Assessment

Middle School Teacher Professional Development in Creating a NGSS-plus-5E Robotics Curriculum

The persistent lack of diversity in STEM fields remains a serious challenge for U.S. global competitiveness. STEM jobs are growing 29% faster than any other U.S. sector. Yet, today, white men hold roughly 75% of all scientists and engineering jobs, despite making up only 26% of the total workforce. The cause of this diversity gap can be traced to our educational system, where girls and most children-of-color do not receive equitable public education due to high teacher attrition rates, which in turn affects access to well-trained teachers, and lack of school resources.

Author/Presenter

Shramana Ghosh

Veena Jayasree Krishnan

Sheila Borges Rajguru

Vikram Kapila

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2019
Short Description

This paper will describe the process and result of developing a LEGO robotics, NGSS, and 5E aligned middle school curriculum during a three-week summer PD program for teachers who teach urban students-of-color.

Investigating Classroom-related Factors that Influence Student Perceptions of LEGO Robots as Educational Tools in Middle Schools

This paper investigates classroom-related factors such as pedagogical strategies and management of robotics-based educational content that contribute to the formation of student perceptions in robotics-enhanced classes. Robots are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in K-12 classroom in the United States and are used to improve student engagement, interactive learning, innovative thinking, collaboration, problem-solving skills, language learning, and achievement scores.

Author/Presenter

Shramana Ghosh

Sheila Borges Rajguru

Vikram Kapila

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2019
Short Description

This paper investigates classroom-related factors such as pedagogical strategies and management of robotics-based educational content that contribute to the formation of student perceptions in robotics-enhanced classes.

Revisiting Purpose and Conceptualisation in the Design of Assessments of Mathematics Teachers’ Knowledge

In this paper, we focus on the design of assessments of mathematics teachers’ knowledge by emphasising the importance of identifying the purpose for the assessment, defining the specific construct to be measured, and considering the affordances of particular psychometric models on the development of assessments as well as how they are able to communicate learning or understanding. We add to the literature by providing illustrations of the interactions among these critical considerations in determining what inferences can be drawn from an assessment.

Author/Presenter

Chandra Hawley Orrill

Yasemin Copur-Gencturk

Allan Cohen

Jonathan Templin

Year
2019
Short Description

In this paper, authors focus on the design of assessments of mathematics teachers’ knowledge by emphasising the importance of identifying the purpose for the assessment, defining the specific construct to be measured, and considering the affordances of particular psychometric models on the development of assessments as well as how they are able to communicate learning or understanding.

Experimental Impacts of the Ongoing Assessment Project on Teachers and Students

In this report, we describe the results of a rigorous two-year study of the impacts of a mathematics initiative called Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP) on teacher and student learning in grades 3-5 in two Philadelphia area school districts. OGAP is a mathematics program which combines teacher formative assessment practices with knowledge of student developmental progressions to build deeper student understanding of mathematics content. OGAP includes teacher professional development, classroom resources, school-based routines for regular practice, and ongoing school-based supports.
Author/Presenter

Jonathan A. Supovitz

Caroline B. Ebby

Janine Remillard

Robert A. Nathenson

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2018
Short Description

In this report, authors describe the results of a rigorous two-year study of the impacts of a mathematics initiative called Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP) on teacher and student learning in grades 3-5 in two Philadelphia area school districts.

Pathways for Analyzing and Responding to Student Work for Formative Assessment: The Role of Teachers’ Goals for Student Learning

This study explored how teachers interpreted and responded to their own student work during the process of formative assessment. The study involved a purposefully selected sample of 32 teachers in grades K-5 who had been trained by the Ongoing Assessment Project (OGAP) to use learning progressions to analyze and respond to evidence in student work.

Author/Presenter

Caroline Brayer Ebby

Janine Remillard

Jordan H. D'Olier

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2019
Short Description

This study explored how teachers interpreted and responded to their own student work during the process of formative assessment.

Coordinating between Graphs and Science Concepts: Density and Buoyancy

Graphs illustrating complex scientific relationships require students to integrate multiple concepts and visual features into a coherent understanding. We investigate ways to support students in integrating their understanding of density concepts through a graph that is linked to a simulation depicting the relationship between mass, volume, and density. We randomly assigned 325 8th-grade students to 1 of 2 graphing activities.

Author/Presenter

Jonathan M. Vitale

Lauren Applebaum

Marcia C. Linn

Year
2019
Short Description

Authors investigate ways to support students in integrating their understanding of density concepts through a graph that is linked to a simulation depicting the relationship between mass, volume, and density.

Impact of Graph Technologies in K-12 Science and Mathematics Education

Graph technologies are now widely available in K-12 science and mathematics classrooms. These technologies have the potential to impact the learning of science and mathematics, especially by supporting student investigations. We use meta-analysis to analyze 42 design and comparison studies involving data from 7699 students spanning over 35 years. In these studies, graphing technologies include computer software such as simulations; online tools such as graph utilities; and sensors such as temperature probes. We characterize the assessments used to measure graphing.

Author/Presenter

Dermot FrancisDonnelly-HermosilloaLibby F.GerardbMarcia C.Linn

Year
2020
Short Description

In this article, authors use meta-analysis to analyze 42 design and comparison studies involving data from 7699 students spanning over 35 years.

Chemistry Critical Friendships: Investigating Chemistry-Specific Discourse within a Domain-General Discussion of Best Practices for Inquiry Assessments

High school chemistry teachers struggle to use assessment results to inform instruction. In the absence of expert assistance, teachers often look to their peers for guidance and support; however, little is known about the assessment beliefs and practices of high school chemistry teachers or the discourse mechanisms used as teachers support one another. Presented in this paper are the results from analyzing a discussion between five high school chemistry teachers as they generated a set of best practices for inquiry assessments.

Author/Presenter

Adam G. L. Schafer

Ellen J. Yezierski

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2020
Short Description

Presented in this paper are the results from analyzing a discussion between five high school chemistry teachers as they generated a set of best practices for inquiry assessments.

Characterizing the Formative Assessment Enactment of Experienced Science Teachers

Teachers' use of formative assessment (FA) has been shown to improve student outcomes; however, teachers enact FA in many ways. We examined classroom videos of nine experienced teachers of elementary, middle, and high school science, aiming to create a model of FA enactment that is useful to teachers.

Author/Presenter

Vesal Dini

Hannah Sevian

Klaudja Caushi

Raúl Orduña Picón

Year
2020
Short Description

In this article, authors examined classroom videos of nine experienced teachers of elementary, middle, and high school science, aiming to create a model of FA enactment that is useful to teachers.

The Effect of Automated Feedback on Revision Behavior and Learning Gains in Formative Assessment of Scientific Argument Writing

Application of new automated scoring technologies, such as natural language processing and machine learning, makes it possible to provide automated feedback on students' short written responses. Even though many studies investigated the automated feedback in the computer-mediated learning environments, most of them focused on the multiple-choice items instead of the constructed response items. This study focuses on the latter and investigates a formative feedback system integrated into an online science curriculum module teaching climate change.

Author/Presenter

Mengxiao Zhu

Ou Lydia Liu

Hee-Sun Lee

Lead Organization(s)
Year
2019
Short Description

This study investigates a formative feedback system integrated into an online science curriculum module teaching climate change.