Provides the opportunity for individuals to become teachers without a formal background in education. These routes may be of value to individuals who have not completed a formal teacher-training program at an accredited university or college but would like to be trained as a teacher. They are particularly well suited

Is the shorthand for the “Professional Assessments for Beginning Teachers.” These assessments come in the form of a series of tests – an unsurprising thing to find in the field of education. Whether you are considering a traditional teacher education program or an alternate-route program, it’s important to understand the

Refers to the practice of holding school districts, school administrators, educators and students responsible for demonstrating specific academic performance results.

The most traditional type of assessment used for accountability is based on norm-referenced tests, where results compare students to each other. By default, results of norm-referenced tests require that half of all students be ranked as “below average.” Norm-referenced tests have been the focus of much criticism over the years.

A child psychiatrist who studied students from low-income neighborhoods In New Haven, Connecticut, developed the Comer Process which focuses on child development in urban schools. The Comer process is based on six interconnected pathways which lead to healthy child development and academic achievement. The pathways are physical, cognitive, psychological, language,

Allows students to show their mastery of a specific skill. In most performance-test scenarios, students are required to perform a complex skill or procedure or create a product to demonstrate that they can apply the knowledge and skills they have learned. The instructor or examiner will typically observe this performance

Give students the option to use books and notes in exams and thus encourage them to learn to apply knowledge rather than just attempt to memorize material. In other words, this assessment alternative provides a solid basis for students to master knowledge and skills and to demonstrate their mastery appropriately.

Takes ownership of the potential for students to rely on the knowledge of others; providing students the opportunity to take multiple-choice exams in a group or in pairs. This testing approach allows students to discuss the materials and “teach each other.” To some extent, this approach can also increase the

Are a growing phenomenon in the United States. The process of managing the organization of classrooms by grade is challenging. The multiage classroom operates according to the following principles: First, students were included in the classroom for at least a two-year span in chronological age. Second, each student in the

Is a school scheduling configuration in which students K-12 students in the United States attend school year-round, with intermittent breaks scheduled throughout the year. Year-round schools are usually set up as single-track (ST) with unified attendance or multi-track (MT) with staggered attendance programs. Some schools use a combination of the