We, as edtech leaders and classroom teachers, must explore pathways where assessments support teaching and learning in the 21st century. According to Matt Renwick, Author and Principal of Mineral Point Unified School District, WI, in a recent edWebinar , complex authentic student learning experiences require complex assignments that not only demonstrate content knowledge but should also gauge enthusiasm, communication skills and habits of mind. MORE

That post included our school’s limited progress in embedding technology into instruction that made an impact on student learning. In this post, I share how digital student portfolios did make a possible difference. I attempted a schoolwide action research project this past year around literacy and engagement. We used three strategies to assess growth from fall to spring: Instructional walk trends, student engagement surveys, and digital student portfolios. MORE

Students in a class at Frederick Community College in Maryland. Students are hitting the books again on college campuses this fall, with fresh possibilities ahead of them. And where there is information about whether students finish college knowing more than when they started, it’s not altogether reassuring. Yet “even as they teach their students to back up their claims with evidence, they don’t have much evidence to back up those claims.”. MORE

I don’t often repost other bloggers’ content, so when I do… Scott McLeod shared on his blog survey results from Gallup about the level of engagement in learning that secondary students are experiencing. When 1 million students state that they become less engaged the more years they spend in school, this is a cause for alarm. The latest results are available from the annual Gallup poll of middle and high school students. MORE

It works well, that is, if you disregard student data privacy and security. Affluent students get to digital tools for creative exploration; poor students get to use theirs for test prep. Students don’t pay attention to lectures, they would argue. MORE

Indeed, the new education law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, has been positioned as a significant upgrade in both policy and practice. To be sure, ongoing ill will over NCLB influenced the bitter, drawn-out negotiations over the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which became ESSA (NCLB was also a reauthorization of the 1965 act). It also seeks to de-emphasize test scores, although students will continue to be tested annually in most grades. MORE

This is a follow up to a previous post about our school’s collective efforts to increase student engagement in reading, especially in their dispositions around talking about and sharing their reading lives. He comes from the same class in which another student gave me a new metallic marker for our schoolwide reading graffiti board. As I mentioned in my previous post, it was the students’ turn to have the proverbial pencil in hand. MORE

The difference in the performance between each ESEA subgroup (as defined in this document) within a participating LEA or school and the statewide average performance of the LEA’s or tate’s highest achieving subgroups in reading/language arts and mathematics as measured by the assessments required under the ESEA. completion of a minimum course of study, content mastery, proficiency on college- and career-ready assessments, etc.) High-needs students . MORE

One teacher, many students: It’s basically the definition of school as we know it, going back to the earliest days of the Republic. “We couldn’t afford to have an individual teacher for every student, so we developed a way of teaching large groups,” as John Pane, an education researcher at the RAND Corporation, puts it. “In a personalized system,” he says, “students are receiving instruction exactly at the point where they need it.” MORE

Beginning dialogic engagement in the classroom simply requires getting children invested in an issue they can relate to and on which they have different perspectives and helping them engage each other’s perspectives. Engaging Literate Minds, pg. Engagement. MORE

As school systems around the world move toward a remote learning model, consideration of the needs of both teachers and students is imperative. Academic resources and strategies for different content areas and specialized student populations will need to be developed and implemented. MORE

That post included our school’s limited progress in embedding technology into instruction that made an impact on student learning. In this post, I share how digital student portfolios did make a possible difference. I attempted a schoolwide action research project this past year around literacy and engagement. We used three strategies to assess growth from fall to spring: Instructional walk trends, student engagement surveys, and digital student portfolios. MORE