3.8.16 Formative Assessment: It’s Not Just Another Thing to Do As the weather gets warmer, the green bits of grass begin to peek out from the white snow, and we begin to see changes all around us. As educators, we are very familiar with change. We are regularly... Read more
3.1.16 Reading Stamina: What is it? Can I Plan for It? Sometimes, two unrelated experiences coalesce to stimulate thinking. This is what happened and what I have been thinking. Experience one: I had the opportunity to review secondary ELA units for... Read more
2.23.16 Growing From Feedback Assessment is an element that drives the work in most K-12 classrooms for students, and professional development for educators. When you employ assessment strategies, you use a tool (such as... Read more
2.11.16 What Do We Mean When We Ask Learners to Think? In working on some new designs for professional learning, I’ve been pushing myself to think about new strategies to engage both learners and facilitators – ways to get both parties thinking... Read more
1.21.16 Four Key Elements of a Quality Assessment Toolbox for RTI Recently I was reading the latest Education Week when I ran across an article discussing Tier 2 interventions for reading in elementary classrooms. The article discussed a study which... Read more
12.17.15 MAP Around the World October saw the first Fall MAP Summit sponsored by CEESA (Central & Eastern European Schools Association). The Brandenburg Berlin International School was host site for 43 attendees representing... Read more
12.8.15 Data Rule #1: Don’t Should on Yourself Student growth is the expected outcome when using assessment data to inform instruction. Defining success metrics for students involves asking where a student should be in relation to state... Read more
12.3.15 Making sense of standard error of measurement If you want to track student progress over time, it’s critical to use an assessment that provides you with accurate estimates of student achievement, that is, assessment with a high level of... Read more
11.17.15 Of NAEP and Norms: Why Do NWEA Norms Change? Before I address the question, indulge me while I set some context by discussing NAEP scores. As you know, 2015 NAEP scores showed a pretty broad-based decline breaking a trend of small... Read more
11.5.15 What are the Secret Elements of Expressive Language Embedded in MAP? Can a computerized assessment, such as MAP, measure expressive language skills? This is an important question, since the ability to express ideas is one of the major indicators for College and... Read more
11.3.15 Is it Time to Re-engineer Your Classroom? Engineering your classroom environment to regularly solicit evidence of student understanding creates engaged students, while providing teachers the information they need to adjust instruction as... Read more
10.22.15 Six Ways The Learning Continuum Can Help Teacher Decision Making Measures of Academic Progress® (MAP®) and MAP for Primary Grades (MPG) interim assessments include our interactive teacher tool, the Learning Continuum. The Learning Continuum lets teachers see... Read more