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As we enter the last few months of the school calendar, it is timely to bring this topic to the forefront. This month’s newsletter will highlight some of the ways that assessment may be useful in your work. Creative teachers have always been resourceful in integrating new concepts into their curriculum, and we hope some of these ideas will inspire them to think about how technology can be utilized in this area. In addition, recent changes in Federal Education policy have highlighted the role of assessment in program implementation. All programs — including technology programs — will be held accountable as never before. Therefore, the savvy district administrator is actively considering how technology can both support assessment and be assessed. This month's feature is an overview of the intersection between assessment and technology. We also encourage you to review the materials and resources on our site that support technology evaluation.
Also, we note that many states have just released their RFPs for competitive and non-competetive district grants. In the past, these grants were often collectively known as "TLCF" (Technology Literacy Challenge Fund) grants. Starting this year, technology funds from the Federal Government have been consolidated into other "title" funds as part of the No Child Left Behind, ESEA reauthorization. One consequence of this change has been a requirement -- started at the Federal level, but filtered down to districts -- for districts to devote specific funding to the assessment of their programs and to professional development. As always, Sun Associates is able to assist districts in creating meaningful program evaluation strategies and professional development targeted at critical teacher needs. Contact us (http://www.sun-associates.com/contact.html) for more information or visit our website.
As always, we encourage our readers to email us their thoughts and responses on this topic to newsletter@sun-associates.com.
On a more personal note, we’re pleased to inform our readers that Sun Associates has recently moved its physical offices. While we are at the same place in cyberspace (www.sun-associates.com), we have moved from Lowell, MA to North Chelmsford, MA. See the contact information on our website for our new address and phone numbers.
I. THIS MONTH'S FEATURE: Focus on Assessment: Assessing Technology
Programs
II. INTEGRATION IDEA OF THE MONTH: Student-Created Rubrics
III. WEB SPOTLIGHT: Assessment Resources
IV. TECH TIP OF THE MONTH: Creating Tables for Rubrics
V. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE
Back issues of Sun Associates news are available online.
Within the realm of educational technology, assessment has multiple faces. Teachers and administrators are increasingly encountering assessment as a key concept in any discussion of technology implementation. In particular, the recent emphasis on program accountability for federal and state-funded initiatives means that districts across the country will need to rapidly come up to speed in terms of their understandings of how to assess the impact of their technology funds. For a number of years, Sun Associates has been helping local school districts grapple with the intersection between technology and assessment. Therefore, in this article, we will explore the various implications of "assessment" on educational technology as well as some solutions for making technology more accountable.
Read the full online text of this article.
The more we, as teachers, bring our students to see their activities through our eyes, the better our students will have an idea of how to excel. One way to achieve this is to include our students into the rubric creation process itself. This will not only give them insight into how they may get the best grade, but it will also succeed in improving students' motivation, interest, and a holistic understanding of the project’s goals. Increasing students' ownership in the process of evaluating their work will ultimately raise their levels of awareness and responsibility.
For this month’s integration project, we offer you a framework for introducing the concept of a grading rubric.
CURRICULUM AREA: Any
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary/Middle School
SKILLS DEVELOPED: Decision making, collaborative learning, self assessment,
making real world connections
STUDENT GROUPING: Whole class, small groups
TIME: Two class periods
TECHNOLOGY USED: Inspiration (optional), Word Processor
Access the complete online lesson plan for this project.
As always, if you've come up with some good ideas, please share them with us so that we can share them with more teachers. Enjoy!
Here is a collection of web sites that introduce many informal performance-based assessment ideas. We hope these are helpful to you as you seek for new and creative ways to extend your curricular assessment.
Classroom Assessment -Teachers share their strategies for assessing their students’ work and their teaching.
The Digital Portfolio -This site provides an electronic report about how you can begin to work with digital portfolios in your school.
Evaluation Rubrics for Websites - Three rubrics for primary, intermediate and secondary grades for assessing websites, based on a point system.
The Effective Collaborator Rubric - This gives a concise set of objectives for a collaborative project that involves a process, communication, and interpersonal skills.
A Rubric for Evaluating WebQuests - Originally created by Bernie Dodge, this rubric breaks down the relevant sections of a WebQuest into describable criteria.
Rubistar - This is a free website to create projects for your project-based activities. Nine different categories, from Oral Projects to Mathematical problem solving.
Designing Performance Assessments: Challenges for the Three-Story Intellect - This is a good article on designing performance assessments. Lots of interesting assessment models for many curricular topics are linked to this site.
If you would like to share some of the WWW gems that you have discovered, please email us at newsletter@sun-associates.com and we would love to include your favorites on one of our upcoming lists. Please let us know if we can publish your name, school and/or email address so that teachers may be able to contact you.
While creating a rubric for a class assignment, the formatting task is easy if you use tables. This month's Tech Tip gives you step-by-step instructions for creating and modifying tables using Microsoft Word. Access full instructions for this techtip online.
If you have a tech tip you would like to share with other readers, send it to us via email at newsletter@sun-associates.com.
We hope you enjoyed reading the ideas and information in Sun Associates News. If you have received this newsletter forwarded by a friend and would like to receive your own copy, simply send an email -- with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject -- to us at newsletter@sun-associates.com.
If you would prefer not to receive future issues via email please let us know at newsletter@sun-associates.com. Just put the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject of your email message.
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Information on this site that has been produced by Sun Associates is Copyright 1997 - 2006 Sun Associates and is available for individual, one-time, use by educators. Duplication is prohibited without permission. All other material is the property of its authors and Sun Associates makes no warranty for its use or accuracy.
Last updated,May 15, 2002