The primary use of technology as it applies to assessment in my classes is in documenting pre-assessment and post- assessment data generated through writing assignments. This data falls into two categories: The tracking of special education performance, and establishing student portfolios.  In the first, I work with the special education teacher on my team to track the progress of special education students. This is done by recording test and writing scores, indicating the accommodations in content or assessment that are being made for each individual assignment, and evaluating whether the accommodations have been appropriate. In these cases, all the writing being assessed is created on the computer, and saved in an individual student file created for that assessment. All relative rubrics appear after the assignments, and are identified as content or assessment related. Ultimately, scores are transferred to an Excel program, (See Appendix O) and a graph created that charts the progress of the students throughout the year.

            This information has been very useful regarding special needs students, in that, as Salvia, Ysseldyke, and Bolt (2007) confirm, “It is critical that the assessment practices used for gathering information on individual students provide accurate information” and “Too often…educators make assumptions that certain students should be excluded because ‘we already know how they would perform’ or because ‘the students should not be subjected to the pain of participation” (p.160).  Mastropieri and Scruggs (2007) echo this by stating “although students…have been given a disability ‘label’ it is important to consider the individual first, and then consider the label as a secondary factor…to help identify the unique aspects of the individual” (p.7). In part because of the storage, analysis, and evaluation of the gathered information, the latter sentiment has been successfully applied in my school.

            This also provided the impetus for the completion of an assignment for Dr. Delar Singh’s EDU 610 “Assessment in Special Education” course, in which I delivered a WIATT-II evaluation (See Appendices D and E) for one of the students in my classes. In completing the corresponding assessment, I used the technology available to aid in recommendations for her placement in the following year.

            In the second, larger category, school computers are used for all major writing assignments, and students create electronic portfolios by storing all of their assignments in personal folders. Recently, virtual tours and “blogging” have been added to the curriculum (See Appendix I). Rubrics for assignments are available on my class website, and any writing assignment is regarded as a pre-assessment in its first appearance in the assignment folder and post-assessment at the deadline date. In this way students edit and revise until the due date, using the rubric to increase their score on the final product, while incorporating feedback from peers and myself.

            As significantly, students can “research” their paper topics on the Internet, expanding the amount of knowledge to which they are exposed, as well as giving them a larger data-base with which to create a better researched final product. (See Appendices B, C, and M). This expansion of research also provides me with additional areas in which to direct instruction. As Roblyer (2006) points out: “Students use the Internet to search for materials and information to support their research and production work. Although search engines have become easier and more productive to use for this purpose, students still need help in applying [skills]” (p.220). As the paper expands, the assessment does as well; incorporating the use of the technology becomes an element to earn points.

When speaking of portfolios, Constantino and De Lorenzo (2006) make the following statement about teachers, one which is just as applicable to students: “Portfolios can be tools for empowerment. They encourage teachers to assume more responsibility and ownership for their own learning” (p.5). A body of work gives a better representation of a student’s growth, and makes assessment have greater validity over time.

            As in many schools, my students’ grades are recorded electronically, and as of this year, with the adoption of the grading program Edline, parents will have direct access to these assessments. I believe that increased participation on the part of the parents will be a positive, and that providing access to more information about assessments will aid in telling the true story of a student’s performance in my class.

            In instances where there has been a problem with a student’s progress, the teachers in my school have the ability to view side-by-side performance in multiple disciplines. This has already been of benefit in a situation where we were unaware that a death had occurred in a family, but the side-by-side evaluation of a student’s grades identified a specific time period in which grades began to fall in all classes. Contacting the parents, who had not felt that contact with us was necessary, revealed that the grade-drop corresponded with the time of loss, and helped the parents in assisting us in providing proper emotional, as well as educational, support.

            Finally, as part of the new curriculum, the Language Arts department is instituting a program in which students work with their families, faculty, and community leaders to pick a humanitarian project that they will support and explain as their culminating project for the year. Examples of appropriate projects would be specific charities, community groups, and environmental agencies. To create a connection to the entire school year, students are using their portfolios to store “Issues of Interest” now, and are working together using elements of the Authoring Cycle, (referred to in Narrative Strand III, See Appendix K) to brainstorm ways in which they can generate interest in their respective projects. Additionally, parents, community leaders, and agency representatives have been contacted and asked to provide information electronically that can be added to the virtual “Issue Library” that will be available to all the students online.

            This project is very much in its initial phase, but already it has generated excitement among the students, and perhaps, more significantly, has led to many offers from parents to come into the eighth grade classes and give presentations on issues important to them. Prior to the experience gained in the MS in Educational Technology program, I would have attempted to reduce my participation to those areas that required little or no technological expertise. The situation now is quite the opposite; I am the team leader for the project, and have found that the initial ideas submitted as potential topics have been greatly expanded through the use of technology by the faculty, the students, and the community. I hope to be able to add some of the results of the project to this website in the spring.

            With the increased interest by the students and the community, and the ease with which the technology has been incorporated into this, and many other aspects of the new curriculum has come an increase in the use of technology by my peers. Issues dealt with in my paper “The Effects of Computer Use on Middle School Faculty” (See Appendix N ; a further discussion of this paper appears in Narrative Strand V) have clearly decreased. As pointed out by Roblyer (2006), “Educators will use new methods if they can see clearly compelling reasons to do so” (p.13). Clearly the teachers in my school are realizing that what Roblyer says is true:

 Gone are the days – if, indeed they ever existed – when a teacher could rely on the same handouts, homework, or lectures from year to year. [They] may not be able to predict the future of educational technology, but they know that it will be different from the present; that is, they must anticipate and accept the inevitability of change and the need for a continual investment of their time (p.12).

            Clearly one area in which technology will continue to make its presence known will be in the area of assessment, and in the variety of methods it provides to pinpoint areas of need in the classroom. As important, technology will continue to expand the parameters of any lesson, offering a variety of ways to include multiple assessments, and involving the community and other faculty members positively in ways that greatly increase the understanding of the teaching and learning process.