SBIR Phase I: Assessing Complex Learning Outcomes through Web-based Classroom Assessment Services

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This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop database information technology for constructivist teachers who are dissatisfied with the limitations of classroom testing for guiding reform. The Learning Partnership will provide Web-based classroom assessment services that measure a wide range of complex learning outcomes. Unlike EduTest.com, a test preparation program, The Learning Partnership's system will be optimized to diagnose student learning and provide direction for improvements in the learning process. The technical objectives for this project are as follows: 1. Adapt the discrete assessment approaches developed at the NASA Classroom of the Future for use with the Looking at the Environment curriculum, a one-year comprehensive inquiry-based high school science curriculum that is fully technology integrated that is being developed at Northwestern University in partnership with the Chicago schools.. 2. Create an assessment framework that integrates these discrete assessment approaches. The framework will track student performance at three levels: activity level, module level, and course level. 3. Develop database information technology that will support mass customization of assessment tasks, tracking of student performance, and reporting of results. These services will address a growing demand for online assessment materials. If science education reform in the U.S. is to succeed, new approaches to assessment are critical. On the one hand, assessment is essential provide school administrators with empirical evidence of student learning for accountability purposes; on the other hand, it is also essential to provide teachers with the depth of information needed to guide their practices. The Learning Partnership proposes to address this problem by providing classroom assessment services that bring together multiple forms of assessment for tracking student progress from the activity level to the high-stakes testing level.