This brand-new manual is focused to prepare tenth-grade students in Florida to excel on the state-administered reading and writing test. The book opens with an overview of the reading test, followed by test-taking advice and detailed explanation of standards by which students’ tests are scored. A following chapter focuses on each of the standards, providing practice exercises in vocabulary, the several aspects of reading comprehension, and knowledge of literary elements. Two complete FCAT Reading Practice Tests are presented with answers to all questions and perforated answer sheets for students to fill out. A five-chapter unit follows with detailed instruction on the elements of essay writing and sample essays. The book’s concluding section offers guidance for teachers and parents in helping to prepare students for both the reading and writing sections.

Your guide to a higher score on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test? Why CliffsTestPrep Guides? Go with the name you know and trust Get the information you need--fast! Written by test prep specialists About the contents: This book is two study guides in one. With a detailed description of the exam plus 5 practice reading tests and 5 practice math tests, it's the practical way to prepare for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, which you must pass as a requirement for graduation. The Reading Test * Overview with the types of questions and how to answer them * Test-taking strategies * 5 practice reading tests with answers and explanations The Math Test * Overview with the types of questions and how to answer them * Test-taking strategies * 5 practice math tests with answers and explanations Test Prep Essentials from the Experts at CliffsNotes? More than Notes! CliffsAP? CliffsComplete? CliffsQuickReview? CliffsTestPrep? CliffsStudySolver

"A tool box overflowing with ideas that will help every staff developer craft a school culture hospitable to adult and student learning." —Roland S. Barth, Author, Lessons Learned "The book speaks to many audiences, including instructional coaches, PLC leaders, action researchers and group leaders, and university professors working with action researchers and PLCs." —Gail Ritchie, Coleader, Teacher Researcher Network Fairfax County Public Schools, VA "A terrific resource for connecting teacher networks and action research to create powerful professional development opportunities. This book is a joy to read." —Ellen Meyers, Senior Vice President Teachers Network Powerful tools for facilitating teachers′ professional development and optimizing school improvement efforts! Professional learning communities (PLCs) and action research are popular and proven frameworks for professional development. While both can greatly improve teaching and learning, few resources have combined the two practices into one coherent approach. The Reflective Educator′s Guide to Professional Development provides educators with strategies, activities, and tools to develop inquiry-oriented PLCs. Nationally known school reform experts Nancy Fichtman Dana and Diane Yendol-Hoppey cover the ten essential elements of a healthy PLC, provide case studies of actual inquiry-based PLCs, and present lessons learned to help good coaches become great coaches. With this step-by-step guide, readers will be able to: Organize, assess, and maintain high-functioning, inquiry-oriented PLCs Facilitate the development of study questions Establish the trust and collective commitment necessary for successful action research Enable PLC members to develop, analyze, and share research results Lead successful renewal and reform efforts By combining two powerful training practices, coaches, workshop leaders, and staff developers can ensure continuous, robust school-based professional development.

This latest volume in the World Yearbook of Education series examines the relationship between assessment systems and efforts to advance equity in education at a time of growing inequalities. It focuses on the political motives behind the expansion of an assessment industry, the associated expansion of an SEN industry and a growth in consequential accountability systems. Split into three key sections, the first part is concerned with the assessment industry, and considers the purpose and function of assessment in policy and politics and the political context in which particular assessment practices have emerged. Part II of the book, on assessing deviance, explores those assessment and identification practices that seek to classify different categories of learners, including children with Limited English Proficiency, with special needs and disabilities and with behavioural problems. The final part of the book considers the consequences of assessment and the possibility of fairer and more equitable alternatives, examining the production of inequalities within assessment in relation to race, class, gender and disability. Discussing in detail the complex historical intersections of assessment and educational equity with particular attention to the implications for marginalised populations of students and their families, this volume seeks to provide reframings and reconceptualisations of assessment and identification by offering new insights into economic and cultural trends influencing them. Co-edited by two internationally renowned scholars, Julie Allan and Alfredo J. Artiles, World Yearbook of Education 2017 will be a valuable resource for researchers, graduates and policy makers who are interested in the economic trends of global education assessment.

Measuring History complements the cases presented in Wise Social Studies Practices (Yeager & Davis, 2005). Yeager and Davis highlight the rich and ambitious teaching that can occur in the broad context of state-level testing. In this book, the chapter authors and I bring the particular state history tests more to the fore and examine how teachers are responding to them. At the heart of Measuring History are cases of classroom teachers in seven states (Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia) where new social studies standards and new, and generally high-stakes, state-level history tests are prominent. In these chapters, the authors describe and analyze the state’s testing efforts and how those efforts are being interpreted in the context of classroom practice. The results both support and challenge prevailing views on the efficacy of testing as a vehicle for educational reform. Catherine Horn (University of Houston) and I lay the groundwork for the case studies through a set of introductory chapters that examine the current environment, the research literature, and the technical qualities of history tests.