Effect of the Learning Consortium: One District's Journey

The Learning Consortium has provided the conditions for Consortium partners to construct a more meaningful approach to instructional change. Those conditions focus on four opportunities: (1) to build on individual accomplishments; (2) to create a broader view of the educational picture; (3) to share and interact with wider audiences; and (4) to re‐focus on the future. This article applies those conditions to illustrate the Durham Board of Education's efforts to extend the instructional practices of their teachers. The major message is that extending the instructional practices of teachers requires an intensive effort over time.     

The Demand for Standardized Student Testing

What does the American public think about standardized testing? D o Americans test too much? Does the public believe that tests are a good way to learn about how well students are doing and to encourage them to d o better? What d o students, teachers, and administrators think?     

Overview of State Legislation to Regulate Standardized Testing

What has been the pattern of state legislatures to regulate testing? Why is testing a legislative issue? What should be the relationship between state legislatures and testing companies?     

Monitoring the Effectiveness of the Wilson Reading System for Students with Disabilities: One District's Example

The current study detailed the manner in which one school district monitored the effectiveness of the Wilson Reading System for students with disabilities who were experiencing difficulty with reading. Effectiveness was measured by growth in the reading skills that have been documented to be critical for successful readers. Twenty fourth- and fifth-grade students participated in the Wilson Reading System for two consecutive years. Pretest and posttest reading scores from the Scholastic Reading Inventory and the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement were examined. Results revealed gains in the students' reading comprehension skills as well as their overall basic reading skills, including word decoding and reading fluency. Limitations of this type of applied research are discussed.     

The Effects of Standardized Testing on Teaching and Schools

How much influence does standardized testing exert on teaching and learning in upper elementary classrooms? Is there any difference between the impact of testing on low-SES and high-SES classrooms? How much impact does “teaching to the test” appear to have on test scores?     

Applying Standardized Testing to Home-Based Education Programs: Reasonable or Customary?

The author seeks to identify sources of current misutilization of standardized tests in assessing the quality of home-based educational programs and notes some limitations of current Instruments to perform such assessments. Me suggests that both new instruments and the cooperation of concerned groups will be needed in the pursuit of increased educational alternatives, excellence, and accountability.     

The Use and Misuse of Standardized Testing: A Whiteheadian Point of View

First an overview is given about the actual national and international situation concerning standardized testing. Then two major reasons are presented why accountability systems based on standardized testing have become so widespread: (a) the missing validity and reliability of teachers’ assessment of students’ achievement, and (b) the important role standardized testing plays for out-put management in educational systems.On the basis of these considerations Alfred North Whitehead’s critical remarks on external standardized testing are presented. Whitehead’s main point is that external standardized testing limits the freedom of teachers to adapt to the complex, situation specific circumstances in order to obtain a maximum of the creative learning process for students who are conceived as specialists. Instead external testings lead to “teaching to the test.” As a consequence, the attitude of creative, adventurous exploration is undermined and substituted by simple pattern recognition, narrow visions, and even boredom. Finally, the question is raised whether there is any possibility of developing a measurement tool which on the one side meets scientific test criteria, and on the other side is still flexible enough to do justice to needs of individual schools – which according to Whitehead are the essential educational unit – and not vice versa, as it is the case at present with external standardized testing. That such a flexible approach to evaluation is possible is demonstrated by the presentation of the basic ideas of the MSS (Module Approach to Self-Evaluation of School Development Projects) which has been developed and examined in ten schools by the author and his collaborators.     

客观结构化临床考核对儿科医师里程碑式规范化培训后的实践胜任力评估

客观结构化临床考核是一种客观的临床能力考试模式。选取西南医科大学附属医院儿科2017—2019年入职的60名儿科规范化培训医师,通过里程碑进行分级培训,以客观结构化临床考核平台考查培训效果。结果显示,各专业三年期规范化培训医师组理论成绩、体格检查成绩的评分均高于一年期。客观结构化临床考核能评估儿科规范化培训医师在里程碑培训系统中的实践胜任力。     

Standardized Testing in College Admissions: Observations and Reflections

Reflecting upon the experience serving on the University of California's Standardized Testing Task Force, and drawing lessons learned, I argue that the COVID-19 pandemic has merely served to accelerate the trend of US higher education institutions moving away from current standardized tests. New educational assessments will continue to be produced. There will be strong calls for the making of completely different assessments than currently available. Educational measurement as field has much to offer and to learn.     

A Century of Standardized Testing: Controversies and Pendulum Swings

Standardized testing has been an ever-expanding, albeit controversial, part of education in the United States throughout the 20th century. Views on specific uses of tests have changed over the years, sometimes making popular a type of testing or intended use of test results that was earlier rejected in favor of some other new approach or use, which in turn fell into disfavor. I use 2 test uses, grade-to-grade promotion and college admissions, to illustrate some of the controversies and pendulum swings.     

美国标准考试历史简介

标准考试是美国大学招考的重要形式,在美国已有50多年的历史.近年来,越来越多的大学开始重视标准考试.     

Assessment and innovation: One darn thing leads to another

Using recent experience at Carleton College in Minnesota as a case history, the authors offer a model for assessment that provides more flexibility than the well-known assessment feedback loop, which assumes a linear progression within a hierarchical administrative structure. The proposed model is based on a double helix, with values and feedback serving as the backbone chains, and assessment, curriculum, faculty development, learning outcomes, student performance, and teaching as interactive building blocks. Unlike the base pairs in the DNA double helix, these building blocks can combine in any order, depending on the institutional context. Faculty development, as one of the building blocks, is shown to be most successful as an iterative undertaking in which a threshold level of participation provides statistically significant effects in the curriculum and student learning. Specifically, a faculty member's increased participation in faculty development activities related to writing instruction yields significantly more of that faculty member's assignments in sophomore portfolios compiled by students as a graduation requirement.     

Relating Performance on a Standardized Writing Assessment to Performance on Selected Academic Writing Activities

Our objective was to study the relation between (a) the kinds of writing skills that can be elicited in a relatively brief, standardized writing assessment and (b) several nontest indicators of prospective graduate students' writing skills. Various nontest indicators were considered as criteria, but a particular focus was the quality of students' course-related writing samples. Two such writing samples were collected from each participant, along with considerable information about the nature of these samples. Thus, we were able to analyze the conditions and circumstances under which performance on a standardized writing assessment is (and is not) related to performance on course-related assignments. The results reveal modest relations between writing assessment essays and the various nontest indicators of writing skill. Performance on the writing assessment exhibited the strongest relation with course-related writing samples, arguably the most compelling of the nontest indicators of students' writing ability. There was no indication that the relation between performance on the writing assessment and the quality of course-related writing samples may depend on particular characteristics of the writing samples.     

科技论文规范化修辞的问题与编辑应对

科技论文的规范化修辞,使科技论文发生结构性的修辞改变、内容性的修辞改造、语体的修辞建构与引证的修辞适应。因而有可能造成科技论文信息屏蔽、交流阻隔、晦涩生硬、创新局限等问题。期刊与编辑的应对包括定位交流者;容许“失范”的结构,创新论文陈述结构;吸收社科论文的写作方式,共享实验经历;善用修辞语言等。     

Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste: Large-Scale Assessment and the Response to COVID-19

In early spring 2020 the vast majority of US colleges and schools closed for the year due to COVID-19 with no clear direction on when or how these institutions will reopen for in-person instruction. School closures and the associated health concerns haulted large scale admissions testing and required alternative models such as remote proctoring at home, additional flexibility in test sites and administrative conditions, and additional testing dates for the fall. It is clear that access to admissions testing has been greatly reduced despite these efforts resulting in extended deadlines in graduate admissions and the wide-scale adoption of test-optional polcies in undergraduate admissions. This paper traces the efforts undertaken by admissions testing programs to adapt to COVID-19 and the measurement issues which emerge from these efforts.     

高一学生地理课后书面作业规范的培养

高中地理课后书面作业往往以时事要闻或生产生活中的事件为背景材料,以地图、表格等为载体,因此让刚刚踏入高中的学生端正学习地理的态度,认真仔细、独立自主、及时规范完成一定数量和质量的地理课后书面作业,利于他们提高学习地理的兴趣,主动学习地理的相关知识或查阅相关书籍,用所学的地理知识树来解释生活中的一些现象,切实体会到学习地理的实用性、重要性,具备适应终身发展的必备品格和关键能力。本文首先就规范课后书面作业的布置要求和规范课后书面作业的习惯要求进行一定的阐述,然后根据对高一学生课后书面作业完成情况中存在问题的跟踪研究,查找问题根源,并进一步提出相应的解决措施。