Kristin Morin Rebecca Carter Jessica House Jon Schleifer SPED 5030/9.13.

11 ASSESSMENT/POLICIES/CURRENT EVENTS Our group looked at assessment, policies and current events. One of the biggest trends we have noticed is the continued heavy influence on CSAP scores and testing. Combine this with other rules and regulations defined by the No Child Left Behind act which greatly influences day-by-day content-focused pedagogy, students as individuals are being overlooked and replaced by a test score. A model we really feel can help combat this type of instruction and assessment is the Colorado Growth Model. By implementing this system, which the Colorado Legislature has dubbed the Corner of Accountability, it puts more of an emphasis on individual student progress instead of a shallow view of student achievement. (National Center for the Improvement of

Educational Assessment, 2008)

Legislation has been a double-edge sword in the education system. For example, in thinking about NCLB, the overarching goals of the legislation were admirable but the implementation has caused schools to focus more on summative assessment vs. learning instruction. On the other hand, legislation like the McKinney-Vento Act has been indispensable in providing aid to homeless students. Unfortunately, only a very small portion of districts around the nation are utilizing or able to utilize these resources. It is our hope that a swing will happen in the education system that will all schools to focus more on formative assessment and student learning instead of

standardized testing as a tool to measure student performance. We also hope that schools will find a way to recognize individual needs of the students and have either the resources or ability to find the resources to help these kids. Excellent synthesis of information in your paper! Your team has identified the litigation legislation policies connections in education. This is one way that new programs come about and help to serve more children (Brown vs. Board of Education for example), but as you have noted, adequate funding is not always provided. The overall push of legislation in our country has been to bring greater equality and access to education for all children and to end exclusionary practices. This battle still continues today many children in poor, rural or inner-city districts do not have access to the same educational opportunities (old worn out textbooks, school buildings that are crumbling, non-certified teachers, etc) as children in more affluent areas. This is also why we see more and more inclusionary practices in our classrooms and the reason we need to continue to differentiate our instruction to meet the needs of all children. These are choices we make as a society and I hope that each of you will continue the fight.

SOURCE: National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, (2008).

Introducing colorado's growth model [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.cde.state.co.us/media/cdeedserv/growthmodel/ GrowthModelIntroPt01.html