In an interesting twist on high-stakes testing, students in Rhode Island asked politicians, businessmen and scientists to take the math portion of a high-stakes test. Today, they released the results and here is their press release. March 19, 2013 STUDENTS RELEASE “TAKE THE TEST” RESULTS – SUPER MAJORITY OF ACCOMPLISHED PROFESSIONALS SCORE BELOW DIPLOMA THRESHOLD [...]
February 4, 2013
Teens Poor at Finding Information Online
In a new usability study, experts say that adults are better than teens at finding information online. PARCC, are you listening? Are you designing your tests using research-based usability standards? Usability guru, Jakob Nielsen and his research firm, say this: Teens are (over)confident in their web abilities, but they perform worse than adults. Lower reading [...]
January 30, 2013
Common Core Issues: Testing, Origins, Implementation
Here are some of the discussions about Common Core for January, 2013. Exploring the Origins of the Common Core From the article: “When teachers are asked to implement standards that they feel “do not make sense” it is not that teachers are simply ignorant and require professional development, it is in my opinion, the initial [...]
January 17, 2013
Computer Upgrades by 2014: Unanswered Questions
A recent survey of US schools says that 56.1% of schools systems are Windows XP, which must be upgraded to at least Windows 7 before Common Core testing starts in 2014. I keep wondering about maintenance on those computers. Picture my 15-year-old son in a parenting class, one of the few electives available to freshmen [...]
December 7, 2012
Technology Requirements for Common Core Testing
The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has just released a new document that details the current state of technology in schools and recommendations on systems for testing. They surveyed 56,268 schools which owned 5.9 million devices. About 60% of the devices were laptops, 10% netbooks, tablets or other mobile-type devices. Operating Systems. 56.1% of systems are [...]
July 3, 2012
Technology Readiness Tool: Is Your District Ready to Test CCSS Online?
The web-based Technology Readiness Tool is a project that allows schools to survey their current state of technology. By 2014-25 school year, school who have adopted the Common Core must be ready to do online assessments. But do they have enough computers (laptops, netbooks, iPads) with the right operating system and right software? The first [...]
November 11, 2011
Assessments Affect Common Core Standards: PARCC
It’s one thing to create Common Core State Standards; it’s another to assess students taught with those standards. The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) is concerned with assessment and has just publically released the PARCC Model Content Frameworks in English Language Arts/Literacy and Mathematics. The Model Content Frameworks serve two [...]
