Education

Testing Column

November 16, 1994 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

When 8th graders took Maine’s statewide tests last month, they were not asked to fill in bubbles to answer multiple-choice questions. Instead, students constructed their own responses. And they often had to describe the strategy they used to solve a problem.

The Maine Educational Assessment has also adopted a new reporting format. It will describe four levels of student performance: distinguished, advanced, basic, and novice. The new format will be phased in gradually.

Since 1991, Maine has based 50 percent of student and school scores for all subjects on open-response items.

How will students know what to include in a portfolio of their work? That’s the challenge the New Standards Project has taken on in a series of six publications geared to students.

States and districts belonging to the project are developing national education standards and a way to measure students’ progress toward them. This fall, some 50,000 students will put together portfolios for mathematics and English language arts as part of a national field test.

The “student-portfolio handbooks” explain to youngsters what they should know and be able to do to meet the standards. They also list the pieces that should go into the portfolios and include samples from student work.

More information is available from Andy Plattner at the National Center on Education and the Economy, 700 11th St., N.W., Suite 750, Washington, D.C. 20001; (202) 783-3668.

Teachers may soon receive guidance about interpreting and communicating assessment results, thanks to a project by the National Council on Measurement in Education, the National Education Association, and the American Federation of Teachers.

The groups have developed materials to be used as training resources for teachers. They are being field-tested in 15 sites this fall, including workshops and undergraduate education courses.

The documents are based on standards for teachers’ competence in the educational assessment of students that were developed in 1990.

More information is available from Barbara S. Plake at the Buros Institute of Mental Measurements, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, 135 Bancroft Hall, P.O. Box 880348, Lincoln, Neb. 68588; (402) 472-3280.

--Lynn Olson

A version of this article appeared in the November 16, 1994 edition of Education Week as Testing Column

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Briefly Stated: February 21, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: February 7, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 31, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read
Education Briefly Stated: January 17, 2024
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
9 min read