Inspiration Lab MN student testing faces big cuts after lawmakers slash budget Listen Story audio Minnesota students will see big changes in the number of statewide exams they take next school year after the Legislature chopped Minnesota's testing budget in half during the special session. Lawmakers repealed several required high school tests and stopped paying for all juniors to take the ACT college entrance exam, something they had ordered in 2013. Two weeks after lawmakers finished their work, the Minnesota Department of Education is still combing through the education bill to see how the changes ordered by the Legislature will affect statewide assessments. The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment GRAD tests in writing, reading and math will end. Gone as well are the Explore, Plan and Compass ACT tests, exams that helped students plan for college or a career. The MCA tests that students take every year in grades three through eight, and in 10th and 11th grades, will remain in place. • Related: Minn. students excel on ACT, but students of color still behind Rep.
Presentation Zen IDEAS - International Development Evaluation Association - Home The International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS) was inaugurated in September 2002 to help fill a gap in the international evaluation architecture. IDEAS' mission is 'to advance and extend the practice of development evaluation by refining methods, strengthening capacity and expanding ownership', with a particular focus on developing and transitional economies. IDEAS focuses on three major themes: Enhancing Conceptual Thinking in Development Evaluation Governance and Accountability for Development Strengthening Development Evaluation Practice IDEAS' strategy aims to promote and advance evaluation as a key tool for development effectiveness, transparency and accountability in policy-making, social and organisational learning.
Excel Tutorials | Ann K Emery Walk through the analytical process one technique at a time. Newest Tutorials Import and Merge Datasets Learn how to import, export, and merge datasets in Excel by using features such as text to columns, vlookup, and hlookup. Organize Your Spreadsheets When you’re staring at a spreadsheet for hours on end, a little organization can go a long way. Clean Data and Recode Variables Before you can analyze your data, you’ll need to check for missing data and recode some variables. Explore Your Dataset Use exploratory data visualization techniques like color-coding and sparklines find initial patterns. Calculate Summary Statistics (with Formulas) Summarize your data by finding the mean, median, standard deviation, and other descriptive statistics. Calculate Summary Statistics (with Pivot Tables) Pivot tables are the fastest, most accurate way to analyze your data — and they’re easier than you think. Putting It All Together Learn intermediate and advanced spreadsheet skills. Extra Time-Saving Techniques
TimeCult Overstretched school counselors would get state relief under new plan Listen Story audio Rosemount High School counselor Chad Terry helps students plan for college, work through emotional crises and pass their classes. Nearly 500 students depend on him. That's more than 100 students higher than the national average for secondary school counselors. Terry said he's overstretched and can't give students all the support they need. A proposal to fund grants for new support staff cleared its first legislative hurdle Thursday. Districts would match state funding for the first four years. Terry told a state Senate education committee the grants could help "close achievement gaps, educate and train students for jobs that are open now and in the future, and continue to work through the complications of an evolving mental health epidemic in our youth." Minnesota has one of the nation's worst student-to-counselor ratios. • More: Money for student counseling takes a back seat The Woodbury Democrat said her plan is designed as a short-term incentive.
Practical Assessment Research & Evaluation Content Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation publishes the following types of papers Overviews serve as an introduction to a topic. Its audience is individuals, whether professional or general, who wish to acquire introductory information on the topic treated in the paper. Methods plainly speaking demonstrate how to apply a technique. Two key questions in the review will be whether the results generalize and whether the results are likely to alter someone's practice. Professional Standards Manuscripts submitted to Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation should adhere to The authorship standards outlined in the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals. The Uniform Requirements addresses criteria for authorship, acknowledgments, redundant publication, competing manuscripts, and conflict of interest. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (4th ed.) Technical specifications Reference and additional reading
Réseau Francophone de l'Evaluation Each Little Spark | I am a writer who hasn't yet figured out exactly what I want to say. This is my practice space. aea365 Content Curation My name is Susan Kistler and I am the American Evaluation Association’s Executive Director. This is the last in a short aea365 series on content curation. Thursday focused on how evaluators (researchers, professionals, students, others) can use content curation. Yesterday, I took a look at four content curation tools: BagTheWeb, Connotea, pearltrees, and Scoop.it. Today, I’m hoping that others might be interested in expanding on this project. Hot Tip: Want to get involved? Tool reviewers: If you want to review a specific tool, you’d need to set up an account for a tool, use the list of links that may be found here to gain an understanding of how the tools works and so that we’re all comparing similar uses, and then write up a review for aea365 and add to the chart above.Curators: If you want to help curate for evaluation and applied research, I’m in search of people who want to keep an eye on specific outposts, discussions, etc. and add to the curation.
Student support gets boost in Minnesota's supplemental budget School districts will have an opportunity to hire more social workers, counselors and other student support staff with a $12.1 million grant program included in the Legislature's end-of-session spending plan. Sen. Susan Kent, DFL-Woodbury, has pushed for the funding for several years. Last year's $95 million proposal didn't make it into the final budget. This year, she scaled back the request to $13.1 million, but the Republican-controlled House countered with a proposal to study the idea without dedicating money. "The House had a much smaller target than the Senate did for education, and the fact that, I think, in the process of compromise that ours is pretty close to intact — I think it sends an important signal about how much this is valued," Kent said. Education experts say support staff can be critical to keeping students at risk of dropping out of school on track for graduation. • Related: Without support, Minnesota students left behind at graduation Sen.
EvalPartners - Home | MY M&E On 31st January EvalPartners Equity Focused and Gender Responsive (EFGR) Task Force hosted a WEBINAR on Enabling Gender Responsive and Equity Focused evaluation (EFGR), as part of the EvalPartners initiative. The webinar was Facilitated by Professor Donna M. Mertens. This was the second webinar organized by the Task Force with particular responsibility for promoting EFGR evaluation. During the webinar Donna Mertens addressed enabling factors that are relevant to sustaining and encouraging a gender responsive/equity focused orientation for evaluative practice, with specific attention given to the issues of stakeholders’ involvement. The presentation was followed by a discussion where online participants had the opportunity to raise questions and make their interventions via online chat facility. Donna M.