Resources Explain Assessment/Accountability Model

Lisa Gross, Kentucky Department of Education

FRANKFORT, KY (4/17/12) – The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) has developed resources to help explain the state’s new assessment and accountability model for public schools.

KDE has dedicated a page on its website to the Unbridled Learning: College/Career Readiness for All model, which was developed in response to the mandates of 2009’s Senate Bill 1. The page is accessible by clicking the Unbridled Learning icon on the KDE homepage or by Clicking Here.

Items posted on the page include two brochures – one on assessment, another on accountability – aimed at parents, but also intended for a general audience. Those brochures are posted near the bottom of the page, in two formats (a printable brochure layout and a text version).

Another posted item called Unbridled Learning Summary provides a graphic representation of the way the new accountability model will impact schools and districts.

Kentucky Education Commissioner Terry Holliday explains the new accountability model in a videotaped presentation, also now available. The presentation may be accessed at by Clicking Here.

The Unbridled Learning accountability model will be applied for the first time to test scores and other data from the current school year. This month, public school students begin taking the new Kentucky Performance Rating for Educational Progress (K-PREP) tests in reading, mathematics, science, social studies and writing. Students also have participated in end-of-course assessments in specific subjects at the high school level. Scores from these tests, along with data on closing achievement gaps, student academic growth, graduation rates and college/career readiness, will be used to determine school and district accountability designations.

Those designations will be announced in the fall. In February 2012, the U.S. Department of Education approved Kentucky’s application to use the Unbridled Learning model to provide both state and federal accountability designations for public schools and districts. In Kentucky, these designations will replace the two-tiered accountability system that was in place since the passage of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in 2001.

Archipelago Learning Releases Teacher Toolkit for Study Island

 

 

From "The Journal"    By Tim Sohn 04/19/12

 

http://thejournal.com/articles/archipelago-learning-releases-teacher-toolkit-for-study-island.aspx

 

Archipelago Learning has unveiled a teacher toolkit for Study Island, a software-as-a-service tool that provides instruction, practice, assessment, and reporting.

 

The teacher toolkit is a centralized, searchable library of resources for K-12 instructors who use Study Island. Resources include virtual science labs, lesson plans, educational videos from sources such as Khan Academy, teacher videos, learning activities, and animated lessons. They can be searched by subject, subject category, resource type, and grade.

 

"The Teacher Toolkit enables educators to search our extensive library of teacher resources and easily identify those that will be most helpful to them in the classroom," said Donna Regenbaum, executive vice president of marketing and product development for Archipelago Learning.

 

Study Island programs include pre- and post-tests, questions, answers, explanations, and lessons specific to state requirements. Questions are chosen randomly to avoid the possibility of cheating and students have the option of using a standard testing format or interactive games, which can be accessed via mobile device. Teachers and administrators can evaluate students' strengths and weaknesses with real-time reports.

 

Study Island also provides three mode options for instructors. Test mode provides the option of multiple choice or short answer format and game mode allows teachers to limit access. Printable worksheet mode lets teachers select which topics they want to include for substitute plans, homework, make-up work, reviews, tests, tutorials, and transparencies.

 

Features of Study Island include:

• Traditional assessments and interactive games based on individual state standards;
• Immediate feedback and automated instruction;
• Real-time progress reports;
• Rotating positions for multiple choice answers;
• Customizable and printable worksheets;
• The ability to log in from anywhere;
• Digital writing portfolios;
• College and career readiness tools; and
• Parent notification system.

In addition, Study Island includes a Common Core benchmarking program, which is designed to assess the math and reading skills of students in grades 3-5 at any point throughout the year. This tool provides four options for benchmarking tests and real-time diagnostic reports.