Report cards are the primary way that teachers, students, and parents communicate about student achievement in the classroom. Although many school districts develop rubrics to guide teacher grading practices, most research finds that in reality, grades represent a hodgepodge of factors that vary across teachers and across school systems. The…

The 21st century ushered in change with the increased use of technology in educational delivery methods and opened doors for a new generation of students. While the debate over pedagogy, content design and overall effectiveness of this delivery format continues, scholars have not attended to the lessons of earlier theorists. This study examined a…

This guide is intended to assist teachers in the measuring of student learning over the course of the school year. Teachers in the six groups of IMPACT will write teacher-assessed student achievement (TAS) goals at the beginning of the year to gauge student achievement. With the principal's approval, teachers may adapt, as appropriate, the…

Today's students grow up in a technological milieu of hand-held computers with high storage capacities, internet access, and the ability to shoot high definition photographs and video. As such, they are empowered to construct representations of the past virtually "on the run." In this article, the authors investigated the historical "and"…

Open-ended assessments, defined as assessments with a large set of possible correct answers, by nature lend themselves to concerns regarding accurate and consistent grading. This article describes one particular open-ended assessment, named Creative Exercises (CE), designed for promoting students' interconnection of concepts in a college general…

Physical educators should be able to define the "correct form" they expect to see each student performing in their classes. Moreover, they should be able to go beyond assessing students' skill levels by measuring the outcomes (products) of movements (i.e., how far they throw the ball or how many successful attempts are completed) or counting the…

The early years of childhood are critical for optimal development of a variety of skills. The accurate and efficient identification of potential delays in, or issues with child development, is essential in identifying those children most in need of early intervention services. Screening procedures are designed to identify children who appear at…

AACSB has mandated that the documentation of student learning will become increasingly important in decisions regarding initial accreditation and reaffirmation. Assurance of learning is a major part of the accreditation and reaffirmation process. All universities will need to develop a set of learning goals for all their programs. These learning…

With today's focus on the importance of lifelong physical activity, educators are increasingly offering a variety of such activities in their classes, as well as in before- and after-school programs. This article describes the benefits of offering ice skating as a challenging and rewarding lifetime activity, either before or after school or in…

In this article, the author talks about the Florida Power-Library School (FPLS) program. She describes the why, who, what and how of the Florida Power-Library School initiative, as well as the favorable results for schools. Schools successfully completing this process see relationships among staff and community members strengthened. Library media…

How many scientists throw out their notebooks at the end of each year and start over no matter how many empty pages remain? How many of them approach a new research question or experiment without using knowledge gained from the previous years? The answer to each of these questions is of course, few if any, yet we ask our students to do that every…

For assessment to be useful for students, it must give them feedback that will help them move to the next level of proficiency; in other words, it must be "formative." Many teachers are finding that rubrics are useful as a formative assessment tool. Teachers can use rubrics to analyze student work so that they can plan their instruction and…

Based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and following a blended learning approach (a supplement model), this article reports on a quasi-experiment where writing was taught evenly with other language skills in everyday language contexts and where asynchronous online activities were required from students to extend learning beyond…

Using a mixed methodology study, this article explores the influence of academic language comprehension on reading, writing, and academic performance at a regional comprehensive institution. We completed a comprehensive survey of 150 students in ENGL 101 and 201, asking questions about academic reading strategies and important disciplinary…

Mastering techniques of self- and peer revision is a valuable tool for all writers, especially US-educated Generation 1.5 students, whose near fluency enables them to dialogue successfully about their writing. Using action research, 2 academic writing instructors systematically trained students to more responsibly and effectively revise their…