Presents a model of the cognitive frameworks and processes used by essay scorers. Investigates the relationship between a scorer's reading style and proficiency with a scoring rubric. Finds that proficient scorers are better able to withhold judgment and may focus their efforts more intensely on the process of evaluation. Discusses implications of…

The Delaware Performance Appraisal Process includes indicators that contain subjective terminology and are open to various interpretations, leading to concerns about interrater reliability and professional staff morale. The Lake Forest School District developed a two-pronged approach that retains the three-observation method while eliminating the…

Encourages the use of authentic tasks and assessment rubrics to round out the assessment of student learning in many college courses. Provides a rationale for these methods and offers several rubrics than can be used in a variety of courses. (EV)

This article offers a strategy for helping students to choose material they can read during sustained silent reading periods in school and independently at home. The rubric considers the following readability factors: vocabulary, sentence complexity, topic and concepts, clarity of ideas, level of abstraction, organization, design and format,…

Reports on the use of 3D topographic models to teach Earth Science. Relates how students at a middle school made cardboard cut-out models to illustrate plateaus, a volcanic mountain, and other landforms. Provides teaching suggestions for the activity and a grading rubric. (MM)

Discussion of instructional rubrics in classes that include student with disabilities considers what rubrics do, the different kinds of rubrics, and nine guidelines for using rubrics. Principles are illustrated with a classroom project to develop a rubric to evaluate Web sites. Some Web sites on rubrics are listed. (Contains references.) (DB)

The purpose of this study was to examine students' understanding of and ability to interpret line graphs, using four tasks: two where students constructed a graph and two where students interpreted a given graph. The tasks were unique in that they did not simply involve the explanation of given data but included a language component that looked at…

In school library research programs, a challenge for students doing research emerges when they take their projects home and turn to their parents for assistance. Often parents lack sufficient knowledge of the research process to be able to effectively help their children. Moreover, teachers expect parents to monitor student homework but rarely…

Standardized writing tests helps educators to learn how well their students' will be scored and how well they can apply assessment techniques in their own classrooms. Students can use assessment as an instruction tool in order to generate a scoring rubric of their own, which fosters critical thinking and formative self-assessment abilities that…

How do you make something better? This is a fundamental question of professional development the national network of Young Audiences (YA) undertook to answer about its artist residency programs. The basic question assumes that those asking the question know what the "something" is, how effective it is in its current state, and what "it" is…

In response to widespread concern that many American students do not write well enough to meet the requirements of higher education and the workplace, the College Board's National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges has called for a writing revolution. A key component of this revolution is evaluation, with particular emphasis…

This article narrates and interrogates some of the responses of a group of English teachers, and their lecturer, to an assignment in a post-graduate course entitled Language and assessment. The assignment required the teachers to respond to a text in a mode other than writing, and to design the assessment of this representation. Three of their…

The relationship between substantive arts involvement and social, cognitive, and artistic development is positive. Little is known about arts integrated within special education services to improve academic, cognitive, and social skills. We examined arts-based work and its impact on education of students with disabilities. During Study I, we…

A rubric is a multi-purpose scoring guide for assessing student products and performances. This tool works in a number of different ways to advance student learning, and has great potential in particular for non-traditional, first generation, and minority students. In addition, rubrics improve teaching, contribute to sound assessment, and are an…

Diane Ronis, a recognized expert in brain-compatible learning and assessment, goes beyond the world of standardized testing to show educators how to build and use targeted assessments based on the latest neuroscientific research. Updated to reflect recent findings about how the brain learns, this book provides readers with revised tools for…