A Collaborative Effort to Improve Science Assessments

The purpose of this blog is to act as a professional learning network to improve the available resources for science assessments. Some of you might question, why should we test at all? Edutopia has some great answers to this question. From 2012 to 2014 I taught 9th grade Biology and 10th grade Physical Earth, and during this time period I was constantly trying to improve the quality of my assessments.




The following is a short list of what I hoped to improved in my assessments:
1) Rigor
2) Variety of questions
3) Including data analysis
4) Incorporation of literacy skills
5) Leveled questions when appropriate

While this is not a comprehensive list, it gives an idea of what I was trying to focus on. In this first posting I will include some links of websites, blogs, and other resources that I was able to take advantage of. In the future I will post some of the exams that I gave. In order for this site to work properly, it would be great if everyone could share either a link to a resource that they have found useful, or post an exam that they have used in the past.

The following are links to websites and blogs that I have found beneficial in the past:

Blogs:

http://www.ed.gov/blog/topic/standards-and-assessments/

http://blogs-in-k12.wikispaces.com/assessing+student+blogs

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/deeper-learning-student-assessment-bob-lenz

http://www.nwea.org/blog/2013/22-easy-formative-assessment-techniques-for-measuring-student-learning/ 

http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/category/assessment/

Facebook pages:

https://www.facebook.com/NationalAssessmentofEducationalProgress

https://www.facebook.com/tamsatx

https://www.facebook.com/StudentAffairsAssessmentLeaders

https://www.facebook.com/testingsciences

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ohio-Families-Education/117228291694042

   
Edmodo:
This community within the website Edmodo is a great collaboration tool. Users can post resources as well as ask questions centered on science and assessment. 

https://www.edmodo.com/home#/community/science

https://www.edmodo.com/home#/profile/28

https://www.edmodo.com/home#/profile/100

https://www.edmodo.com/home#/profile/451

https://www.edmodo.com/home#/profile/456

Twitter Pages: 

https://twitter.com/Science_Ed
https://twitter.com/sciencemagazine

https://twitter.com/wiredscience

https://twitter.com/ACTStudent/status/516751855876321281

https://twitter.com/pt_for_science

Pintrest Pages:

www.pinterest.com/sciencepenguin/science-test-prep/

www.pinterest.com/herdteacher/science-staar-test/

www.pinterest.com/oneteacherstake/test-prep-review-motivation/

www.pinterest.com/yunkej/science-test-review-fcat-prep/

www.pinterest.com/lauracandler/science-teaching-resources/

 


http://www.nysedregents.org/
The regents exam is considered by many as a rigorous exam and a great resource to draw questions from.

As I said earlier, please comment with any other resources that you have found beneficial when writing or discussing science exams.

Below is a link to a Google Folder that we can use to store assessment resources. If you have an exam that you would like to share please create an appropriate folder to keep our resources organized.

https://drive.google.com/#folders/0B9K1XGB7AIx6amNaSFl3eDdHMkU
Thanks!