I hear teachers talk a lot about a lack of time, so I’m always looking for short cuts to share. So, here are 5 cool tools to use to save time at figuring out what your students know and can do.

1. Rubistar is a free online rubric builder. You select the topic and dimensions and Rubistar does the rest. You can save them on Rubistar, or copy and paste into a document to keep for later.
2. EasyTestMaker is a free online test generator to help you create your tests. You can create multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, short answer and true and false questions all on the same test. You can also insert instructions and divide your test into multiple sections.
3. iQuiz Maker is an easy way for you to create custom quizzes for the iQuiz game for the iPod. (Yes, for iPods!)
4. Discovery Education™ Quiz Builder allows you to incorporate video clips into interactive quizzes.You probably need to belong to the Discovery Educator Network for access, but membership is free and it will connect you with loads of other teachers… so go ahead sign up and tell ‘em you read about it on the Assessment blog.

Anybody have any experience with any of these you’d like to share? Please add that to the comments. I’ll be adding new tools in future posts, so if you have an idea be sure to share it.

Your Friendly Assessment Nerd,

Porter

It’s Your Friendly Assessment Nerd, Porter reporting live from Discovery headquarters in Silver Spring, MD. I am here with  60 of the 225 members (from 34 states) of the DENLC. This is my first time interacting with these folks, so this is how they were described to me before coming here. “Porter, there are DEN members, and there are DEN Stars, then there are the members of the LC. These folks are the SUPER STARS!” I’m not sure who told me that; I think I heard it more than once… Well, it’s true!!!

There are many users of Discovery Education Assessment (DEA) out there, and we are just beginning to integrate with the DEN. Seeing the collaboration here really excites me on behalf of those teachers using  DEA who will become active in the DEN. (That’s what the DEAN’s List really is about, connecting our Assessment family to the DEN family.)

As a primer for those of us new to the DEN, here’s some info that I’ve learned about what being a DEN member, DEN Star, and DENLC means:

DEN Member: Anyone who registers and is active on http://community.discoveryeducation.com/ is considered a DEN Member. As a member of the DEN, you’ll get access to free resources and can read and comment on the blogs (like this one!) This will connect you to the 125,000+ other members of the DEN!

DEN Star: DEN Members who are interested in sharing their knowledge about Discovery Education services with coworkers can get additional access (like their own blog and the ability to upload files for sharing) and support by applying to be a DEN Star. There’s a new video that provides more info. I’ll add it here when it is finalized.

DENLC: Members of the DENLC are DEN Stars that have been elected to represent their state. These are extremely active members of the DEN. They plan and support events in their state and have an active voice in shaping the DEN. Here’s some information about the DENLC.

DENLC Members and DEN Stars, if you’re reading this… please feel free to add more info in the coments about the commitment involved and the benefits. What are the best parts about being a DEN Member?

This afternoon (Monday) I’ll be hosting a webinar that provides an overview of Discovery Education Assessment’s Predictive Benchmarks. If any of you are available at 1pm EDT and are interested, here’s some information:

Match, predict and improve student performance on state exams with Discovery Education Assessment: Predictive Benchmark. A powerful formative assessment resource, Predictive Benchmark generates a clear, accurate picture of every student’s progress toward state-mandated educational goals. This webinar will provide you with an overview of Predictive Benchmark, an incredible resource that has been shown to predict performance on state exams with up to 90% accuracy.

Follow this link to register: https://discoveryed.webex.com/discoveryed/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=556448329

If you can’t attend this session, I do these at least once a month

Porter, Your Friendly Assessment Nerd

Yesterday, a success story found its way to my inbox so I thought I’d share the good news!  St. Johns County School District in sunny Florida used Discovery Education Assessment: Predictive Benchmark for the first time this year in grades 2-5 in reading/language arts and math, and grades 3-5 in science.

Check out the media release from  them: May 28, 2009

Here’s some of the information from the media release:

Grade level results on the SSS comparing 2008 to 2009:

Discovery Education Assessment: Predictive Benchmark is used by districts like St. John’s County Florida to make data driven decisions and improve instruction.

Congratulations St Johns County!

Your Friendly Assessment Nerd, Porter

I’m a huge fan of Jim Popham, though I have only met him twice and have never had the good fortune of working with him. I have worked with people who know him well, and kept hearing, “Jim Popham this and Jim Popham that…” related to changing the way we asses kids. Dr. Popham is Emeritus Professor in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and quite possibly the most engaging personality in the field of assessment.

Tonight, I read an article by Dr. Popham (A Process—Not a Test) that is in the April edition of Educational Leadership. I’ll get to that here in a second, but let me digress for a moment and share my tale of meeting Dr. Popham for the first time. Each year for Fathers’ Day, most of us assessment nerds gather in some steaming hot locale for a week of lectures on psychometrics, accessibility, and other assessment nerdery. In 2007, Nashville hosted the event. One afternoon, there was a big shindig on the General Jackson. (That’s a big paddle boat in Nashville, for those who’re unfamiliar.) Well, there I was at the little buffet area, and looked across the hors d’oeuvres and saw a name tag that read, “Jim Popham.” I was trying to get up the nerve to speak when he pointed at the chafing dish between us and asked, “What do you reckon that is?” or something a little less southern… So I said in response, “I’m not sure what it is, I’m having trouble concentrating on the food because Jim Popham is standing across from me.” Apparently this was a good response, because the rest of the time I was at the Large Scale Assessment Conference, Dr. Popham would speak to me when he saw me! (OK… back to the article.)

So ALL of that is to just to tell you that I have a new definition for formative assessment. I hope you’ll adopt it as well. Dr. Popham says, “Formative assessment is not a test. Rather, it is an ongoing process in which teachers use test-elicited evidence to adjust their instruction or students use it to adjust their learning tactics.”

So, those of us who give weekly spelling tests and think they are formative, need to consider the process. If a student fails the spelling test this week, are we adjusting our instruction next week or just moving on to a new list and doing the same type of lessons? Or, are we looking at the types of mistakes made and reteaching, adjusting, and retesting? *This doesn’t just apply to spelling tests, btw.

Are you using teacher-made or classroom level tests/activities to make adjustments to your instruction? Can you adopt Dr. Popham’s definition of formative assessment in your school or classroom? This is not a test. This is a process.

Your friendly assessment nerd, Porter

Just a quick note from your friendly assessment nerd, Porter…

Education Week is doing an online chat this afternoon (Thursday, April 23, 2-3 p.m. Eastern time) on the proper role of international tests in shaping U.S. education policy. Follow this link for more information: http://www.edweek.org/ew/events/chats/2009/04/23/index.html#chat

Discovery Education and Waste Management have partnered to create www.ThinkGreen.com/classroom . This new suite of tools is designed for educators seeking new materials to enliven environmental lessons.   www.ThinkGreen.com/classroom provides K-12 standards-based lesson plans, videos, interactives, quizzes, tools, and hands-on activities related to the environment.

If you’re planning to think green in your classroom for Earth Day, visit www.DiscoveryEducation.com/thinkgreen to get started.  Plus, while supplies last, if you provide feedback you’ll receive a complimentary reusable tote bag!

I just got word that Education Week is conducting a live chat Thursday, April 9, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time on how to assess English-Language Learners. Margo Gottlieb, director of assessment and evaluation at the Illinois Resource Center, lead developer at the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment Consortium and co-author of  Assessment and Accountability in Language Education Programs: A Guide for Administrators and Teachers, is the guest speaker.

Here’s what Education Week has to say about the upcoming chat.

Educators have struggled for years with how to implement assessment and accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act for English-language learners. The law required states to create tests to assess ELLs’ progress in reading, writing, speaking, and listening each year, and states have also had to figure out how to include ELLs in content tests given to all students, even though the tests aren’t designed for them. Margo Gottlieb, the lead developer for the World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment consortium, has helped school districts and state officials to find their way.

To get a reminder via email or for more information, check out this page at Education Week.

I just found this post floating around the DEN Blog and thought I’d post it here too!

Porter, your friendly assessment nerd

Are You in the Progress Zone?

Fresh off the presses, the latest offering from Discovery Education is called Progress Zone (PZ).  In a nutshell,  you create assessments for your students (based off of state standards of course).  Students take the assessments.  If the students get anything wrong, PZ will immediately step in to offer up digital media tailored specifically to those students’ needs.  How cool is that?

There are over 35,000 unique items that can be used to create your  assessments, focusing specficially on reading, math, science and US History for grades 1-12.  You grab the items that you need, put together the perfect assessment for your students, and then offer it up to them digitally.  The magic is, if the student misses anything, they can get remediation immediately.  By harnassing the tens of thousands of videos available in DE streaming, students can get individualized support based on their specfic need.

You can read the full press release here, but if you want to learn more about it or give it a test run, give the DE team a call at 800-323-9084.

Tonight, a link to an interesting article came across my Twitter feed. It is an Op-Ed by E.D. Hirsch in the NY Times. Don Hirsch founded the Core Knowledge Foundation in 1986. They are the folks who publish the What Your Kindergartner–Sixth Grader Needs to Know series. Hirsch also wrote The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, which is a best-seller and an amazing book!

In Hirsch’s article  “Reading Test Dummies,” he reminds us that multiple choice tests are “technically among the most reliable and valid tests available.”(I have such a passion for technology that I lose sight of that sometimes.) Hirsch says this format is not the immediate change he would make to tests. He would concentrate on making the tests more instructionally sensitive.  Hirsch asks us to consider using “reading passages from each grade’s specific curricular content in literature, science, history, geography and the arts, the tests would exhibit what researchers call ‘consequential validity’ — meaning that the tests would actually help improve education.”

His last paragraph was far better written than I can summarize, so I’ll end by quoting. “We do not need to abandon either the principle of accountability or the fill-in-the-bubble format. Rather we need to move from teaching to the test to tests that are worth teaching to.”