WELCOME!

As Vermont educators work toward meeting the challenges of the School Quality Standards in Act 68 (formerly Act 60), open communication is critical. The School Quality Standards state:

 

Vermont schools will have fully implemented a local comprehensive assessment system by which students are assessed in those Framework or comparable standards associated with the Fields of Knowledge and Vital Results and those standards associated with the arts, health and safety education, physical education, foreign languages and applied learning.

What are GEs ?

 

Vermont's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities provides the foundation for Local Com- prehensive Assessment Systems. The creation of GEs will provide more explicit guidance. GEs will:

 

· provide a valuable resource for teachers and schools as they implement the Vermont Framework

 

· relate directly to the Vermont Standards and associated evidences

 

· differentiate performance on content knowledge or skills between adjacent grade clusters

 

· lead to focused, coherent and developmentally appropriate instruction without narrowing the curriculum

 

The purposes of the Vermont Framework will not change with the development of GEs.

Why two-grade clusters?

 

The GCEs specify two-grade cluster skills and content (PreK-K, 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, and high school). Two-grade clusters will:

 

· provide more flexibility in creating local curriculum

 

· allow for a broader time span in which developmental changes can be addressed

 

· take into account local opportunities to learn

How were the GEs developed?

 

Grade Expectation development in Vermont involved many educators in order to get the best thinking for this important effort. This required work of teachers, content experts, curriculum coordinators, and administrators. Using background research in national, state, and local documents, committees of teachers came together to discuss and debate what was essential for Vermont's students to know and be able to do. These essential skills and concepts became the GEs, which were then reviewed by hundreds of teachers around the state during the field review process.

What are assessment items?

 

An assessment item could include performance, a product, a response to a prompt, a reflection, or a portfolio of work over tim e – a way of documenting what a student knows and is able to do.

 

Ideally, taken as a group, assessment items should:

 

· focus on depth of understanding by identifying key knowledge and skills that progress developmentally

 

· provide clear guidance to classroom teachers on content and skills that can be adequately assessed

 

· assess what i s essential for our learners right no w an d what will be essential for our students 5, 10, or 20

years from now

 

· be designed to help the learner revise his or her performance independently

 

· Assessments will be available at: www.vermontinstitutes.org/assessment/index.htm

How do GEs fit into the curriculum?

 

The GEs are designed to work in conjunction with local decisions to help develop assessments and curricula, as represented by the following formula:

 

Content + Assessment (GEs) + Learning Opportunity + Teaching Opportunity = Curriculum

Vermont Technology Grade Cluster Expectations Overview

 

Essential Conditions

 

To live, learn, and work successfully in an increasingly complex and information-rich society, students must be able to use technology effectively. Within an effective educational setting, technology can enable students to become:

 

· Capable information technology users

 

· Information seekers, analyzers, and evaluators

 

· Problem solvers and decision makers

 

· Creative and effective users of productivity tools

 

· Communicators, collaborators, publishers, and producers

 

· Informed, responsible, and contributing citizens

 

A combination of essential conditions are required to create learning environments conducive to powerful uses of technology, including:

 

· Vision with support and proactive leadership from the education system

 

· Educators skilled in the use of technology for learning

 

· Content standards and curriculum resources

 

· Student - centered approaches to learning

 

· Assessment of the effectiveness of technology for learning

 

· Access to contemporary technologies, software, and telecommunications networks

 

· Technical assistance for maintaining and using technology resources

 

· Ongoing financial support for sustained technology use

 

· Policies and standards supporting new learning environments

These new learning environments provide rich opportunities for students to find and utilize current information and resources, and apply academic skills for solving real-world problems. These environments engage students in activities that have educational technology skills and relevant curricular content interwoven.

From ISTE NETS-S, Essential Conditions http://cnets.iste.org/students/s_stands.html

 
NEWS
 
 
 

Introduction

Since the late 1980's, Vermont has invested millions of dollars in acquiring computer and telecommunications technology in its schools and hundreds of thousands of dollars in professional development in the integration of information technology for its teachers. These investments are a result of the State's beliefs that all students in Vermont should know how and when to use information technology to improve and extend their learning as supported in the Vermont Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities. Information technology skills, concepts and applications are listed as one of the “vital results” expected of our Vermont students. Therefore, the Vermont Department of Education believes that all Vermont students should graduate from high school with a level of technology literacy that enables them to use technology effectively, productively, and ethically throughout their lives. These standards support national goals from the U.S. Department of Education under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and previously through Technology Literacy Challenge Grant Funds supported by Goals 2000 legislation. “All students will be technologically literate by the end of grade eight” is now part of this legislation. With this commitment to technology infusion, it is essential that we know whether or not Vermont students are prepared to enter the workforce with the technological skills and knowledge they will need to succeed.

 

To move Vermont schools forward in evaluating and assessing information technology literacy, this document presents a framework for assessing the skills, concepts, and applications of information technology for students in grades three through twelve. It is based on the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Vermont Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities . The document provides teachers and administrators with specific guidelines to assess student performance in meeting information technology standards by grade cluster. It employs a matrix format to illustrate how skill and knowledge areas are matched by grade clusters to Vermont and National standards.

 

This document provides a basic framework that schools/districts can use to assess students' abilities to use information technology tools to improve their own performance. There are components of this document that the developers believe should not be changed but rather remain constant. These would include the standards themselves, the specific skills and knowledge developed within each standard, the matching of skills and knowledge to grade clusters as shown in the matrix.

 

It should be noted that the skills and concepts covered in this document represent the basic, minimal standards. This document outlines the minimum skill level for each and every student in your school/district. They represent only a basic level of expectation. Most teachers will, and should, integrate information technology well beyond the minimum standards outlined in this document.

 

For a document to be effective, it must be dynamic and ever changing. As information technologies evolve and new opportunities become available, so too will this document reflect the latest developments and trends in the field. Remember, there is nothing as constant as change.

 

Scaffolding

 

Teachers will be expected to provide a variety of specific technology experiences for students prior to assessing them . Ideally, each teacher in each grade will build upon the previous year's work even when they are not directly responsible for assessing student skills in that area. Instruction must be intentionally built into their curriculum. Otherwise, the job of teaching a particular (set of) skill(s) is left to the grade level teachers who also must perform the assessment. With this in mind, it is our hope to follow this document with another called A Guide to Information Technology Instruction. This document will provide a guide to school districts that shows where specific information technology skills might be taught and reinforced prior to being assessed

Content Based Software

 

The expectations described in this document, in general, do not address the use of content specific software. Drill and practice software for literacy, geometry software for math, and social studies simulations are all examples of software that are not directly included. However, teachers are encouraged to make these types of application software available to their students to enrich and extend their learning experiences and to pro- vide new learning opportunities when appropriate.

 

Information Technology Integrated into Content Areas

 

The Grade Expectations described in this document should be integrated into content area lessons appropriate to each grade cluster. In most cases, they are not intended to be taught as independent information technology learning skills . Therefore, teachers working with their principals and/or district curriculum coordinators must decide where they will be integrated into appropriate content areas and units/lessons . It is imperative that the use of information technologies become an integral part of a larger task or activity that is helping the students meet additional field of knowledge or vital result standards.

 

Educators from around the state, with the help of The Vermont Institutes, developed Vermont Technology Grade Cluster Expectations as a means to identify the technology content knowledge and skills expected of all students for local assessment required under Act 68. This work was accomplished using the Vermont's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities, Vermont curricula, the National Educational Technology Standards, state standard documents, and current research as resources. The GEs were reviewed by technology educators from around the state. The data from field review was collected, reviewed, and used to revise the GEs. They were then sent out for Expert Review and revised one final time.

 

Technology GEs are not intended to represent the full curriculum for instruction at each grade cluster; they are meant to capture the “big ideas” of technology that can be assessed locally. In other words, the Technology GEs are a guide to assessment and should not “narrow” the curriculum for instructional purposes.

 

The Technology GEs include concepts and skills not easily assessed in an on-demand setting. Many technology processes are ongoing throughout the school year and are best assessed within the classroom.

Copyright 2005 Vermont Educator Network