 The ThinkLink Predictive Assessment Series and NCLB |
|
| |
The federal law was enacted by the U. S. Congress in 2001 and signed into law by the president in 2002. One central tenet of this law establishes a set of accountability standards where every state must test student performance in reading, mathematics, and language arts every year, grades 3 through 8. This will be extended to Science grades 3-8 in the 2007-2008 school year. States may select their own high-stakes test and are required to use both a norm-referenced test and criterion-referenced items that correlate to their state curriculum standards. Most importantly, all students are expected to achieve adequate yearly progress.
The Predictive Assessment Series predicts student performance on each state's unique high-stakes test. This allows teachers, administrators, parents and students to monitor their progress towards meeting defined learning goals and state mandated Mastery, Proficiency and AYP. ThinkLink assessments measure student performance during the year when it still matters, bringing a true formative approach to the high-stakes summative tests required under NCLB.
Hundreds of schools have documented increases in student performance on the state tests by using ThinkLink predictive benchmarks during the school year. See our Research for more information. How does ThinkLink Learning help schools achieve the goals of No Child Left Behind? See the Predictive Assessment Series Product Overview page for more information.
See State Specific information for details on testing in each state and the correlation to the ThinkLink assessments.
The following text is an excerpt from the Department of Education website on this legislation. For more information visit the site at: http://www.nochildleftbehind.gov/index.html.
 An Introduction to No Child Left Behind
On Jan. 8, 2002, President Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). This new law represents his education reform plan and contains the most sweeping changes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) since it was enacted in 1965. It changes the federal government's role in kindergarten-through-grade-12 education by asking America's schools to describe their success in terms of what each student accomplishes. The act contains the President's four basic education reform principles: stronger accountability for results, increased flexibility and local control, expanded options for parents, and an emphasis on teaching methods that have been proven to work.
An "accountable" education system involves several critical steps:
- States create their own standards for what a child should know and learn for all grades. Standards must be developed in math and reading immediately. Standards must also be developed for science by the 2005-06 school year.
- With standards in place, states must test every student's progress toward those standards by using tests that are aligned with the standards. Beginning in the 2002-03 school year, schools must administer tests in each of three grade spans: grades 3-5, grades 6-9, and grades 10-12 in all schools. Beginning in the 2005-06 school year, tests must be administered every year in grades 3 through 8 in math and reading. Beginning in the 2007-08 school year, science achievement must also be tested.
- Each state, school district, and school will be expected to make adequate yearly progress toward meeting state standards. This progress will be measured for all students by sorting test results for students who are economically disadvantaged, from racial or ethnic minority groups, have disabilities, or have limited English proficiency.
- School and district performance will be publicly reported in district and state report cards. Individual school results will be on the district report cards.
- If the district or school continually fails to make adequate progress toward the standards, then they will be held accountable.
- The U.S. Department of Education wants to be a partner with states and school districts, and a resource for families and community members. If you have additional questions about No Child Left Behind, we encourage you to visit this website frequently. Also visit www.ed.gov for more detailed information about the legislation.
NCLB Scientifically based Research
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, the term 'scientifically based research' (A) means research that involves the application of rigorous, systematic and objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid knowledge relevant to education activities and programs; and (B) includes research that:
I. Employs systematic, empirical methods that draw on observation or experiment
II. Involves rigorous data analyses that are adequate to test the stated hypotheses and justify the general conclusions drawn
III. Relies on measurements or observational methods that provide reliable and valid data across evaluators and observers, across multiple measurements and observations, and across studies by the same or different investigators
IV. Is evaluated using experimental or quasi-experimental designs in which individuals, entities, programs or activities are assigned to different conditions and with appropriate controls to evaluate the effects of the condition of interest, with a preference for random-assignment experiments, or other designs to the extent that those designs contain within-condition or across-condition controls
V. Ensures experimental studies are presented in sufficient detail and clarity to allow for replication or, at a minimum, offer the opportunity to build systematically on their findings
VI. Has been accepted by a peer-reviewed journal or approved by a panel of independent experts through a comparably rigorous, objective and scientific review.
Make sure you ask every vendor how they demonstrate compliance with NCLB guidelines for scientifically based research.
|
|
Solutions
