Tennessee has now become part of the Diploma Project Network.  This means our state standards have been readjusted to a higher level, and our TCAP achievement test in grades 3-8 has been aligned with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).  Yes, if you have ever done a research project in education coursework, you might be familiar with NAEP statistics.

If you work for MCS and have not seen the MediaSite interview with John Barker that details these changes–the basic whys and hows–it’s probably a good idea to view it.  If you’re on a Mac, you’ll have to download Microsoft Silverlight to view it, but there is a button to do this on the MediaSite viewer.

So, what does this mean?  We will see a more rigorous and different test in the spring.  Ah, breathe it in.  Doesn’t change smell fresh, like laundry out of the dryer?  Also, it sort of smells like EVERYONE PANIC!  *cough*  Actually, there’s all sorts of great online resources to help us all make this transition meaningful and productive.  So, no need for panicking.  Huzzah!

First of all, this is the main deal right here.  NAEP Questions Tool v3.0 This is from the National Center for Educational Statistics, so you know they aren’t dinking around.  Over 2,000 questions are available here for the public, to be used in a multitude of ways.  Supplement classroom instruction or use the questions to learn the ways of the test yourself.  Show them to your students and parents.  The possibilities are great.

Want some more hands-on resources for the classroom?  NCES has the Kid’s Zone.  At its core, it is more of an informative site, but they have also included some useful tools.

Tools:  Provides searches for schools, libraries, and colleges.

Create a Graph:  An online graph-maker for kids (or teachers).

Dare to Compare:  A nifty test that has a clean interface with good graphics.  Also, it lets kids see how they compare to peers on a national level.

Grab Bag:  This page links to a variety of activities including quizzes, math teasers, word searches, data, and multimedia.

Chances:  This dice game shows students about probability and statistics by illustrating how increasing or decreasing the number of dice rolls affects an outcome.

As you can see, we have changes upon us, but we are not lacking in resources to help make the transition successful.