Understanding Assessment: Resources for Parents

We've compiled a resources list to help families understand various uses of assessment in schools, what questions to ask, how to help children prepare, and all about standardized tests. (Updated: 4/2014)

BY ROBERTA FURGER, ASHLEY CRONIN

Resources by Topic:

• Classroom Assessment Strategies
• All About Standardized Tests
• Helping Children Prepare
• Additional Resources

Though tests (especially standardized tests) may be the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word assessment,comprehensive assessment encompasses a wide range of methods for evaluating a child's social and emotional and academic abilities. As a parent, it's critical that you know about alternative types of classroom-based assessments, in addition to traditional tests and the standardized tests mandated by your school district or state department of education. Below, we've collected resources to help you understand various types and uses of assessment, identify questions you can ask your child’s teachers and school, and support your child during testing.

Classroom Assessment Strategies

• There are many ways to measure a student’s abilities. Which ones do your child’s teachers use?

  Take advantage of parent-teacher conferences and back-to-school nights to talk with teachers about their assessment strategies. Do they use portfolios of student work? Do they conduct performance-based assessments? How do test results inform the way they work with a particular student or group of students? Consult the resources below for more information about different assessment types and other questions you can ask.

• For Every Child, Multiple Measures (Northwest Evaluation Association, 2012)

  This 2012 report by the Northwest Evaluation Association andGrunwald Associates LLC describes feedback from parents and teachers on what kinds of assessments are most useful, relevant, and cost effective, and makes recommendations for assessment developers, policymakers, and state and district leaders based on their findings. Edutopia blogger Anne O’Brien has written a helpfuloutline of the report findings.

• Healthier Testing Made Easy: The Idea of Authentic Assessment(Edutopia, 2006)

  Grant Wiggins discusses how formative assessment and authentic assessment can help learners get the feedback they need to improve and progress.

• Performance-Based Assessment (Project Appleseed)

  Project Appleseed, a nonprofit advocacy organization for parent involvement in education, provides an excellent primer on the many types of performance assessments and their advantages, as well as strategies for improving student performance. For more about performance assessment, take a look at Edutopia contributing writer Roberta Furger’s 2002 article, “Take a Deeper Look at Assessment for Understanding.”

• A Parent's Guide to Testing at Your Child's School  (National Education Association, 2007)

  This two-page brochure, developed in 2007 by the National Education Association (NEA) in partnership with the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA), describes some of the types of tests used in schools and what parents can do. It’s also available as a PDF download in Spanish.

• Parents: 19 Meaningful Questions You Should Ask Your Child’s Teacher (Edutopia, 2013)

  Forget about all the vague, superficial information out there. Edutopia blogger Terry Heick cuts to the chase with 19 meaningful questions--including questions related to assessment--parents can ask their children's teachers at the beginning of the school year.

All About Standardized Tests

• Ask questions and talk to your child's teacher or a district assessment specialist about implications of test results and possible follow-up action. Are high-stakes decisions based on student performance on this single measure? Are the state's standardized tests aligned to content standards? Are test results used to better inform teaching and learning? How does the school or district use this information to better meet student educational needs? Browse the resources below for more information about standardized tests, including new tests aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

• What Should Parents Know About Standardized Testing? (Project Appleseed)

  Learn about the purposes of standardized tests and how they are used, as well as how you can help your child prepare and questions to ask.

• Testing Our Schools: A Guide For Parents (PBS Frontline, 2002)

  PBS’ Frontline offers an easily navigable explanation of high-stakes testing that includes basic information about what tests measure, how they’re developed and scored, specific tips for parents, and links to additional resources. Though the package was produced in 2002, it's still a valuable resource.

• The State of the Common Core (Edutopia, 2013)

  Vanessa Vega, Edutopia's former research analyst, offers a work-in-progress view of how the Common Core is being implemented and assessed nationwide. For more about what parents need to know about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), check out Anne O'Brien's “What Do Parents Need to Know About the Common Core?”

• Parents’ Guide to Student Success—Frequently Asked Questions(National PTA)

  The National Parent Teacher Association partnered with experts on the Common Core State Standards to create parent guides for grades K-12 that include information about what children should be learning in each grade once the standards are implemented, activities that parents can do at home, and strategies for building stronger parent-teacher relationships. To find out more about your states CCSS’s implementation plans, check out their State Education Agencies page.

• Parent Roadmaps (Council of the Great City Schools, 2012)

  The Council of the Great City Schools has developed content and grade-specific parent roadmaps in English and in Spanish that provide detailed information for parents about the expectations of the Common Core in English Language Arts and Mathematics.

• Accommodations, Modifications, and Alternate Assessments(GreatSchools, 2010)

  Your child may be eligible for modifications to help him succeed in the classroom--and on standardized tests. For more information about how students with special needs will be assessed on the Common Core State Standards, see “Application to Students with Disabilities,” from the website for the Common Core.

Helping Children Prepare

• In their book But Are They Learning? A Commonsense Parents' Guide to Assessment and Grading in Schools, Richard Stiggins and Tanis Knight emphasize that assessment and grading strategies should be defined at the start of a project--in terms that students can understand. Get clarification from the teacher any time your child seems unclear about expected outcomes for a project or assignment. The resources below include useful strategies for supporting children during testing.

• Helping Students Understand What a Test is and Is Not (Edutopia, 2014)

  Neurologist, teacher, author and Edutopia blogger Judy Willis explains how students' performance on tests can often be affected by their perceptions of and feelings about why they're being tested and what's being assessed.

• Survive and Thrive During Testing Season (Edutopia, 2014)

  Guest blogger Lori Desautels considers the brain research on why test prep can be so stressful, and offers six brain-compatible strategies to help students feel better about themselves and more connected to the material.

• 4 Tips to Build Student Confidence (Edutopia, 2014)

  Edutopia blogger Matt Levinson, recognizing that students get overwhelmed by unfamiliar material and choke up on assessments, offers four confidence-building strategies: verbalizing, brain dumps, non-linear thinking creativity.

  • Parent Tips: How to Help Your Child Prepare for Standardized Tests(Colorin Colorado, 2008)

    This resource from Colorin Colorado, a bilingual site for families and educators of English language learners, provides suggestions to parents to support children before tests, on test days, after tests, and on a daily basis.

Test Prep with Virtual Tools: 10 Flashcard Apps for Mobile Devices - Monica Burns Blog

SUBSCRIBE APRIL 18, 2014

When children are told to "go home and study," many aren't quite sure what this means. "Do I stare at the pages of a textbook? Should I redo old homework problems? Will I remember this new list of vocabulary words if I read them over and over?" Giving students the tools to develop study skills is one step in the right direction.

Children need to take ownership of their learning, and one way that teachers and parents can help is by providing the right guidance and materials. Help students set time aside in their homework routine or school day and ask them to review key terms and concepts they've learned. The flashcard apps in this post can be used to build independent study skills in children.

Check out these apps to see what will work best for your students. Most are free to download, and many have extra features that are accessible through in-app purchases.

Math Vocabulary Cards (iOS and Web App - Free)

The Math Learning Center has some fantastic apps, including this simple flashcard tool designed for K-5 students. Children will see models and diagrams with each new word and can quiz themselves by hiding and revealing different parts of the screen.

Flashcards (+) (Android - Free)

Students can create their own flashcards or access decks created on Cram orQuizlet. With this app, kids can organize their flashcards into folders and even play a memory game.

Vocabulary.com (iOS - $2.99; Web App - Free)

For students ready to start studying for high-level exams, Vocabulary.com has a comprehensive program for learning new words. This app is perfect for high school students trying to boost their vocabulary through a personalized learning experience.

gFlash+ (Android and iOS - Free)

With lots of different ways to study, gFlash+ gives kids a chance to try out a couple of ways to review content. Users can create and edit cards from within the app, and gFlash+ makes it simple to purchase pre-made decks of flashcards for a variety of subject areas.

Flashcards with Cram.com (iOS and Android - Free)

Students can connect with their Cram.com account by logging into this app. They'll have access to flashcards that can be downloaded for online or offline use. This app lets students work through flashcards at their own pace, giving them the option to focus only on the ones that they've missed.

Flashcards* (iOS - Free)

This app (and yes, the asterisk is part of the title) is super simple and makes creating new flashcards straightforward and user friendly. Students can download decks of cards from Quizlet that have been created by teachers or another user. The ability to add images to the cards makes it great for English-language learners.

Evernote Peek (iPad - Free)

With this app, students can use the smart cover on an iPad 2 to peek at the text in an Evernote notebook as they study. If you have a different type of iPad or case, Evernote Peek still lets users swipe and peek using a virtual cover. Kids can access study materials by linking to their Evernote account.

Brainscape - Smart Flashcards (iOS and Web App - Free)

If you want to push students to take more ownership of their study routine, Brainscape - Smart Flashcards is a great choice. This app asks students to self-assess as they practice key terms. It uses this information to figure out the best time to quiz them again. Kids can create flashcards in the app or on Brainscape's website.

StudyBlue (iOS and Android - Free)

This app lets teachers create flashcards to share with students. Kids can set a reminder on their device to help them develop a study routine. StudyBlue also gives kids a chance to make their own flashcards that include audio, images and equations.

Flashcards Deluxe (iOS - $3.99)

Students looking to use their time efficiently will like all of the features built into Flashcards Deluxe. This includes the ability to integrate spelling tests with audio support, use images on each card, and divide cards into categories. Once users have created a set of flashcards, they can back them up to their computer and search through them to find a particular key term. Flashcards Deluxe also has a smart study mode that helps kids focus on the cards that they've missed.

10 Apps for Math Fluency by Monica Burns

There are so many ways to use mobile devices with students. You can createinteractive textbooks for children to read, ask them to explain their thinking through screencasting or help them access informational text using QR codes. Mobile devices can also be used to help students practice foundational math skills and build their math fluency.

In order for students to tackle the multi-step word problems they'll be asked to solve as early as elementary school, they need to have mastered their addition, subtraction and multiplication facts. By answering 4 + 12, 15 - 5, 9 x 7 and 18 / 3 quickly and accurately, students can focus on reading word problems to figure out what the question is asking them to do. There are tons of fun apps that help children build their math fluency through games and flashcards. Check out some of these fantastic math apps.

Operation Math (iOS - $2.99, Android - $1.99)

This app turns your students into secret spies that will travel around the world on different missions. Kids can choose which operations they want to practice as they make their way through this app.

Sushi Monster (iOS - Free)

Scholastic's app offers children multiplication and addition problems. They'll have to reach a target number by picking the correct factors and addends listed on different pieces of sushi.

Quick Math - Arithmetic & Times Tables (iOS - $1.99)

With this app, kids will answer traditional skill-and-drill questions -- but they won't have to enter answers into a keypad. Instead, your children can write the answer anywhere on the screen of their device, and the app will read their handwriting and record their response.

Pet Bingo by Duck Duck Moose (iOS - $1.99, Android - $1.99)

In this game, children will have to answer addition, subtraction, multiplication or division questions and place their answer on a bingo board. This app is full of colorful cartoon characters and offers visual models to help students understand each problem.

Meerkat Math HD (iOS - $1.99)

This adventure app asks students to complete different races using their math facts. In order to make their meerkat avatar run and jump fast enough to be a winner, they'll have to answer each question quickly and correctly.

Math Flash Cards * (iOS - Free)

A traditional skill-and-drill app (yes, the asterisk is part of the title), Math Flash Cards * helps children practice their times tables by customizing the number and difficulty level of each question. This app has a simple interface that makes it easy for kids to play.

10monkeys Multiplication (iOS - $1.99, Android - Free)

Kids can practice multiplication facts with this animated app. The goal is to help monkeys trapped in a tree escape by answering a set of questions correctly. This app is broken down into different times table and includes a reference chart to review facts.

Math Monsters - Bingo (iOS - Free)

Students can practice all operations using this bingo app. They'll solve each problem and then find the answer on the bingo board. Players need to be strategic if they want to win the game.

Math Vs Zombies (iOS - $4.99, Android - Free)

This silly app asks children to add, subtract, multiply or divide single- and two-digit numbers. Students need to answer each question correctly in order to zap the zombies back into humans.

YodelOh Math Mountain (iOS - $2.99, Android - $1.99)

A virtual take on a traditional carnival game, this app helps children practice all four operations. They'll have to work quickly so that the yodeler doesn't fall from the top of the mountain.

10 New Educational Ipad Apps for Education

March 10, 2014
If you haven't seen them yet, here is a round-up of some good educational iPad apps that have been recently released. During my online meandering I come across hundreds of apps and I bookmark the ones I deem important to share here with you. the purpose behind these lists is to keep teachers and educators abreast of the latest releases in the world of educational iPad apps. Have a look and share with your colleagues.

1- Creative Kids

The app gives children over six a step by step method for creating their own animations and moving images using colour pencils, paper, and a tablet computer. Fine motor skills, creativity, and imagination are stimulated in a playful and fun way.

2- Draw Your Stories

It helps with visualizing the information which is a very important piece for comprehension skills It can be used for a variety of children including special educations students who have language learning deficits, reading comprehension deficits, and specific learning disability due to language weaknesses. Promotes language through motor skills modality It helps with active participation skills Promotes internal motivation to keep listening and interacting in the task.

3- Thinking Time Pro

A groundbreaking cognitive training game designed with Harvard and UC Berkeley neuroscientists. Thinking Time trains memory, attention, reasoning and key cognitive skills through scientific games.

4- Tell about This

Tell About This is an easy platform to inspire and capture children's thoughts and stories! They will love to explore and respond to any of the 100 interesting photo prompts using their voice. Craft custom prompts and add profiles to personalize the experience! Simple save/share options.

5- Elements 4D

Part educational story and part game, the Elements 4D app offers a new, fun way to experience augmented reality and learn about real-life chemistry. Paired with either paper or wood blocks that are inscribed with the symbols of 36 elements from the periodic table, this app will instantly transform a simple, inanimate object into dynamic, dimensional, 4D representations of each element.

6- Literacy Leveler

Literacy Leveler™ makes it easy to level children’s books in your collection and find books of an appropriate reading level.

7- Anatomy 4D

4D Anatomy allows viewers to understand and interact with complex information with unprecedented ease, speed, and depth. Visually stunning and completely interactive, augmented reality is the perfect vehicle for 21st century education. 

8- Home KG

Home KG is an amazing free learning app for preschoolers to teach your children how to write alphabets, numbers and recognize shapes. This Kids app is a free teaching tool for toddlers and young children. It includes all English alphabets, digits from 0 to 9 and 10 different shapes. This preschool learning app works as a training guide where children can explore their creativity while learning at the same time. 

9- Powers of Minus Ten

In this version of POMT, zoom into human bones, see how broken bones heal, and investigate some of the cool and weird cells found in the middle of our most sturdy organs.

10- Who Has What

taps! Never again forget who has your Books, DVDs, Games or anything else. Just look it up in »Who has What? 2«! It's incredibly easy and it just takes a few seconds to keep track of your Items with »Who has What?«!

The Mind of a Middle Schooler: How Brains Learn by Heather Wolpert

Image credit: Veer

In my last post, I began a celebration of brains and made the argument as to why teachers need to brush up on their knowledge of brains in order to reach that all-too-allusive 'tween noggin.

During this, my second of three posts in this series, I'll bring up a few key terms you should know in your own neurologic education. Then, we'll follow a history-related fact as it enters the brain of an average middle schooler, weaving its way towards the blessed long-term memory.

Excerpted from my book, 'Tween Crayons and Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers, these posts are boiled down versions of my chapter on the 'tween brain in the hopes that we not only increase our own knowledge of our clientele, but share that knowledge with them as well.

Brain Talk

Before we proceed, here are some key words to know:

Prefrontal Cortex: this part of the brain makes up only 17 percent of the brain and is in charge of judging, analysis, organization, connecting the dots, and making calls on what is valid information and what isn't. It also plays a huge role in empathy and self-awareness. It's one of the last parts of the brain to develop and can be influenced. Therefore, hormones and emotions easily manipulate the prefrontal cortex.

So in other words, just when we're asking them to evaluate, show relationships, and analyze, the middle schooler's prefrontal cortex can be sidetracked in a big way simply by a note slipped to them during the passing period. It's not that they can't control it, but 'tweens need to know about this tendency if they are going to successfully work despite it. We all can better fight an enemy if we know the enemy we are facing.

Automatic Brain: This is also known as the reactive brain and makes up the remaining 83 percent of the brain. It's the part of the brain that automatically reacts to the world around it. In other words, when a student is stressed, depressed, angry, or bored, information gets filtered into the reactive brain, not the prefrontal cortex, possibly dooming that information to the short-term memory.

When we think about middle schoolers, we know that for many of them, stress, depression, anger, and boredom can be completely out of whack and disproportionate, so it becomes essential that we design lessons to coax information towards the prefrontal cortex.

Neurons: They transmit information along the nervous system, connected by synapses. Think of it like neurons are the depots while the synapses are the trains upon which the information is carried.

Neuroplasticity: This term refers to the very encouraging fact that the brain is capable of growth, of developing new connections and pathways between neurons through new experiences and teachings. So, in other words, if a bridge is down between the depots (see above), specially targeted lessons might just help build track where there was none before.

Dopamine: When a person feels pleasure, success, pride, dopamine is released into the brain and acts as a lubricant of sorts, increasing attention, motivation, and memory.

Amygdala: This monitors the emotions. It's actually the amygdala that decides, based on the emotion a person feels, where to send information. If the person is stressed or freaking out, information gets routed to the reactive brain, avoiding the path to the sacred long-term memory storage.

Hippocampus: This is the area of the brain next to the amygdala that creates connections between prior learning and experiences with new information. Creating relationships between new information and past information preps the new piece for long-term memory storage.

Reticular Activating System (RAS): Unconsciously, the RAS system sorts though billions of bits of information per second and organizes them by something that should be considered at a later time and something that can be immediately discarded. As a teacher, you want to make sure your lessons get through the RAS filter, and pass its test of what's worth keeping.

But this vocabulary doesn't tell you everything you need to know. It tells you the team players, but not the structure of the game.

In the Classroom

So to understand how it all works -- in an ultra-simple, elementary way -- let's do a little visualization here. Imagine there's this bit of information that a student needs to know for their unit test in eighth-grade history:

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous "House Divided" speech.

The student, let's say her name is Alex, sits in class with her elbow on the desk and her cheek in her hand as the words are uttered by the teacher. The words go floating through the air, and the fact passes through her eardrum and into the brain through one of those metal camera-lens-like-closing-doors-from-Star-Wars. Whoosh! The door closes behind it.

The fact then travels into the RAS filtering system. RAS isn't paying much attention, she's reading a newspaper, sipping coffee, and offhandedly just sorts information into two piles: "to be trashed" and "still to be considered."

Luckily our little fact has joined the latter pile, but the system is totally on overload right now since the student has other things to think about. She didn't have breakfast, and her best friend passed her a note during the passing period saying, "Whatever he says, don't believe it." She also hasn't started her three-dimensional cell project that is due Friday, and she wonders if her mom will be able to take her to the store to get some Styrofoam.

"The amygdala will see you now" a neuron says, and finally ushers the fact through the next door to the filter that determines if it's a worthy enough piece of information to get through the velvet rope to the prefrontal cortex.

Suddenly, the student takes a deep breath, shakes her head, and realizes that she's been phasing out in class.

Meanwhile, as soon as the fact has greeted the amygdala, the hippocampus gets to work finding connections between this new piece of information and any prior knowledge in Alex's long-term memory. 'Ah! Here's a file on Abraham Lincoln that she's had since her fifth grade President's Day project!" the hippocampus says. A connection made, the new fact begins to pick up speed.

The student raises her hand and says, "In fifth grade I learned that a doctor named Mudd helped Lincoln's assassin with his leg during his getaway." Some students say they remember that too, and the teacher thanks her for that little tidbit. Alex feels good and some dopamine is released into the brain, lubricating the pathways and creating bridges between the neurons over the synapses -- voila, and the little fact is ushered into the holy temple of long-term memory, the prefrontal cortex.

Whew! We're lucky that Alex had the sense to shake her head clear and do some things to help her brain guide the fact into the correct place.

My third post in this series is now live at Tweenteacher.com. In it, I review a few steps that Alex did right, and share a few more that we can teach students to use to help themselves shake off the daydreams and proactively attack a case of "having a 'tween moment."

11 Apps for teaching kids the alphabet

February24, 2014
I received a couple of requests from some readers of Educational Technology and Mobile Learning asking for a curated list of iPad apps to teach kids and toddlers alphabets. I checked my archive to see If I had any list that needs updating and was surprised to find none. I can't believe I never compiled a list on alphabet learning though I know about  many good iPad apps for this purpose. Anyway, I went along and created the selection below. I included only what I personally think are the best apps available out there. These apps provide kids with several games, exercises and activities to help them learn alphabets.

1- Interactive Alphabet

This is a wonderful iPad app for teaching toddle alphabets. It basically provides hands-on interactive games, match letter and word drawings, and several other activities designed specifically to help kids learn about alphabets


2- Grappy Learns Writing

Gappy's back! In the fun letter exploration game perfect for kids just learning to write. Trace along with the magic star to reveal the mystery letter on Gappy's mind. Or fire up the practice page and learn how to write each letter in a fun game of connect-the-dots. With Gappy Learns Writing, you get it all, along with an awesome drawing pad and 52 coloring pages to win, color and share for hours of playtime fun!


3- Alphabet Tracing

Alphabet Tracing helps kids learn about alphabets by showing them the proper way to writer alphabet letters using fun, train, truck and worm animations. They can trace with their fingers, try the color palette and textures and even se as a doodle pad.


4- My Alphabet Colouring Book

My Alphabet Coloring Book is a fun coloring activity for all ages. Each picture is in alphabetical order with a picture to represent the letter and the word associated with the picture. It has a variety of bright colors to use and show off your creativity.


5- Fish School

A playful underwater experience filled with 8 educational activities, this award-winning app teaches children letters, numbers, shapes and colors with colorful fish and friendly sea life characters. AGES: 2-5.


6- iWrite Words 

As its name indicates, iWrite Words teaches your child handwriting while playing a fun and entertaining game.


7- ABC Go

Little Explorers ABC Series teaches children new words through sight, sound & touch. Let them explore a world of trucks, trains, cars & more through beautiful pictures, lively videos, and interactive scenes.


8- Alphabet Animals

Alphabet Animals  is the good learning tool for your toddler. Packed with colorful animations, animal sounds, and learning examples, Alphabet Animals will keep your child’s attention while they absorb the alphabet.

9- Alphabet +

Alphabet+ is a fun and entertaining way for your child to learn how to recognize and say their ABC’s (English letters and sounds).


10- Dr. Seuss's ABC

Get your kids to learn  ABCs with Dr. Seuss in this interactive book app. They will also be able to  explore pictures, learn new vocabulary, and personalize the story with your own narration.

11- Intro to Letters

Intro to Letters will help your child learn to trace, read, write, and record letter sounds, names, and phonograms, based on the proven methodology of Montessori.

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