Hi all,

The link to the report that Marilyn mentioned below is: 
http://www.edweek.org/qc06

Aaron

At 10:47 AM 1/11/2006 -0500, you wrote:

>Marie,

>

>I wanted to let list members know about the latest issue of Education 

>Week. As some of you who have contact with K-12 education may know, 

>Education Week is a weekly newspaper  that reports federal and state news. 

>This week the entire issue includes a review of the success of the 

>standards-based education effort of the past decade. They call the results 

>at once "heartening and sobering". They're heartening in that student 

>achievement in some areas, particularly in math have improved. In 

>addition,  there have been real gains for black, Hispanic and low income 

>students, especially in math.  However, after all the "effort" that has 

>been put into reading, overall reading scores have barely budged form 1992 

>to 2005 (although the scores of black, Hispanic and low income children 

>increased at nearly triple the national average). There is also a 

>discussion of high school drop out and graduation rates (still as low as 

>ever for those same groups.) There are lots of reflective articles on the 

>benefits, trade-offs and negative aspects of standards-based education 

>that we, as adult educators, could learn from  Several states are profiled 

>in-depth including Delaware, New York, Texas, Massachusetts, Iowa and 

>Nevada. The articles contain a lot of food for thought and would be a 

>great resource for discussion groups or study circles.

>

>Marilyn Gillespie

>SRI International

>

>Marie Cora wrote:

>>

>>Good morning, afternoon, and evening to you all.

>>

>>

>>

>>I m pleased to welcome Peggy, Aaron, Regie, and EFF Center Staff to our 

>>discussion.  I ve been thinking about this over the weekend, and I have a 

>>couple of questions to start us off:

>>

>>

>>

>>For our guests:

>>

>>

>>

>>-The EFF Standards are complex in terms of what they try to capture in a 

>>performance.  Is this was makes them different from competencies?  Or 

>>perhaps even different from other standards?

>>

>>

>>

>>For subscribers:  I found the thought-provokers really helped me to focus 

>>on a piece of this big picture so I could get a handle on it.  Did anyone 

>>try #1 below?  Or perhaps if there are EFF users on the List, you might 

>>comment on this activity.  As for #2 below I found this question helpful 

>>because it did make me consider how often and in what ways I would look 

>>for achievement over time, and it also made me think that I would 

>>necessarily look for such incremental gains via classroom assessment 

>>rather than with a high stakes test.

>>

>>

>>

>>1.  Pick any EFF standard, read its definition, and imagine what it would 

>>look like if you were actually assessing the application of the 

>>integrated skill process described in the standard s definition.

>>

>>

>>

>>2.  How often do you feel a need to look for evidence that learning has 

>>happened?  How does the nature of the evidence you are looking for change 

>>as you look for learning within the space of one class session, one week, 

>>one month, one course, one year, and so on.

>>

>>

>>

>>Anyway, that s what I was thinking about.  How about you?  Please post 

>>your questions and comments!

>>

>>Thanks,

>>

>>marie

>>

>>Assessment Discussion List Moderator

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

>>

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>>

>

>

>--

>Marilyn Gillespie, Ed.D.

>Educational Researcher

>SRI International

>1100 Wilson Blvd., Suite 2800

>Arlington, VA 22209-2268

>Phone: (703) 247-8510

>Fax: (703) 247-8493

><mailto:marilyn.gillespie at sri.com>marilyn.gillespie at sri.com

>-------------------------------

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>Assessment mailing list

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Aaron Kohring
Coordinator, LINCS Literacy & Learning Disabilities Special Collection 
(http://ldlink.coe.utk.edu/)
Moderator, National Institute for Literacy's Content Standards Discussion 
List (http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/Contentstandards)
Coordinator, Equipped for the Future Websites (http://eff.cls.utk.edu/)

Center for Literacy Studies, University of Tennessee
EFF Center for Training and Technical Assistance
Phone:(865) 974-4109 main
           (865) 974-4258 direct
Fax:   (865) 974-3857
e-mail: akohring at utk.edu