Assessment

Assessment Tools
Now that you have the content key for TechConnect, please review the technology tests they have to offer. Please record your thoughts here about those assessments. If you have other assessments for us to look at, add the info so we can review them and add our feedback.

**Nancy** 1-22-08 - These assessments are application based. I didn't find any questions about other topics included in the TEKS. This is a concern. On the positive side, we can give a paper test and scan it into aware so it can be resource for teachers in regard to technology proficiency. There is also the option of students taking it online.
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**Nancy 1-23-08** - I agree with Anne's comment below that we need to have basic knowledge questions on the test. On another note, if we do want to add it to their testing protfolio in Aware we can give campuses the option of doing paper pencil or an online test. Erin met with the SAILOn group we meet with and Pearland puts their in Aware. Some of them also give a pretest at 6th grade and then a post test at 8th grade. This is something I would consider doing for incoming 6th graders just to see if there was growth. I don't think students across the state of Texas received a very good report card based on the STaR Chart info that was submitted by school districts.

List ideas for an assessment tool that could be administered to all eigth graders.
Written assessment - somewhat like a Benchmark test or TAKS. A portfolio of work created by students throughout 7th and 8th grade.

[|amueller1954] I think it would be a good place to start. Our kids would probably be able to answer some of those application based questions but not all. Also we would still need an assessment over basic knowledge such as what is input, what is a a method of data storage, etc.? I am afraid that whatever assessment we give, our kids will fail because they have not gotten a good foundation. (another soap box for another forum) This will continue until there are consequences for failing an assessment.
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I think a written test would drive home the importance of teaching the Tech Apps TEKS to the classroom teacher. An electronic portfolio would be a great indication of their progress but would be much more time consuming to evaluate. There also needs to be consequences for the teacher or campus that does not follow through on teaching all that needs to be taught. Our campus is doing tech integration but it is not complete and the students are lacking many skills they need and are supposed to be getting (like keyboarding and basic computer knowledge). I had a person tell me that they didn't see why the students needed to know what RAM was, what a hard drive was and other basic info. They compared it to knowing how to drive a car but not necessarily knowing how it works. I feel it is on the same level as knowing basic history knowledge or basic science knowledge.
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12-19-08 I think a portfolio is a great idea for the students to show what they have learned and to make sure they are being taught all the Tech App TEKS but in my case that is not practical. Each student has projects for at least 4 teachers. Our school has about 450 8th graders. Who is going to assess these portfolios? Will we develop the rubric for portfolio assessment? Do we need to assess improvement from 7th to 8th grade? How will we make sure that each student has learned the required skills? How will we make sure that the students have been taught __all__ the applications required by the TEKS? I have not done a database lesson in 3 years now (since we started Integration) because it takes more than 4 days to fully create/explore a database. No one wants to take the time and most teachers are afraid of Access. I have lobbied for the last year to go back to Computer Literacy class without success. Keyboarding and basic knowledge are seen as "unnecessary" and there is no support from those who matter. They are only interested in core TEKS and TAKS scores. Do we assign a core dept one of the applications to concentrate on? The most important is what are the consequences for the teachers who do not do a good job of teaching their assigned application? (I had a teacher this week who did a PowerPoint on a template because he didn't want to take more than 2 days in the lab. When I checked on his class and asked a student if they were told about the 6X6 rule for text, I was told that the teacher said not to worry about it. Just put something on the slide to answer the question. They copied and pasted off the Internet and I didn't check to see if he required the citations that were supposed to be on the last slide.) What happens to the students if the teachers do not follow through? So many questions - so few answers.