I had the opportunity this morning to speak with Mary Crovo, Deputy Executive Director and Project Manager, at the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) to get some facts straight about the organization’s plans for adding student technology assessments to the Nation’s Report Card in 2012.
Mary and I had a great conversation regarding the general landscape of student technology assessments, and I had shared with her the information and some facts that had been discussed at one of the TCEA concurrent sessions that I discussed in a previous blog post.
As you can imagine, it was important to Mary that SimpleK12, as a leader in student technology assessments (as well as other leaders in the field), communicate accurate information with our customers and those we reach.
Please take a moment to read this important information.
Yes, the NAGB is working on a computer based technology assessment designed to assess student technology literacy. While they had originally planned on starting assessments in 2012, the creation of the assessment is taking longer than they had planned. It is likely that the Governing Board will be moving this date back to 2014. The Governing Board is meeting the first week of March to make final decisions on the assessment framework.
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Looking for a student tech literacy assessment? Try SimpleAssessmentPLUS. Click here to learn more.
——Historically, NAGB, through the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assesses students at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grade levels – which is where the information coming from the TCEA session stemmed from. However, Mary informed me that the student technology assessments would be administered starting at only one grade level.
Although Mary didn’t state which grade NAEP would start assessing, I pushed her a little on this subject, and she said that the Governing Board was “mostly discussing 8th or 12th grade, but the final decision will be made at the meeting in a few weeks.” As we all know, currently No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirements are at the 8th grade level.
If you aren’t familiar with NAEP assessments, it’s important to note that they are 100% voluntary – these are not mandatory assessments. Mary said that only about 10,000 students across the country at any one grade level will participate in the assessment. NAEP looks to find a nationally representative sample – no individual student, school, or district score would be released or analyzed.
So what exactly is the assessment testing?
Mary made it clear that what most people refer to as “technology literacy” is just one of the pieces of the puzzle. The assessment covers three main areas:
- Technology and Society
- Design and Systems
- Information and Communication Technology
Mary also stressed that the name of the assessment is still being determined. She, along with others on the NAGB, felt that referring to it as “technology literacy” was misleading as other areas were also being assessed.
As stated, the National Assessment Governing Board will be meeting in early March to make their final revisions to the framework with the hopes that it will be adopted later that month during the March board meeting. But, most likely these won’t be anywhere near a school until 2014.
The most current version of the proposed framework for the assessment is available for your viewing online:
Technological Literacy Framework for the 2012 National Assessment of Educational Progress
We’ll be sure to keep you posted on new developments.
We want to hear from you:
What do you think about adding “Technological Literacy” to the Nation’s Report Card and the proposed Framework? We’d love to hear your thoughts…
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http://blog.simplek12.com/education/national-student-technology-assessments-part-2/
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