Assessing Student Understanding

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 324
Author(s):  
Anthony Fernandes ◽  
Natasha Murray ◽  
Terrence Wyberg
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Student Understanding ◽  
Formative Assessments ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Testing Environment ◽  
School Year ◽  
Summative Assessments ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Improve Student Learning

In the current high–stakes testing environment, a mention of assessment is inevitably associated with large–scale summative assessments at the end of the school year. Although these assessments serve an important purpose, assessing students' learning is an ongoing process that takes place in the classroom on a regular basis. Effectively gathering information about student understanding is integral to all aspects of mathematics instruction. Formative assessments conducted in the classroom have the potential to provide important feedback about students' understanding, guide future instruction to improve student learning, and provide roadmaps for both teachers and students in the process of learning.

scholarly journals Investigating Internal Accountability and Collective Capacity: Taking a Closer Look at Mathematics Instruction

2004 ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Jori Hall
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Leadership Capacity ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Testing Environment ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Mathematics Program ◽  
Internal Accountability ◽  
Collective Capacity

This case study uses multiple methods and gathers perspectives from administrators, teachers, and students to examine how a middle school develops internal accountability (Elmore, 2004) to address the needs of its diverse learners and external accountability mandates. Building on Newmann, King, and Rigdon’s (1997) framework for collective capacity, the school’s capacity to enact its internal accountability is explored. An in-depth investigation within the context of the school’s mathematics program, focusing on the academic needs of low-income, African American learners is conducted to further explore collective capacity as primarily enacted vis-à-vis teachers’ instructional strategies. The data presented contribute to a more complex and contextual perspective of teaching and learning within a high-stakes testing environment. The findings of this study show that despite tensions around student accountability and curricular demands, the school successfully incorporates internally-generated accountability and mandated strategies into their internal accountability system and demonstrates leadership capacity at multiple levels.

Engaging Exam-Oriented Students in Communicative Language Teaching by ‘Packaging’ Learning English Through Songs as Exam Practice

RELC Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 003368822097854
Author(s):  
Kevin Wai-Ho Yung
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Communicative Language Teaching ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Secondary English ◽  
Language Curriculum ◽  
Teachers And Students

Literature has long been used as a tool for language teaching and learning. In the New Academic Structure in Hong Kong, it has become an important element in the senior secondary English language curriculum to promote communicative language teaching (CLT) with a process-oriented approach. However, as in many other English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) contexts where high-stakes testing prevails, Hong Kong students are highly exam-oriented and expect teachers to teach to the test. Because there is no direct assessment on literature in the English language curriculum, many teachers find it challenging to balance CLT through literature and exam preparation. To address this issue, this article describes an innovation of teaching ESL through songs by ‘packaging’ it as exam practice to engage exam-oriented students in CLT. A series of activities derived from the song Seasons in the Sun was implemented in the ESL classrooms in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Based on the author’s observations and reflections informed by teachers’ and students’ comments, the students were first motivated, at least instrumentally, by the relevance of the activities to the listening paper in the public exam when they saw the similarities between the classroom tasks and past exam questions. Once the students felt motivated, they were more easily engaged in a variety of CLT activities, which encouraged the use of English for authentic and meaningful communication. This article offers pedagogical implications for ESL/EFL teachers to implement CLT through literature in exam-oriented contexts.

scholarly journals Addressing Challenges to the Reliable, Large-Scale Implementation of Effective School Health Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 834-844 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Mann ◽  
David K. Lohrmann
Keyword(s):  
Health Education ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
School Health ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
System Level ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Effective School ◽  
School Health Education ◽  
Health Promoting ◽  
Laws And Policies

The long-held priority of teaching young people the knowledge and skills needed for healthy living has recently been diminished in many preK-12 schools. Driven by federal and state priorities, laws, and policies associated with high-stakes testing, instruction in untested subjects has been reduced or eliminated in most schools in order to devote more attention to tested subjects, like reading, math, writing, and science. This article proposes a pathway to ensure that all children are able to learn what society knows about health. To that end, four challenges to the reliable, large-scale implementation of effective school health education are identified: (1) establishing school health education as an undeniable social and cultural priority through improved advocacy; (2) strengthening educational institutions’ capacities to reliably deliver large-scale, high-quality, school-based health education; (3) collaboratively coordinating efforts of health-promoting governmental and nongovernmental organizations that generate thought leadership for school health education; and (4) creating multidisciplinary research capacities for solving problems associated with the implementation of reliable, large-scale, effective school health education. By implementing specific strategies associated with each challenge, health educators can promote the social and system-level conditions required to support, elevate, and ensure delivery of effective health education to every student in every school every year.

Community responsive literacies: the development of the Ethnic Studies Praxis Story Plot

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward R. Curammeng ◽  
Daisy D. Lopez ◽  
Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
Ethnic Studies ◽  
High Stakes Testing ◽  
Educational Partnerships ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Language Arts Teachers ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Arts Teachers ◽  
K 12

Purpose Momentum around the institutionalization of Ethnic Studies in US K-12 classrooms is increasing. Opponents have argued that Ethnic Studies does not challenge students academically and prepare them for high stakes testing (Planas, 2012; Sanchez, 2007). Conversely, research continues to show ways Ethnic Studies contribute to students’ academic achievement, especially for students from marginalized and vulnerable communities (Cabrera et al., 2014; Halagao, 2010; Tintiangco-Cubales et al., 2015). This study aims to demonstrate the possibilities and potential of Ethnic Studies-framed tools for English and Language arts teachers. This moment concerning Ethnic Studies in schools illuminates an important opportunity to demonstrate how Ethnic Studies-framed tools positively affect learning mainstream school content, namely, English and Language Arts. The authors consider the following point: To what extent can Ethnic Studies-framed tools affect approaches for learning English, writing and reading while simultaneously being responsive to a community’s needs? The authors maintain the importance of such tools that exist in how they support the development of community responsive literacies (CRLs). Design/methodology/approach This paper examines CRLs through the Ethnic Studies Praxis Story Plot (ESPSP). The authors begin by exploring the development of the ESPSP, first used in Pin@y Educational Partnerships (PEP), an innovative K-college Ethnic Studies teaching pipeline. Next, the authors examine each coordinate of the ESPSP, examining their purpose, theoretical underpinnings and ways the ESPSP offers nuanced approaches for learning literacies. Findings The authors then discuss how CRLs emerged to support PEP teachers and students’ reading and writing skills using the ESPSP. Originality/value Finally, the authors learn from students’ experiences with the ESPSP and offer implications for English and Language Arts teachers in the pursuit of teaching and serving students in more socially just and community responsive ways.

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