What students should know and be able to do. . . . How many of us mouth these words so much they become a cliché? What Content Knowledge do our students have? What are their Writing Proficiencies? Are they meeting Standards of Learning? Are we now expected "just" to teach to the test? Is Authentic Assessment getting the squeeze? And how are state and regional tests themselves performing? Here are authoritative Internet resources that can help answer these questions—and many more.
Laboratories for Learning
McREL http://www.mcrel.org/ The Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL) is in the forefront of standards work. Click Content Knowledge for a guide to standards and benchmarks for K–12 education. The Connections+ area links to other Internet resources, including lesson plans, tied to subject area standards. The "Executive Summary" or "Complete Report" offers What Americans Believe Students Should Know, a January 1999 publication. McREL worked with the Gallup Organization to develop this survey and analyze opinions of adults on the subject of standards.
From McREL, you can link to other educational laboratories and their projects. Click About McREL, then Laboratory Network. At the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory's "Pathways to School Improvement" (http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/pathwayg.htm), check out early childhood information.
NWREL http://www.nwrel.org/ The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) concentrates on curriculum and instruction standards within its five-state region: Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. You can visit the Lab Network Project (LNP), which brings together all the regional laboratories to synthesize and analyze standards developed at the state level. You can also read many documents en español by clicking the appropriate box on the home page. Click School Inprovement Program, then Curriculum and Instruction Services, then Standards.
From State to Federal
The Texas Education Network http://www.tenet.edu/ Use the site map or click your way through the pages. Start with Resource Center, click Professional Resources, then Educator Resources and follow the link called Curriculum Development Program to the Michigan Department of Education. That site provides a comprehensive list of links to curriculum standards on the Web, organized by national standards for each subject area—and by state.
U.S. Department of Education http://www.ed.gov You can find out the latest gov-speak on standards and assessment, including priorities of the administration and the Goals 2000 documents. You can also link to any of the National Research Centers funded by the Office of Research and Improvement (OERI).
From CRESST to CLASS
CRESST http://www.cresst96.cse.ucla.edu/ The home page of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) links to an online article, "Beyond Test Scores: How Can Parents Judge the Quality of Their Schools?" It also features reports, newsletters, discussion areas, a keyword search, and sample assessments in PDF format (you can download a free Adobe Acrobat Reader).
CLASS http://www.classnj.org/ The Web site of the Center on Learning, Assessment, and School Structure (CLASS) features weekly articles, classroom activities, teacher ideas, and links to other sites, including those with lesson plans. Here, learn about "Understanding by Design"—the book, the video, the adult learning program, and collaborative effort involving CLASS and ASCD.
Let's Take Another Look
FairTest http://www.fairtest.org/ FairTest, the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, is an advocacy organization "working to end the abuses, misuses and flaws of standardized testing and ensure that evaluation of students and workers is fair, open, and educationally sound." Under Current Projects, look at "Principles and Indicators for Student Assessment Systems." Also visit "Testing Our Children: A Report Card on State Assessment Systems," which evaluates assessment practices in all 50 states against standards derived from "Principles and Indicators."
Public Agenda http://www.publicagenda.org/ "Reality Check" provides a pithy analysis of this group's survey on standards. Reality Check is a multiyear project designed to determine the effect of education standards on teachers, parents, students, employers, and college professors.
