Productive Formative Assessment Always Requires Local District Preparation
This chapter makes the case for balanced assessment systems and argues that the productive use of assessment for formative and improvement purposes always requires local district action. The authors describe seven essential actions for local districts: Balance assessment systems, Continue to...
Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision Making
The practice guide was developed by a panel of experts who synthesized available research with expert opinion to provide five recommendations essential for the effective use of data. The five recommendations are: Make data part of an ongoing cycle of instructional improvement. Teach students to...
Making the Most of Interim Assessment Data: Lessons from Philadelphia
This report shares the results of Research for Action’s (RFA) multimethod study of the use and impact of interim assessments in 10 low performing elementary schools in Philadelphia. Interim assessments were a central component of the district’s “Managed Instruction System” (MIS), which also...
Interim Assessments: Keys to Successful Implementation
This brief is based on New Leaders for New Schools research and considers the potential and challenges of implementing interim assessments. The heart of the document is its list of 23 conditions the author considers important for successful implementation that will support student learning. These...
Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning
"Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning" is an executive summary of the Stanford History Education Group's recent project to develop and validate assessments of students' ability to evaluate information they read online. The research included students in middle schools,...
Online Reading Comprehension Assessments
Online Reading Comprehension Assessments (ORCA) are tests of students' abilities to locate, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate information that they read online. Funded by a grant from the Institute for Education Sciences, the ORCA Project was a five-year research project to create, study, and...
The New Literacies
"The New Literacies" is an article on the Reading Rockets website. The article describes the need to teach students specific strategies and skills for reading on the Internet, describes instructional models being studied by the New Literacies Research Lab at the University of Connecticut, and...
Understanding the New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension
"Understanding the New Literacies of Online Reading Comprehension" is a curated collection of resources to support educators' professional learning about online reading comprehension skills and strategies--both how to assess and how to teach these skills and strategies. Researchers at the...