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Feb. 15, 2001
Editor's Desk
Assessment That Works
By: Susan McLester
Assessment, in all its varied aspects and implications, remains the hot term of the moment in education and in education technology in particular. Yes, the heat's on to ramp up the assessment of everything from students' core curriculum skills-witness the standardized testing explosion-to the impact of technology on learning, to the validity of the assessment tools themselves. Adding to the pressure are inflammatory and often ill-founded reports, such as the Alliance for Childhood's recent "Fool's Gold: A Critical Look at Computers and Childhood," that uniformly attack the spending of big dollars for school technologies whose impact remains largely unmeasured. On a more positive note, the Web-based Education Commission's recent call to action to focus on e-learning as a major force shaping education (see Trend Watch, page 6) is sure to open up a whole new market for assessment tools that ensure high quality is maintained in distance learning courses.
Is there value in assessment? Absolutely. But a red flag needs to be raised here. Let's not forget the how and the what. In our rush to fulfill a legislative imperative or to prove that what we're doing in schools is really helping kids, we can sometimes work against our own goals. When educators feel pressured to drop their regular curriculum to "teach to the test" and then receive test scores that are too unspecific or come way too late to really help them help their students, everyone is being cheated of valuable learning time. When a district pays a consulting firm the big bucks for a professional assessment of its technology program, but comes away with no practical action items or increased buy-in from its staff and community, you have to ask where the money may have been better spent. A major challenge lies in how best to evaluate and what to do with the results.
In this month's cover feature, we take a look at three diverse school districts that are putting a lot of effort into designing technology assessment programs that will work to meet their individual needs. Two of these districts have chosen to outsource only pieces of their programs, the third to conduct its entire assessment in-house. Trial and error and ongoing revision are necessarily a part of the process, but it is heartening to see these and other districts recognizing the importance of customizing assessment and taking matters into their own hands to create tools that will truly be useful to them. We hope their stories and the accompanying tips will be helpful to you in building your own workable assessment program.
Also, this month we introduce a new format for Picks of the Month to accommodate an expanded review of search engines. The detailed chart and accompanying introduction is the first of a two-part series-next month we'll look at search engines for kids-put together by veteran product tester (and former T&L chief) Judy Salpeter.
One last note: don't forget to check out www.techlearning.com for additional access to archived and current content from the printed magazine, and for links to many of the Web sites we mention throughout the magazine.
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