I taught sixth grade in Austin Independent School District before working in education policy. It’s hard to be a sixth grader as it is, but some kids have even more trouble fitting in and making connections with others. I remember...
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Similar to many other states, California’s efforts to boost college completion rates, while commendable, require new innovations to strengthen results. We developed this brief alongside the College Futures Foundation to elevate proven practices and strategies that are resulting in more...
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In this publication, we highlight social-emotional learning (SEL) successes in three leading school districts—Anchorage School District (AK), Bridgeport Public Schools (CT) and Sacramento City Unified School District (CA). The publication is divided into two main parts. In the first part,...
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Back when we started teaching almost 15 years ago, “assessments,” in our minds, were things like spelling tests and exit tickets. We mostly created them ourselves and learned through trial and error how to write questions that would help us...
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A lot has changed since 2010, when states began adopting Common Core State Standards and aligned assessments. Each year has seen some states attempt to change or repeal entirely the new standards and assessments, making for a constantly shifting landscape....
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Think back to your days as a high school student. Did you take the SAT or ACT test? Did you take other standardized tests, maybe an end-of-course exam or graduation test? Was it more important to know how well you...
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What was it like inside a state that implemented a cascade of new education policies over the past five years? In “Inside the Schoolhouse: Untold Stories of Delaware’s Education Progress,” we dive deeply into the First State, whose teachers and...
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The Every Student Succeeds Act gives states the flexibility to decide how to measure student success in high school. This guide—developed with the input of testing and state policy experts across the country and written by a former state assessment...
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“Formative assessment is the way we ensure that the kids are learning. I can stand up there and spout stuff all day long. If I don’t do anything to figure out who’s getting it and who isn’t before it’s too...
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Our formative assessment study, conducted in collaboration with the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, is a two-part series. Formative Assessment in the Classroom, the study itself, looks at how teachers use formative assessment every day in their classrooms to answer...
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