BOTA_image
DBASSE_bottom_image
Thursday, June 20, 2013 
BOTA_homepage_image
BOTA_homepage_image

Welcome to the Board on Testing and Assessment

Top Image Display(is skipping to image description)
   BOTA - TOPICS
 
Of Interest
 
Education, Equity, and the Big Picture

The nation needs to take a more comprehensive approach to improving educational outcomes for low-income and minority students and English learners.

Read the article by Natalie Nielsen, staff member of the Board on Science Education, in the Spring Issue of Issues in Science and Technology


Schools Alone Cannot Close Achievement Gap

A multifaceted strategy can complement school reform by addressing the many out-of-school factors that affect academic performance. 

Read the article by Alexandra S. Beatty, staff member of the Testing and Assessment, in the Spring Issue of Issues in Science and Technology


Do High-Stakes Tests Improve Learning?

 

Article in Issues in Science and Technology

 

Stuart Elliott, director of the Board on Testing and Assessment, and Sara Frueh, communications officer, wrote an article focused on the policy message in the BOTA report, Incentives and Test-Based Accountability in Education.

 

The report concludes that test-based incentive programs studied to date do not provide a reliable means of significantly increasing student achievement and offers suggestions about alternate ways that incentive systems might be designed and implemented to obtain better results.

 

Read the article

 

 

 

 Recent Reports

 

Education for Life and Work:
Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century

 

Education_for_Life

Business and political leaders are increasingly asking schools to integrate development of skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, and collaboration into the teaching and learning of academic subjects.

 

The report Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century clarifies the meaning of the terms "21st century skills" and "deeper learning", examines evidence on links between these skills and positive adult outcomes, outlines teaching methods that support the development of transferable knowledge and skills, assess the degree to which current standards documents support deeper learning, and recommends future steps for policy and research.

 

Read moreReport Brief


 

Monitoring Progress Toward Successful STEM Education

 

Advancing Successful STEM Education coverMonitoring Progress Toward Successful K-12 STEM Education: A Nation Advancing? identifies 14 indicators linked to the recommendations from the 2011 NRC report Successful K-12 STEM Education. By providing a focused set of key indicators related to students’ access to quality learning, teaching, and policy and funding initiatives in STEM, the report identifies the data needed to monitor progress in K–12 STEM education and to make informed decisions about improving it.

 

Report BriefRead More

 

 

 
The National Academies