Short Cycle Assessment

This book shows you how to improve student achievement by providing them with frequent feedback on their work. It provides a step-by-step process to help you write good questions that asses student learning, design your own formative assessments, administer short-cycle assessments, analyze and use data to shape instruction, prepare your students for high-stakes tests, and includes activities and forms to walk you through the process step by step.

This book shows you how to improve student achievement by providing them with frequent feedback on their work. It provides a step-by-step process to help you -Write good questions that asses student learning-Design your own formative assessments-Administer short-cycle assessments-Analyze and use data to shape instruction-Prepare your students for high-stakes testsIncludes activities and forms to walk you through the process step by step.

This book shows you how to improve student achievement by providing them with frequent feedback on their work. It provides a step-by-step process to help you -Write good questions that sasses student learning -Design your own formative assessments -Administer short-cycle assessments -Analyze and use data to shape instruction -Prepare your students for high-stakes testsIncludes activities and forms to walk you through the process step by step.

Develop your students' critical thinking skills and prepare them to perform competitively in the classroom, on state tests, and beyond. In this book, Moore and Stanley show you how to effectively instruct your students to think on higher levels, and how to assess their progress. As states implement the Common Core State Standards, teachers have been called upon to provide higher levels of rigor in their classrooms. Moore and Stanley demonstrate critical thinking as a key approach to accomplishing this goal. They explore the benefits of critical thinking and provide the tools you need to develop and monitor critical thinking skills in the classroom. Topics include: The Difference Between Higher-Level and Lower-Level Thinking Writing Higher-Level Thinking Questions Assessing Critical Thinking Strategies to Develop Higher-Level Thinking Skills

The ideas and examples in this book help teachers successfully collaborate to raise student achievement through the use of formative assessments. Here, Todd Stanley and Betsy Moore, educators with over 40 years of combined experience, offer proven formative assessment strategies to teachers in a professional learning community.

Develop your students' critical thinking skills and prepare them to perform competitively in the classroom, on state tests, and beyond. In this book, Moore and Stanley show you how to effectively instruct your students to think on higher levels, and how to assess their progress. As states implement the Common Core State Standards, teachers have been called upon to provide higher levels of rigor in their classrooms. Moore and Stanley demonstrate critical thinking as a key approach to accomplishing this goal. They explore the benefits of critical thinking and provide the tools you need to develop and monitor critical thinking skills in the classroom. Topics include: The Difference Between Higher-Level and Lower-Level Thinking Writing Higher-Level Thinking Questions Assessing Critical Thinking Strategies to Develop Higher-Level Thinking Skills

What if you had a collaborative process of looking at student data that could pinpoint student gaps in learning and suggest effective strategies to close those gaps? What if you knew not only what you should start doing to enhance student learning, but also what you should stop doing because it hasn't given you the hoped-for results? Enter Achievement Teams. This is not another program that's here today and gone tomorrow; it's a timeless approach that any school or district can replicate that focuses on the most significant variable in student achievement: teaching. In Achievement Teams, Steve Ventura and Michelle Ventura offer a framework based on John Hattie's Visible Learning research that makes teacher collaboration more efficient, rigorous, satisfying, and effective. Think of it as a systematic treasure hunt for best practices using real data on your students. The authors walk you through the Achievement Teams four-step meeting protocol: * In Step 1, teams focus on the evidence from a pre-assessment to provide specific feedback to students and teachers about concepts and skills that students did and did not learn. * In Step 2, teams use that evidence to establish SMART goals for both teachers and students. * In Step 3, teams summarize the collected data and make inferences around students' mastery levels. * In Step 4, teachers select high-impact strategies directly targeted to student needs. A post-assessment reveals what did and didn't work. The authors provide a plethora of resources along the way, including reflection activities to extend your thinking and a variety of helpful downloadable templates designed to facilitate the work. If you're a teacher or leader who is interested in maximizing student achievement, this book is for you.

A how-to manual for achieving excellence despite budget cuts How do you stay focused on increasing student learning when budget cuts threaten everything you are striving for? This book offers a comprehensive framework to enhance student achievement in good times and in bad. School reform expert Allan R. Odden outlines a school improvement action plan focused sharply on student learning and then shows how to target resources to implement each strategy in that plan. More than just a "theory" book, this text describes concrete, specific actions that can be taken immediately. Key strategies include Using data to support boosting student performance Focusing on effective instruction Setting goals to drive resource allocation priorities Establishing priorities for situations that require budget cuts Hiring top teachers and providing ongoing professional development Providing needed technology resources Educators will find a wide range of real-life examples of schools and districts that have implemented these strategies and significantly improved student learning. Also included is research-based guidance for optimizing teacher and principal talent, teacher recruiting and hiring, online learning, and more. This book successfully communicates many years of work and offers well- grounded advice that will help educators move from financial frustration to effective action.