Blogs on Comprehensive Assessment

Our national obsession with assessment continues. Despite their rhetoric expressing concern about the role that standardized tests play in our education system, politicians persist in valuing these tests almost exclusively when it comes to accountability -- not only for schools, as has been the case since the inception of No Child Left Behind, but for teachers as well, with a national push to include the results of these tests in teacher evaluations.

Agreeing on how to best establish what a learner understands isn't simple -- if for no other reason than understanding isn't simple.

It's never too late to address this subject. Yes, many of us are gearing down from the epic standardized testing season, enjoying the freedom, released from the many pressures that come with the tests. However, these tests will keep happening. Whether a yearly course assessment, a six-week benchmark exam or a state-level competency test, teachers and students are inundated with testing. Because of the way that testing permeates education culture, I often hear some "pushback" from teachers and their implementation of project-based learning. Here are some tips and responses to that tension between PBL and standardized tests.

The public draft of the Next Generation Science Standards were just announced at http://www.nextgenscience.org/. Public comments on this draft will be accepted over the next three weeks. A second public draft and comment period will occur in late fall. Background information on NGSS can be found here.