Spring 2019 Newsletter
What’s New at the Center for Assessment, Design, Research and Evaluation
Greetings Friends and Colleagues!
We’re delighted to launch the bi-annual CADRE newsletter with updates aimed at highlighting our work in educational assessment, evaluation and accountability.
CADRE represents a small team of faculty partners, practitioners and graduate researchers from the Research & Evaluation Methodology program at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education. Our center aims to produce generalizable knowledge to assess and improve student learning, and to evaluate programs and methods that may have a meaningful effect on this learning. CADRE’s work directly contributes to the School of Education’s commitment to use evidence-based policy and practice in advancing democracy, diversity, equity and justice in schools and communities.
Our team benefits from the expertise and collaborations we have with our faculty affiliates, local and national organizations, schools, districts, and higher education partners. In each newsletter, we will feature a specific topic, project or event, provide highlights of our work through select project profiles, and showcase recently released publications and reports.
Join us for the 2019 NCME Classroom Assessment Conference: Sept. 18-19 at Boulder
CADRE and the Boulder School of Education are proud to host the third NCME Special Conference on Classroom Assessment. The gathering aims to foster dialogue between education practitioners, policymakers and researchers around developing and using classroom assessment for teaching and learning.
For this year’s conference on classroom assessment, we emphasize the importance and role of Research-Practice Partnerships to advance coherent approaches in the design and uses of classroom assessment. The conference is hosted in partnership with Aurora Public Schools, Cherry Creek School District, Colorado Department of Education, Denver Public Schools and the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment.
Project Profiles
- Derek Briggs and Kim Cho are working with Erin Furtak in the Math and Science Education program at the Boulder School of Education on NGSS aligned science learning progressions in the Aurora Public Schools in Colorado.
- Derek Briggs, Elena Diaz-Bilello and Kim Cho are collaborating with Jere Confrey at the North Carolina State University and her team of STEM researchers to study the uses of math learning progressions at the Cherry Creek School District in Colorado.
- Jessica Alzen and Elena Diaz-Bilello partnered with the Academic Advising Services at the Boulder College of Arts and Sciences to study the impacts of the new academic coaching support model for students facing academic probation.
- Benjamin Shear is working with the Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis to release a new version of the Stanford Education Data Archive that will include school-level data.
New Reports and Publications
- Examining the Dual Purpose Use of Student Learning Objectives for Classroom Assessment and Teacher Evaluation by Derek Briggs, Rajendra Chattergoon & Amy Burkhardt. The process of setting and evaluating Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) has become increasingly popular as an example where classroom assessment is intended to fulfill the dual purpose use of informing instruction and holding teachers accountable.
- The State of District-Level Interim Asseessments by Derek Briggs & Amy Burkhardt. This study provides a descriptive overview of the state of district-level “interim assessment programs” across the country. What are typically called “assessments,” we term “assessment programs” which allows us to organize such into three distinct components: How they are designed, assembled into assessment events, and then delivered to students.
- Making Inferences Teacher Observation Scores Over Time by Derek Briggs & Jessica Alzen. Observation protocol scores are commonly used as status measures to support inferences about teacher practices. When multiple observations are collected for the same teacher over the course of a year, some portion of a teacher’s score on each occasion may be attributable to the rater, lesson, and the time of year of the observation.