Education Commons^™

Grading For Growth: Using Sliding Scale Rubrics To Motivate Struggling Learners, Dina Mahmood, Hugo Jacobo

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

In an effort to adopt more equitable and humanizing grading practices, this teacher inquiry explores how educators attempted to improve students’ views of learning and assessments by utilizing rubrics on a sliding scale. Using the sliding scale rubric approach to grading provided an opportunity for students and educators to rethink how learning is evaluated. The authors found that the logistics of using sliding scale rubrics as a grading tool does need to be refined and further evaluated; however, the belief that a student can receive a grade based on her or his individual starting point did have some positive implications …

Understanding Equitable Assessment: How Preservice Teachers Make Meaning Of Disability, Melissa K. Driver

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Disproportionality of historically marginalized populations in special education continues to be a critical concern. The identification of students with disabilities is reliant on valid and reliable assessment that is free of bias. The extent to which this is possible given measurement constraints and an increasingly diverse student population is unclear. How teachers are trained to design, select, administer, score, and interpret assessment data related to the identification of students with disabilities is vastly under-researched considering the significant implications of assessment practices. In this study, six special education preservice teachers engaged in an assessment methods course during their second semester of …

Professional Transition Porfolio, Ali Gunn

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

During my career in junior high, I have been able to provide many transition assessments. This is the first introduction to transition planning for my students and their families, and I enjoy being able to discuss with them their hopes and dreams for the future, and help parents realize the strengths and skills their child has, based on these assessments, which will benefit them in their future goals. I have been able to use transition assessments not only to make appropriate transition plans, but also to set up work experiences that meet my students’ strengths and preferences.

I have provided …

The Overrepresentation Of African American Students In Special Education, Kelsey Kihle

Culminating Projects in Special Education

The purpose of this paper was to review the literature and research that examines the overrepresentation of African American students enrolled in special education programs and give reasons as to why this overrepresentation continues to occur.

Assessment In Special Education Teacher Preparation: An Examination Of Practices, Michelle Simmons, Laurie A. Sharp

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

There have been significant changes in special education and assessment over the past four decades. These changes have affected how university-based educator preparation programs train preservice special educators to address assessment in their professional practices to ensure that they enter classrooms with specialized assessment expertise and practice aligned with the Council for Exceptional Children’s preparation standards. This study identified specific preparation practices that special education teacher educators use with their candidates to develop understandings of assessment. Qualitative data were analyzed using a dual-level systematic coding scheme; findings revealed strengths in teacher training and highlighted opportunities for growth. Implications for special …