This guide provides an overview of a more robust online guide and toolkit available through ConnectEd Studios. It supplies a glimpse of the sequence of steps involved in creating a new Linked Learning pathway. This publication can help coaches, district leadership, and pathway teams gain an understanding of the overall process of designing and…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed into law in December 2015, is the latest reauthorization of one of the most influential pieces of federal education legislation, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The law had not been reauthorized since 2001 when the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was signed, and ESSA is the result of…

Measures that Matter was a joint effort by Achieve and The Education Trust to provide strategic and technical assistance to states in creating college- and career-ready assessment and accountability systems that ensure that all students graduate from high school ready to succeed. States face lots of questions and choices--and, frankly,…

This handbook is designed to help school staff members and others broaden their view of assessment and put assessment into the broader context of school restructuring while keeping the focus on students. The handbook is arranged in sections, each dealing with a separate topic. Each section contains a number of papers by different authors that…

School leaders are increasingly coming under the gun of accountability, and this monograph is designed to help leaders think about, understand, and respond thoughtfully and effectively to the increasing demands for accountability in education. It provides a comprehensive and rather sophisticated set of concepts and insights into accountability…

Argues that the goal of enhancing fairness and equity in the evaluation of students with learning difficulties will not be realized by merely introducing performance assessments. Suggests need for development of an empirical base to guide implementation and to reevaluate prevailing beliefs about student failure and the role of assessment in…

This template is part of a series that recommends best practices and highlights problems that arise when policy deviates from these best practices. The booklet defines and outlines the critical components of a successful academic standards system using examples of good and bad standards to illustrate key points. The template addresses such…

Science educators and other are faced with determining what changes must be made in education to insure scientific literacy for all students. One area that has been identified as playing a crucial role in science achievement outcome is assessment. This monograph focuses on improving assessment techniques used by teachers as they devise tests to…

This monograph serves two purposes: (1) to stimulate further reflection and discussion among education leaders and policymakers to revitalize and strengthen the role that school leaders play in school reform; and (2) to assist researchers in identifying areas of future work. It synthesizes some of the most current literature pertinent to…

Examines issues and concerns regarding standards-based reform. Argues that, if middle level educators remember the needs and characteristics of young adolescents and the components of developmentally responsive programs, they can resist the temptation to concentrate on raising test scores, and instead have assessment programs that complement the…

Discusses writing assessment's recent evolution toward "tests worth teaching to." Urges further departure from accountability evaluation models toward an ecological model (Part two of this article appears in v10 n2 p4-10 Apr 1988; see EJ 371 768). (MM)

Current school restructuring focuses too little on changes in principal appraisal procedures. The article considers the meaning of school restructuring and discusses change strategies that foster good school restructuring. A discussion of transformational leadership's role in school restructuring is presented along with guidelines for designing…

This book examines the current trends in K-12 curriculum and instruction. It shows how the trends interrelate and provides a higher order, comprehensive model for curriculum reform. The model is based on critical, content-based concepts. Chapter 1 describes the complexity of the change process and illustrates dilemmas encountered in school-based…

The biggest barrier to fully implementing a program like the Big Six has been traditional attitudes toward student assessment. This article defines assessment terminology and provides an annotated bibliography of World Wide Web resources for alternative assessment, authentic assessment and portfolios, rubrics, specific course content and ages and…

This guidebook discusses the importance of building consensus in establishing outcomes for community reform to improve the well-being of children and youth, their families, and neighborhoods and communities. The guide is grounded in the premise that community collaboratives have the capacity to develop a set of measurable outcome indicators and…