Criticisms of international assessments: Fact or Fiction?
Posted: September 12, 2006
Summary: Do international comparisons of student performance provide any meaningful insights? Or are international rankings inherently flawed by an apples-to-oranges premise? This short paper sorts out the facts from the fiction about the uses of international comparisons of student achievement.
Topic areas: student achievement; performance indicators; testing and assessment
At-a-glance: The straight story on high school graduation rates
Posted: June 20, 2006
Summary: A summary of key points to keep in mind when examining high school graduation rates.
Topic areas: High school, graduation rates, post-secondary schooling
High school graduation rates: What do they mean and what can we do?
Posted: June 22, 2006
Summary: A step-by-step guide to understanding various ways of calculating high school graduation rates and recommendations for things districts can do to collect, analyze and report graduation rates that tell the whole story about high school completion in your community.
Topic areas: High school, graduation rates, post-secondary schooling
The nature of assessment: A guide to standardized testing
Posted: Feb. 15, 2006
Summary: The goal of this guide is to provide useful information about standardized testing, or assessment, for practitioners and non-practitioners who care about public schools. It includes the nature of assessment, types of assessments and tests, and definitions.
Topic areas: standardized testing, assessment, performance indicators
Guide to standards-based reform
Posted: March 23, 2006
Summary: Nearly every state has its own approach to standards-based reform. While the particulars vary from state to state, the goal is the same: to make sure our schools are providing all students with the education they need to lead meaningful, productive lives in the new century.
Topic areas: state standards, school improvement, student achievement
Guide to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act
Posted: March 15, 2006
Summary: An easy-to-digest introduction to the NCLB, which requires states to set standards and develop assessments and annual measurable benchmarks, and districts and schools to implement them.
Topic areas: No Child Left Behind Act, performance indicators, accountability, state standards and assessments
Score wars: Comparing the National Assessment of Educational Progress with state assessments
Posted: March 29, 2006
Summary:Asking a few simple questions can help sort out the differences scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and scores on state assessments.
Topic areas: national assessments, performance indicators, state standards and assessment
