What Teacher Preparation Programs Teach about K-12 Assessment

Teachers need to know what their students have learned in order to help them learn more. Data from assessments of all kinds — from informal oral quizzes to standardized tests — is the compass by which good teachers decide how best to teach their students.

Drawing on the data collected for the National Review, this report from the National Council on Teacher Quality provides an overall appraisal of how well 180 teacher preparation programs in 30 states are preparing their elementary and secondary teachers candidates in this vital area.

In their evaluation they asked three basic questions about the coursework taken by prospective teachers:

Does it teach them about the many types of assessment — and require that they learn how to develop at least a small share of them?

Does it provide them with the tools to dig into assessment results on their own and with their peers to figure out what students have learned?

Does it build their capacity to use data to map out the instructional path to take in their next lessons?

The report provides answers to these questions as well as recommendations on how all programs can improve.
*3

Percent of teacher prep programs that adequately build teacher's skills in the crucial area of student assessment.

*33

Percent of teacher prep programs in which state standardized tests are rarely, if ever, addressed in coursework.

*<10

Percent of programs that have teacher candidates work collaboratively to analyze assessment results and/or use results to decide what to teach next.


*500m

Federal funding granted to states to build data systems, produce better assessments and build capacity to use assessment results.

*2014

The year new Common Core assessments, which will greatly increase the flow of student data to teachers, come on line.

*83

Percent of teacher prep programs graduating teachers inadequately prepared to use student data in the way leading districts expect.

*100%

Proportion of schools (estimated) doing the most to close the achievement gap which have created strong cultures of data driven instruction.

You have read this article with the title . You can bookmark this page URL http://universosportinguista.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-teacher-preparation-programs-teach.html. Thanks!

Diverse Charter Schools: Can Racial and Socioeconomic Integration Promote Better Outcomes ?

To date, the education policy and philanthropy communities have placed a premium on funding charter schools that have high concentrations of poverty and large numbers of minority students. While it makes sense that charter schools have focused on high-needs students, thus far this focus has resulted in prioritizing high-poverty charter schools over other models, which research suggests may not be the most effective way of serving at-risk students. There is a large body of evidence suggesting that socioeconomic and racial integration provide educational benefits for all students, especially at-risk students. Today, some innovative charter schools are pursuing efforts to integrate students from different racial and economic backgrounds in their classrooms. A new report, Diverse Charter Schools: Can Racial and Socioeconomic Integration Promote Better Outcomes for Students? by Richard D. Kahlenberg and Halley Potter explores this topic.

You have read this article with the title . You can bookmark this page URL http://universosportinguista.blogspot.com/2012/06/diverse-charter-schools-can-racial-and.html. Thanks!

What Matters for Staying On-Track and Graduating in Chicago Public Schools: A Focus on English Language Learners

This report builds on findings from earlier The University of Chicago UChicago Consortium on Chicago School Research reports to examine whether ninth-grade early warning indicators that are used to determine if students are on-track to graduate high school – such as absences, grade point average (GPA), and course failures – are as predictive of graduation for high school ELLs as they are for the general student population. It finds that course performance indicators are highly predictive of graduation for ELL students, and are actually more predictive than other ELL-specific indicators, including English language proficiency level and whether students experienced interruptions in their education.

The report, supported by the National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research, concentrates primarily on Hispanic students because they represent the largest group of ninth grade ELLs in CPS, although, the same analyses of course performance and graduation are also reported for white and Asian students. Nationally, ELL students are the fasted growing student demographic group, representing 10.8 of the pre-K-12 population in the United States. The challenges ELL students face in learning a new language while also mastering course content are reflected in their academic performance in high school, where ELLs students tend to have lower grade point averages and be more at risk of dropping out than their non-ELL peers.

A number of the report’s key findings highlight the diverse needs of ELL students. First, Hispanic students who entered CPS as ELLs and obtained English language proficiency before sixth grade performed better in their ninth grade courses comparedto other Hispanic sub-groups. Second, only 52 percent of Hispanic ELLs who had been enrolled in CPS since elementary school and had not achieved proficiency when they entered high school graduated within four years. The report also finds thatHispanic ELLs who were new to CPS in the middle or high school grades and entered ninth grade as ELLs performed as well or better than any other group in their freshman class, but they graduated at lower rates than most groups. Hispanic, white, and Asian students had similar patterns of course performance and graduation rates, however, Hispanic students, regardless of ELL status, graduated from high school at far lower rates than white and Asian ELL students.In addition, the report findsthat ELL students who were newcomers to CPS after age 12 were less likely to graduate than other students with the same grades and attendance.

The report focuses on a cohort of CPS students who were in ninth grade in 2004-05, and follows them for five years, until 2009, when they should have graduated. Researchers looked at the performance of ELL versus non-ELL students in CPS, and also compared several ELL Hispanic subgroups to each other.
Related article

You have read this article with the title . You can bookmark this page URL http://universosportinguista.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-matters-for-staying-on-track-and.html. Thanks!