I am struggling with my co-workers, admin, county, state wanting to use standardized tests and making them mandatory. I don't teach that way with labs and projects and use rubrics and other ways to formatively assess them. How do other teachers address this? Our state does not have high pressure testing but it still reflects and then this year they can use scores in our evaluations now.
As I think about the implementation of the NGSS, the thoughts by the first poster about standardized tests pose some real questions??? The Next Generation Science Standards are made up of the science and engineering practices, the cross-cutting concepts as well as the disciplinary core ideas. I do not think we know how to assess all 3 pieces at once. I think we should be developing portfolios, maybe electronic, science notebooks..having students create quality explanations for why something happens. I guess I am questioning the use of standardized assessments as we know them in a new era of learning. KAthy
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