EDUCATION TERMS
(from the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development)

Alaska 2000 Goals. Goals for an educated graduate of Alaska's public schools established by the State Board of Education.

Alaska Teacher Education Standards. The accepted measure of comparison for quantitative or qualitative value in an educational setting.

Assessments. Processes of appraising or evaluating student work.
(See Evaluation below.)

Assumptions. While in mathematics, these are concepts that are taken to be true without proof or demonstration, those made in the framework are based on current educational research and practice.

Authentic assessments. Assessments applying the components of reading, writing, speaking, viewing and listening to real-life situations.

CD-ROM. A disc, similar to music CDs, used to hold permanent information that can be accessed electronically and which provide rich, non-linear text.

Cognitive processes. The mental faculties by which knowledge is acquired.

Collaborative work. Shared project work by group of students.

Comprehension. A process of gaining meaning on three levels:
1) literal level of reading for explicit meaning,
2) interpretative level of reading for implicit meaning,
3) evaluative level of reading for critical insight.

Content Area. The subject area: the arts, civics, English/language arts, geography, history, math, science, skills for a healthy life, technology, and world languages.

Conventions. The "rules" of English grammar, punctuation, usage.

Cooperative Learning. Instructional strategies that develop cooperative group behaviors including the division of tasks, peer teaching, and individual and group accountability for products. Cooperative learning strategies explicitly teach students how to be productive and supportive group members.

Cueing systems. Systems of reminders or prompters to read successfully. (See chart at the end of Chapter 2.)

Curriculum Framework. A document that provides information, guidelines, suggested resources, and models for districts as they revise curriculum.

Curriculum. Curriculum is what students should know, be able to do and be committed to (content), how it is taught (instruction), how it is measured (assessment), and how the educational system is organized (context).

Developmentally Appropriate Practice. The use of content, instruction, and assessment that meets the student's ability to reason, interpret, focus, communicate, and interact, both socially and academically. These abilities change significantly as a result of age and experiences.

Educational Equity. The provision of equal access to courses, facilities, and programs regardless of national origin, race, gender, sexual orientation, disabilities, first language, etc.. Meeting the diverse educational needs of students, some of whom will require specific skills to be able to access the school curriculum.

Embedded Assessment. Assessment that occurs during the course of instruction and is indistinguishable from instruction. A test at the end of a unit is not embedded. Maintaining a checklist that is recorded by the teacher at any time when the teacher witnesses the student reaching an expectation is embedded.

Equity Evaluation. Inventories and assessments of the behaviors at sites or in districts that support or discourage equitable participation and success by students of all cultures. These can include collecting data on the participation and tracking of diverse students in particular classes, the cultural representation among visible learning partners in the schools, common instructional strategies, text analyses, library collection analyses, and attitude inventories among students, faculty and staff. (See sample Equity Checklist in the framework's Reference Kit.)

Evaluation. The process of testing, appraising, and judging achievement, growth, product, and process or changes in these using formal or informal techniques.

Framework. Skeletal support used as the basis in an object being developed. In the case of Alaska content standards, the frameworks provide support for curriculum development committees and preservice institutions as they help teachers move students toward meeting the standards.

Hands-On Learning. Instructional activities in which the students manipulate the materials as contrasted with activities in which the students simply read about or hear about phenomena.

IEP. Individual Education Plans developed by professionals and parents to lay out a course of study suitable for the student.

Inquiry-Based Learning. Instructional activities that are initiated through central questions or investigations. In inquiry-based learning students often determine the answers by collecting and synthesizing their own data.

Integrated, Interdisciplinary Instruction. Instruction that addresses standards from more than one content area. This can occur in a variety of forms: applied projects, thematic instruction, service learning projects, social-issue investigations, science-technology-society investigations, simulations, etc.

Interdisciplinary Curriculum. Topics and concepts tied together, i.e., thematic instruction.

Learner-centered Instruction. Teaching and learning focused on the students' needs, interests, and abilities.

Learning Partners. Parents, elders, primary care givers, other family members, the business community, mentors and other volunteers that work with students both in and out of the classroom.

Learning Styles. People tend to have preferences in their approach to learning tasks. Some prefer to make random associations. Others are more comfortable with structured interpretations. Some prefer abstract interactions with ideas, while others require a concrete experience to introduce a concept. Research suggests that most of us learn best when information is presented in a way that matches our preferred learning styles. Research also suggests that our learning style preferences can be broadened.

Limited English proficiency. The ability to use English to communicate, but at a lower level than is usually expected for a native speaker of English of the same age.

Measurement Yardsticks (Processes, Instruments). The tools of assessment (including, but not limited to, checklists and other rubrics, portfolios, and tests).

Metacognitive Development. Thinking and applying thinking to problem-solving, and also thinking about the thinking application and problem-solving process in order to make them more efficient.

Modality. A generic term referring to ways of thinking, including both learning styles and multiple intelligences.

Multiple Intelligences. Howard Gardner proposes that all humans are endowed with seven forms of intelligence: mathematical/logical, linguistic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, spatial, and kinesthetic. Schools usually emphasize the linguistic and mathematical/logical intelligences.

Performance Indicators. Expectations in the form of lists of abilities that are appropriate for students at different benchmarks. The Department of Education & Early Development is currently developing Alaska performance indicators for students at ages 8-10, 12-14, and 16-18.

Preservice. Training prior to being employed as a teacher.

Reading Development. Emerging (K-1st grade) developing (2nd -5th grade), independent (6th -8th grade), developing critical (9th and 10th grade), critical (11th and 12th grade).

Regents. An organized body of members serving on the governing board of the University of Alaska.

Regulations.

Reliable. The consistency of assessment results from an instrument over time or over a number of trials.

Rubric. A scoring guide including a summary listing of the characteristics that distinguish high quality from low quality work.

Scaffolding. Instruction that is organized in a way that identifies the students prior knowledge about a topic and creates connections between past understandings or experiences and new knowledge.

School to Work Opportunities Act. A national act that will bring together partnerships of employers, educators and others to build a high quality School to Work system that prepares young people for careers in high-skill, high-wage jobs.

Scoring guides. See Rubric .

Standards. Broad lists of what students should know, be able to do, and be committed to. The State of Alaska has created content standards in the following areas: English/language arts, history, geography, civics/government, science, mathematics, arts, world languages, healthy life skills, and technology.

Statutes. Laws enacted by the legislative branch upon which educational regulations are based.

Student Questionnaire. A statewide questionnaire requesting such information as student demographics, activities, plans for the future.

Talent Bank. A list of educators willing to share their specific areas of expertise with others.

Technology. In this document technology refers to a variety of new and emerging electronic technologies such as computers, CD Roms, LCD panels, the Worldwide Web, etc.

Thematic Instruction. A specific form of integrated instruction in which students investigate many factors related to one topic or theme through many lenses.

Utility. The degree to which assessment information is useful, understandable, easily obtained, and affordable.

Validity. The degree to which an assessment instrument measures what it intends to measure.

TESTING TERMS
Achievement Tests. Achievement tests are designed to measure the things that a student knows and can do. Most of the tests that students take in school are achievement tests.

Alternative and authentic assessments. Tasks which measure student learning by requiring him/her to demonstrate application of what has been learned through a real life situation. For example, testing writing by asking a student to write a composition or have students use math skills to determine take home pay after taxes. These assessments are important because they enable students to show that they can use the skills they have been taught.

Census testing. Testing of all students at all targeted levels.

Criterion-referenced tests. Criterion-referenced tests are designed to compare a student's performance with clearly defined curricular objectives, skill levels, standards, or areas of knowledge (rather than with scores of a sample of other students).

Cross-sectional analysis. A method to report and analyze test scores by grade level.

Curriculum mapping. Examining the match between the content of the curriculum and the content of a test to make sure students will have the opportunity to learn the material and skills to be tested.

Diagnostic testing. Assessment to determine why a student is experiencing difficulty in learning. For example, if a student is having trouble learning to multiply, diagnostic testing might include determining if the student knows the multiplication facts.

Disaggregated data. Data broken out for specific groups within the total student population, such as by race, gender, number of college prep courses taken, family income level.

High stakes test. A test that has significant consequences for a student, school or school district. The SAT and the HSGQE are high stakes tests for students.

Longitudinal testing. Examining the performance of a single student or a group of students by considering their test scores over time. For example, comparing a student's first grade and second grade test scores.

Norm-referenced tests. Norm-referenced achievement tests measure basic concepts and skills commonly taught in schools throughout the country. These tests are not designed to measure a specific school district's curriculum, but rather the knowledge generally taught at a particular grade level. Results from norm-referenced tests provide information that compares students' achievement with that of a representative national group or "sample." Student test results are presented in the form of a comparison score-eg. 75th percentile-meaning that student scores at or above the score of 75% of her/her peers.

Objective tests. Test that can be factually scored, such as multiple choice, true-false and matching tests.

Quartile. Scores of a test divided into quarters according to the highest one-fourth of the scores, the next highest one-fourth, and the like. Student performance is often discussed in terms of the number or percent of students falling below each quartile or scoring in each quarter.

Scoring rubric or scoring guide. The set of criteria used in the evaluation of a student product or performance along with rules for assigning points to each criterion. The rules correspond with carefully described levels of performance for each criterion. Scoring rubrics could be used for student products, such as a piece of art, or student performances, such as a speech or a piano concert.

Standardized tests. "Standardized" means that the test is always given and scored the same way. Typically, the same questions are asked and uniform directions are given for each test. Specific time limits are set and student performance may be compared with all the other students taking the same test, or with a set of predetermined standards or criteria. Tests that are used for important decisions or to compare the performance of one student or school to another are usually standardized.


SPECIAL EDUCATION ACRONYMS

The following is by no means complete. However, these are the most commonly used special education acronyms:

ADA Americans with Disabilities Act

BIP Behavior Intervention Plan

CFR Code of Federal Regulations

CSE Case Study Evaluation

CST Child Study Team

EED Department of Education & Early Development

FAPE Free appropriate education

FBA Functional Behavioral Assessment

FERPA Family Education Rights and Privacy Act

IDEA97 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 1997
(formerly known as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act or P.L. 94-142)

IEE Independent educational evaluation

IEP Individualized education program

LD ,Learning Disability
(also: Learning Disorder, Learning Disabled, Learning Disabilities)

LEA Local education agency (school district)

LRE Least restrictive (educational) environment

MDSC Multidisciplinary Staff Conference
(the group, including parents, that determines special ed eligibility)

OCR Office of Civil Rights
(of U.S. Department of Education)

OHI Other Health Impaired
(classification category under IDEA97 used for ADD and ADHD)

OSEP Office of Special Education Programs
(of U.S. Department of Education)

OSERS Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services of U.S.
(of Department of Education)

PPS Pupil Personal Services

SEA State Education Agency

SED Severely Emotionally Disturbed

SD School District

SLD Specific Learning Disability
(also: Specific Language Disability)

SpEd Special Education

TSS Teacher Support Services

USC United States Code

504 Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973