Assessment and Evaluation:
Resources on the Internet
To suggest additions to this list or to report bad links,
e-mail us at MiddleWeb@middleweb.com
Everything About
Assessment on the Internet
An index to just about every resource on the Internet that addresses assessment
and evaluation. Fully searchable. Start here!
ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment
and Evaluation
Basic resource for anyone exploring assessment and evaluation issues.
Tools
for Accountability Project
Project by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform to promote a wholistic
approach to accountability. "Accountability systems will not bring
about school improvement unless they include two [critical] elements: the
will and the capacity of schools to analyze data and to use that analysis
to improve their practices. In addition, effective accountability must involve
stakeholders outside of the school building, fostering the development of
a rich reciprocal relationship between schools and their publics."
Eric
Digest on Performance Assessment
A brief overview of the topic with suggested resources. Also see "A
Long Overview on Authentic Assessment," written by two ERIC consultants.
Alternative Assessment
and Performance-Based Assessment on the Internet
A list of resources maintained by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and
Evaluation.
Designing
an Effective Performance Task
Teachers, principals, and others anxious to explore performance assessment
will be delighted to find "Designing an Effective Performance Task
for the Classroom." These web pages, prepared by the Kentucky Department
of Education, are tailored to Kentucky performance standards but will be
useful (and useable) by any educator. The material includes several middle
school performance tasks. The math activity, "The
Storage Area," focuses on a "space and dimensionality"
standard. The American history activity, "Museum
in a Box," addresses historical perspective; students prepare permanent
resources for the school library around key topics like "Manifest Destiny."
CRESST Technical
Reports
You'll find a large collection of Center
for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST) technical
reports covering assessment and standards implementation issues here.
Assessment Links
Useful links to websites addressing assessment issues. From the national
Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST).
"Creating
Better Student Assessments"
Part of the newsletter series Improving America's Schools published
by the U.S. Department of Education. This Spring 1996 issue, edited by assessment
expert Eva Baker, co-director of the Center for Research on Evaluation,
Standards, & Student Testing (CRESST), describes content standards &
performance standards, issues in developing standards, "what research
says" about student assessment, and assessment requirements under Title
I of the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA). Also provides
sources of additional information. Here's an excerpt.
"What
Happens Between Assessments?"
In this article from the January 1997 issue of Educational Leadership, Maryland
education reformer Jay
McTighe says that "not only assessment needs to change, curriculums
and instructional strategies, too, must reflect a performance orientation."
He offers seven principles for performance-based instruction. Complete text
of article.
Assessment and Accountability
Program
Research, model projects and rubrics from the Northwest Regional Education
Laboratory.
Authentic Assessments
in Math, Science and Technology
From the NY State Systemic Initiative.
Performance
and Portfolio Assessment for Language Minority Students
Includes data collection form and assessment rubrics.
"Practical
Ideas on Alternative Assessment for ESL Students"
This ERIC Digest by Jo-Ellen Tannenbaum says alternative assessment "is
particularly useful with English as a second language students because it
employs strategies that ask students to show what they can do." Tannenbaum
provides examples of alternative assessments that are well-suited for assessing
ESL students.
The National Center on
Educational Outcomes
NCEO was established in 1990 to provide national leadership in the identification
of outcomes, indicators, and assessments to monitor educational results
for all students, including students with disabilities. The center documents
and analyzes the participation of students with disabilities in state and
national assessments and other educational reform efforts.
Education
Standards, Assessment, and Accountability in the States
Prepared by the National Governors' Association. Provides a state-by-state
status report on education standards, assessment systems, and accountability
mechanisms in the states. The data reflect primarily the findings of surveys
conducted by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) during 1995.
Designing
A Sustainable Standards-based Assessment System
Changing to a standards-based system provides an opportunity to re-examine
the organizational elements of a school system: fundamental purpose, principles,
policies, processes, practices, programs and procedures. Scholarly article.
Designing
Performance Assessments
A good performance assessment is a "three-intellect" activity,
writes Jo Anne Wangsatorntanakhun, referring to Oliver Wendell Holmes' description
of the three levels of intellectual engagement. To assist teachers in designing
performance assessment tasks, this article defines performance assessment;
provides links to some pertinent internet resources; reviews the design
process; and provides templates and models for developing assessment tasks
and criteria for the classroom." Includes many WWW links to performance
assessment resources.
Digital
Portfolio: A Richer Picture of Student Performance
Developed by the Coalition of Essential Schools, the Digital Portfolio "is
a software tool that can help students create a "richer picture" of
their skills and accomplishments than traditional transcripts allow. It
has the potential to help schools as they think about performance assessment
and overall issues of school reform -- by providing a more thorough documentation
of how students are reaching goals, it can give a school better information
on how to help individual students, and the school as a whole." School
stories include Pierre van Cortlandt Middle School.
Exhibitions:
Facing Outward, Pointing Inward
Article by Joseph P. McDonald of the Coalition of Essential Schools addresses
two functions of an exhibition, accountability and feedback. And see other
CES papers on exhibitions.
Evaluation
Primer
Information about ordering a 48-page primer on educational evaluation published
by the Council for Aid to Education.
Reporting
Assessment Results
Students, parents, and community members often misinterpret assessment data
because they do not view the information in the proper context. After the
schools receive the assessment results, educators need to carry out specific
activities in order to use the information effectively to communicate to
the public and improve instruction.
Structures
for Student Self-Assessment
Discusses the connection between self-assessment and critical thinking.
State
of Washington Assessment of Student Learning
Sample items in writing, reading and math piloted in the spring of 1997,
and links to web pages about the Commission on Student Learning and its
work.
Walt Haney's Home Site
A visit with Walt Haney, the nationally known education researcher and assessment
skeptic, is bound to be edifying. And see the article he co-authored, Testing
Writing on Computers by Walt Haney and Michael Russell. Haney is associated
with The Center for the Study of Testing,
Evaluation, and Educational Policy at Boston College.
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