After time away from live classroom instruction and what middle schoolers knew as the “norm,” how can we make the transition back to school easier, to engage students in learning immediately, and to effectively create literacy success for all students?

How does a test taker’s response, indicated through a selection or entry in a digital assessment, get evaluated and scored by a machine? It's easy to understand that computer code can be programmed to score a multiple-choice item. If the correct answer is selected by the test taker, that selection is compared to the correct answer in the scoring program and if it matches, it is then recorded as correct. But what happens with more sophisticated technology-enhanced items or items that require written responses like essays?

A selection of short, on-demand presentations to help you make the most of professional learning time this summer. Whenever you have 30 minutes to spare, you can join a quick and informative on-demand webinar hosted by expert educators, and expand what you already know about a variety of topics.

Writing your own items is one way to gather evidence from students about their knowledge and skills. This evidence can support inferences you make about student learning to help with decisions about the next unit of instruction, placement in learning groups, needs for remediation, and other classroom choices. For writing TEIs, there are some special considerations. Here are five tips to writing your own TEIs.

Back to school 2020 will be like no other in history. As districts, schools, and families begin to work through educational plans for the new academic year, educators must address student learning loss during the extended spring school closure—known as the COVID slide. School reopening plans will vary, depending on many safety, social, and economic factors. However, one thing will be certain: teachers must have valid ways to reliably assess where students are in their progression of learning.

Learning to read in a language you are simultaneously learning to speak and understand is more complicated than learning to read in a language you already know. This is the challenge faced by millions of English learners (ELs) whose English proficiency is low and school achievement generally poor. What do we know about teaching English learners to read and write and develop as English readers and writers?