Student Learning Assessment

Standing at the bedside with no idea what you're actually assessing. Your patient says their chest hurts. You know you need to assess them, but where do you start? Heart sounds? Lung sounds? You're supposed to inspect, palpate, percuss, and auscultate — but you can't remember the order or what you're even listening for.

Turn nursing assessments from overwhelming to "oh, that's easy!" with a guide that finally makes sense of all those steps and signs. Are you drowning in assessment checklists and wondering how experienced nurses make it look so effortless? In "Nursing Assessment Made Easy," Callie Parker breaks down complex assessments into clear, memorable steps that you'll actually remember when you need them. Whether you're a nursing student, new grad, or experienced nurse wanting a quick reference, this guide transforms confusing procedures into "why didn't someone explain it like this before?" moments.

In this 2nd edition of Focus: Elevating the Essentials to Radically Improve Student Learning, Mike Schmoker extends and updates the case that our schools could be on the cusp of swift, unparalleled improvements. But we are stymied by a systemwide failure to simplify and prioritize; we have yet to focus our limited time and energy on the most essential, widely acknowledged, evidence-based practices that could have more impact than all other initiatives combined.

The Learning Progression Model (LPM) offers a flexible and effective framework focusing on improvement over time, emphasizes learning as a process rather than an endpoint, encourages academic risk-taking, and fosters positive student-teacher relationships. This model defines outcomes based on a limited number of skills, provides ample opportunities for formative assessment, and allows multiple attempts without penalty. The LPM also removes nonacademic factors from grading and uses descriptive scoring to decrease attempts to quantify performances.

Standards are the foundation of our educational systems today. Fairness, rigor, and high achievement for all students are the focus of standards-based schools. Yet the standards movement means nothing if it does not improve student achievement in the classroom. In this revised edition, Dr. Reeves provides step-by-step guidance on how to design and implement standards-based performance assessment to make improved teaching and learning a reality in the classroom.

This audio reference book provides clear answers to commonly asked questions about the most pressing issues in education today. Standards and standardized tests, writing and student achievement, accountability systems, interventions for under-performing students, standards and the arts, motivation, leadership issues, plus many more topics are addressed in this handbook for educators.

In the three years since the publication of the first volume of 101 Questions & Answers about Standards, Assessment, and Accountability, Dr. Reeves and the Center for Performance Assessment have continued to receive and respond to real-world questions from teachers, school leaders, parents, students, and educational researchers.