From the Editor

Several news stories this week offer some ideas to ponder. The Tampa Bay Times reports on problems associated with Florida's writing assessment. The Florida Writing Assessment is used in grades 4, 8, and 10 to measure students' proficiency in writing responses to assigned topics within a designated testing period. It's seen minor variations from year to year in terms of student prompts and grading protocols. This year, the state returned to using two raters to score each piece of student writing and instructed scorers to grade more strictly, with an eye to punctuation, grammar and the quality of word choice and relevance. The result: only 27% of fourth-graders statewide earned a score of 4 or better, compared to last year's 81%. Similar drops in score were seen among 8th and 10th graders.

Voice from the Field

Common Core Assessment: An Exciting Opportunity—and a Looming Challenge

A BLEgroup Blog

Race to the Top has funded two consortia—PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) and SBAC (SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium)—to develop “next-generation” K–12 Common Core assessment systems to replace the individual state standards and assessments that currently exist. What do educators think about Common Core assessments and the impact they’ll have on schools and districts? The reactions are mixed and complicated. They are both positive and wary, but they suggest a major upheaval in the near future that too many school systems are unprepared to deal with. First, the good news. Assessment will be narrower but deeper. The emphasis is not on student recall of information; rather students must interpret and apply knowledge and skills to new settings and situations. It’s about transfer, rather than simple acquisition of knowledge and skills.

She Snoops for Scoops: The Personal Side of the EdNET Community

This tired Snoop is ready to close out this week and head to a weekend! But first, I have to share a lot of news with my colleagues and friends, so do read on....

Featured News

SIIA Honors Education Industry Veterans

Software & Information Industry Association — Saturday, May 12, 2012

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) honored Dr. Patrick Suppes, Lucie Stern Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Stanford University, with its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award. SIIA also presented the Ed Tech Impact Award to Charles Blaschke, Founder and President of Education TURNKEY Systems, Inc.

SIIA Announces CODiE™ Award Winners for Education Technology Industry

Software & Information Industry Association — Tuesday, May 08, 2012

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries, announced the winners of the 2012 CODiE Awards in education technology during SIIA's annual Ed Tech Industry Summit. Overall, 29 winners were recognized for their products and services deployed specifically for the education technology market.

Eighth-Graders Show Improvement in Science Achievement on The Nation’s Report Card

National Assessment Governing Board — Monday, May 07, 2012

The nation’s eighth-graders have improved their performance in science and narrowed some racial/ethnic achievement gaps since 2009, according to the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as The Nation’s Report Card. Scores reported in NAEP Science 2011 were higher than in 2009 for students across reported percentiles except those at the 90 th percentile, which showed no significant change. The average eighth-grade score increased two points, from 150 in 2009 to 152 in 2011. Scores also rose among public school students in 16 of 47 states that participated in both 2009 and 2011, and no state showed a decline in science scores from 2009 to 2011.