Academic Word List (AWL) Highlighter
The main purpose of this website is to help students expand their academic vocabulary using the Academic Word List (AWL). However, teachers can also use this online tool to help identify academic vocabulary words in instructional text. The AWL, created by Dr. Averil Coxhead, consists of the 570...
Achieving with Data: How High-performing School Systems use Data to Improve Instruction for Elementary Students
This report is the second in a three-part research effort to investigate the prevalence of performance-driven practices in urban school districts across the country. The study captures the details of data-driven instructional decision making at the classroom, school, and system levels in two urban...
Seven Keys to Effective Feedback
In this short article, author and former teacher Grant Wiggins says that helpful feedback is goal-referenced; tangible and transparent; actionable; user-friendly (specific and personalized); timely; ongoing; and consistent. He provides many examples from sports and the classroom to support his...
Web Alignment Tool
Using Norman Webb’s depth-of-knowledge (DOK) levels, the Web Alignment Tool (WAT) is a web-based application that automates the process of aligning state education standards with standardized tests. This tool makes it possible to gauge the alignment between the standards and the assessment based on...
NSTA Quick-Reference Guides to the NGSS: Elementary, Middle, and High School
This resource is a compilation of workbooks by grade-level span, put together in response to educators' need for assistance in implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in their learning communities. Each guide includes resources addressing the grade level span (i.e. elementary,...
What Professional Development Strategies Are Needed for Successful Implementation of the Next Generation Science Standards?
This resource is a paper presented by Dr. Brian J. Reiser, from Northwestern University, at the Research Symposium on Science Assessment, hosted by the Center for K–12 Assessment & Performance Management (K–12 Center) at ETS, in September 2013 in Washington, DC. It articulates the required...
Assessment Literacy: Making Sense of K-12 Assessment for Learning
AssessmentLiteracy.org is a website created as part of an assessment literacy initiative sponsored by Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA). The website provides information and guidance to educators and professional development providers about the purposes of assessment, the components of...
Lessons from the Data Wise Project: Three Habits of Mind for Building a Collaborative Culture
Drawing from their Data Wise book, the authors say that a key lesson in their years of data use work is that they still "need to make the case that educators should engage in the [data use] process collaboratively, treating Data Wise not as a program to implement but, rather, as a means of...