Summer Internship Opportunity
We help states and school districts design assessments and assessment systems that meet technical and policy goals to support student learning and for other critical uses.
We’re a leader in designing and implementing accountability systems for states and school districts to meet key federal and state requirements that also support continuous improvement efforts.
Join us for a virtual convening, hosted by the Center for Assessment, on November 15 and 16. Over 4 sessions, we’ll be discussing the challenges, risks, and opportunities associated with through year assessment systems. Attendance is free, but pre-registration is required.
This is the second in a series of posts by our 2020 summer interns and their mentors based on their project and the assessment and accountability issues they addressed this summer. Sandy Student, from the University of Colorado Boulder, and Brian Gong get things started with a two-part series describing their work analyzing the validity arguments for states’ large-scale Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) assessments.
Many changes are being considered for schools in 2020-2021 and beyond in the era of COVID-19 and disruptions to schooling. Some of these include later school-year starts, blended instructional models for all students, full-on virtual delivery of content, and an extended school year to account for lost instructional time. Add to this the very real social and emotional needs of both students and adults and we need to be holistically considering school restart.
Once again this year, we are pleased to share posts on CenterLine by our summer interns and their mentors. These posts are based on the project they undertook and the assessment and accountability issues they addressed this summer.
The Center’s Executive Director Scott Marion was asked recently to offer a short response to the question,“How can parents and policymakers know whether schools are making up for lost learning and addressing individual needs?” as part of a series on what it will take to reopen schools amid the pandemic sponsored by The Center on Reinventing Public Education, in partnership with T
We cannot know what classrooms and teaching will look like in the coming school year, but that doesn’t need to prevent states from planning ahead for accurately equating spring 2021 summative assessments. In making that statement we assume that those tests will happen and their blueprints and administration will be unaltered while acknowledging that the conditions of learning may be very different than in the past.
Since mid-March, Center for Assessment associates and highly-respected guest authors have written multiple CenterLine posts and other papers addressing key aspects of assessment and accountability. We have been wrestling with this question since COVID-19 disrupted the 2019-2020 school year and forced the cancellation of spring 2020 state assessments: How can assessment best be used to support teachers and students during the 2020-2021 school year? Our ideas and advice over the past several months about assessment in 2020-2021 crystallized into the following key takeaways:
The Reidy Interactive Lecture Series (RILS) is one of the highlights for Center associates and our colleagues each year. It’s always a treat to convene in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; a great setting to appreciate the beauty of autumn in New England. What has made RILS special each fall since 1999, however, is the opportunity for a diverse group of participants to discuss timely and important topics in assessment and accountability.
State and district leaders are working hard to prepare for in-person schooling in 2020-2021 while also planning for hybrid models or, at worst, full remote learning should certain locales become overwhelmed by unsustainable increases in infections and hospitalizations.
This is the final post in a series of seven posts on instructing and assessing 21st Century skills. This post focuses on best practices related to classroom assessment design, grading, and reporting the 21st Century skills described in this series.
In my recent post, I promised to reveal the type of through year assessment design I’d like to see. After providing some background and context, I provide a high-level description of my design for a through year assessment system that promotes deeper learning while alleviating many of the problems caused by current assessment designs.
The Center for Assessment is partnering with PBLWorks to provide tools and resources supporting project-based instruction and assessment of 21st Century skills.
I titled my 2020 year-end CenterLine post, “Oh, What a Year!” with hopes that we were turning the pandemic corner. There’s no question the widespread availability of vaccines beginning in early spring 2021 gave us all a sense of hope only to have it dashed and renewed multiple times throughout this year following COVID’s ebb and flow.
