Last Updated 6/5/00
|
|
|
|
|
|
Iowa DE Iowa's K-12+ Career Pathway Framework
Iowa DE Technical and Vocational Education Standards and Benchmarks
Iowa Employability Skill Standards and Benchmarks
This document details the Tier One Skills
identified as important in all Career Pathways.
Iowa Career Pathway Standards
and Benchmarks
Health Occupations and Business,Information
Management, and Marketing Skill Standards are completed.
McREL is working
with the Iowa School-to-Work Office to complete skill standards
in the remaining Iowa Career Pathways. See McRel's Career Education
Standards and Benchmarks on-line.
Chapter 12 - Iowa General Accreditation
Standards & STW
To view the rules that
apply specifically to School-to-Work, click
here.
All superintendents and AEA chief
administrators have copies of the proposed rules. Download your
copy at the state web site (scroll
home page and click on "Revised General Accreditation Standards".
They will be downloaded for you to read or print in pdf format
with Acrobat Reader.
SCANS Skills
Five competencies and a three part foundation
of skills and personal qualities were identified in SCANS as characterized
by high-skill, high-wage employment.
Career
Development Guidelines
The Career Development Guidelines offer a structure for a comprehensive
career guidance and counseling system. Click here to view a table
showing the recommended outcomes for individuals in three areas
by schooling level.
What should students 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.--compiled by Judy Walter , a program director in ASCD's Program Development Work Group:
McREL
http://www.mcrel.org/
The MidContinent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL) is in
the forefront of standards work. Click on "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 Gallup to develop this survey and analyze opinions
of adults on the subject of standards.
NCREL
"Professional Development: Learning From
the Best" is a step-by-step guide schools & districts
may use to design, implement, evaluate, & share professional
development aimed to increase teacher effectiveness & student
achievement. The toolkit is based on the experiences of winners
of the National Awards Program for Model Professional Development.
Main Site: http://www.ncrel.org/
Here, on the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL)
site, go to the Pathways to School Improvement. Although much
of NCREL's work focuses on mathematics and science, you can also
find excellent documents and teacher audio files related to assessing
young children (ages 3-8). From the "Pathways" site
map, under "Students," click on "Early Childhood
Education," then follow the links to "Assessing Young
Children's Progress Appropriately." Or search from the site
map to find "Standards for Evaluating Students' Work"
and link to "Methods for Observing and Recording."
NWREL
http://www.nwrel.org/
The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) concentrates
on standards within its 5-state region: Alaska, Idaho, Montana,
Oregon, and Washington. Visit the Lab Network Project (LNP), which
brings together all the regional laboratories to synthesize and
analyze standards developed at the state level. Here's a search
hint: (1) On the home page, use the "search NWREL" function;
(2) key in "curriculum and instruction: standards" (including
the colon and quotation marks); and (3) click on the link to the
regional depiction of standards-based reform. You can also read
many documents *en espanol* by clicking on the appropriate box
on the home page.
"TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR ENDING SOCIAL PROMOTION: A Guide for Educators & State & Local Leaders" is a 72- page on-line guidebook devoted to *strategies* schools & communities may want to consider to help prevent academic failure through specific actions that can help all students meet high expectations.
State Standards
http://putwest.boces.org/standards.html
This site provides a comprehensive list of links to curriculum
standards on the Web, organized by national standards for each
subject area and then by each 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).
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 for 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.
CCSSO
http://www.ccsso.org
The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) offers articles
on standards related to state initiatives and policy, school leader
accreditation, and teacher licensing. Click on "Standards
and Assessments" and "Accountablility System Profiles".
Many of these documents are in PDF format.
Alfie Kohn
http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/standards.htm
Kohn said he doesn't oppose horizontal standards, which are
guidelines for changing the way we do teaching and learning, such
as the NCTM mathematics standards. Vertical (or "tougher")
standards, on the other hand, call for us to take the existing
approach to education and do it more intensely. The site, called
"Rescueing our Schools from Toughter Standards", is
a basis for a new organization opposed to the tougher standards
movement.
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," and "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."
Basic School Network
http://www.jmu.edu/basicschool/
The Basic School Network is a successful school reform movement
founded by the late Ernest Boyer. The Network helps schools set
and meet high academic standards while developing responsibility
and character within "core commonalities" that also
take into account the diversity of students, teachers, and school
cultures.
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.
NOTE: Much of the information in this section is from ASCD's Publication Section, March 12 and 26 Newsletter. The April 1999 issue of ASCD's magazine Educational Leadership, with the theme "Using Standards and Assessments," contains an abridged version of this article.
Looking at Student Work presents the work of educators committed to new ways of looking at student work, ways that emphasize: teachers looking together at student work, with colleagues focusing on small samples of student work, reflecting on important questions about teaching and learning, and using structures and guidelines ("protocols") for looking at and talking about student work.
Comprehensive School Reform
The following organizations provide technical assistance
to schools seeking to implement comprehensive school reform:
Achieving
Student Success: An Interactive Online Tool is an interactive
online handbook on school reform which offers a systematic framework
and research base on the design features of the program components,
implementation requirements, and program outcomes of widely implemented
research-based comprehensive educational models.
ASCD's
Online Diagnostic Tool. Use this handy rating guide to determine
your school's strengths and weaknesses in four critical capacities.
Input is analyzed by ASCD staff and results sent by email. Then
read ASCD's recommendations for how to further your efforts.
Authentic
Teaching, Learning, and Assessment for All Students (ATLAS
Communities) links elementary, middle, and high schools in a continuous
education pathway that involves community, parent, and educators
in the learning process.
Catalog of School Reform Models lists and
describes 64 models, including 33 entire-school reform models
and 31 skill- and content-based models (reading, math, science,
and other areas). The catalog may be read online or downloaded
in pdf format.
Community
for Learning is a broad-based, inclusive approach to respond
to the increasingly diverse student populations of the schools.
Click on the program as a section of the the Laboratory for Student
Sucess web site at Temple Uniersity.
The Co-nect
model substantially integrates technology into the education process.
Co-nect uses a proprietary methodology that combines Internet-based
resources with on-site professionals and faculty training programs
to transform each school's culture of teaching and learning. The
Co-nect model is built on five benchmarks: teamwork focused on
results; project-based teaching and learning; comprehensive assessment;
team-based school organization; and the sensible use of technology.
Co-nect is a New American Schools design.Grades Served:
K-12.
Educator's
Guide to Schoolwide Reform looks at 24 entire school reform
models & evidence of positive effects on student achievement.
Research-based reviews.
Expeditionary Learning
Outward Bound is a design for comprehensive school improvement
that challenges students to meet rigorous academic and character
standards. Through professional development and technical assistance,
the Expeditionary Learning design team collaborates with the faculty
and leadership of a school to strengthen instruction and school
culture, to engage students in in-depth investigations, and to
assess and increase student achievement. Outward Bound has had
a long history of helping young people from a broad range of socio-economic
and ethnic
backgrounds take responsibility to achieve their personal best.
Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound is a New American Schools
design. Grades Served: K-12
School
Improvement in Maryland offers a site to help schools analyze
their assessment data and guide them in making data-based instructional
decisions that would support improved performance for all students.
Success
for All ( web site May, 2000) focuses on
ensuring that all children learn to read in the elementary grades.
It provides state-of-the art curricula and professional development
for prekindergarten, kindergarten, and grades 1-6 reading, writing,
and language arts; one-to-one turtoring for young students struggling
in reading; and an active family support program.
Regional Educational Laboratories:
Each lab provides national leadership
in a specialty area.
Appalachia Educational Laboratory (AEL) - Rural Education
Laboratory for Student Success (LSS) - Urban Education
Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory (MCREL) - Curriculum, Learning and Instruction
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) - Educational Technology
Northeast and Islands Regional Laboratory (LAB) - Language and Cultural Diversity
Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) - School Change Processes
Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL) - Language and Cultural Diversity
SouthEastern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE) - Early Childhood Education
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) - Language and Cultural Diversity
WestEd - Assessment