinement of our practices, we identified specific distinctions between the two processes. Here, we discuss the importance of assessment and grading, and traditional and current beliefs and practices of each. With this information, we describe a key difference between assessment and grading—with assessment as a continuous process and grading as an interval one. These distinctions are key to boosting student achievement. Read more
Credit: UNI News Services
(Note: This interview originally appeared on Inside UNI, the University of Northern Iowa’s online communications channel. It has been republished with permission from UNI News Services.)
UNI professor Matt Townsley wants to see an education revolution. In his upcoming book “Making Grades Matter,” co-written with Nathan Wear, the UNI educational leadership assistant professor lays out the path for middle and high schools to abandon traditional letter grades in favor of a standards-based grading model. In this conversation, he outlines his case for why schools should rethink the way they think about grades and learning. Read more
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Based on Unlocked: Assessment as the Key to Everyday Creativity in the Classroom
Lately, I have found myself becoming increasingly antagonistic toward the word “ability.” I hear it used almost daily in my work with assessment and learning in a variety of educational settings, but rarely do I hear it used without experiencing a flash of frustration.
Because I am not usually prone to this kind of negative response to a commonly accepted term, I have decided to “unpack” the word and why its use in an educational context bothers me.
When I examined the literal definition of the word, I found nothing that immediately explained my questionable response: Read more
Barbara W. Cirigliano
