General Interest

The U.S. Department of Education hosts an especially comprehensive website, providing visitors with a considerable array of instructional and assessment resources. To illustrate, the site contains a lengthy list of topics such as testing, accountability, and instructional materials. By consulting this list, a site visitor can obtain leads to a variety of instructional materials, many of which are free because they have been created under federal auspices. The website contains a quick-search and full-search capability so that a visitor may obtain leads to many resources regarding instruction-related or assessment-related topics. www.ed.gov

The No Child Left Behind website of the U.S. Department of Education provides a clear description of the basics of the NCLB Act, signed into law by President Bush on January 8, 2002. The website contains a wealth of information that parents of school-age children will find useful. A continually updated news center offers users of the site a range of NCLB-related information emanating from the office of the Secretary of Education. www.nclb.gov

The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), established in 1943, is an international organization representing 160,000 educators from more than 135 nations. Its website contains an excellent search-capability focusing on ASCD-distributed products and services. For example, a search for “parent education” currently yields almost 6,000 results, the top 500 of which are sorted by relevance. A search for “assessment” produces the top 500 results from more than 2,300 entries. ASCD’s considerably array of conferences and training sessions are described on this comprehensive website. www.ascd.org

The National School Boards Association (NSBA), founded in 1940, is a not-for-profit federation of school boards across the U.S. NSBA represents 95,000 school board members who govern nearly 15,000 local school districts serving almost 50 million public school students. Intended to assist those who deal with public school issues, this website contains a search-capability that can isolate substantial numbers of resources related to such topics as assessment, instruction, and parent education. www.nsba.org

National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP), created in 1921, has a membership of nearly 30,000 elementary principals worldwide. This website, when searched for NAESP materials, contains nearly 200 assessment-related resources, more than 300 curriculum-related resources, over 300 instruction-related resources, and almost 450 parent education resources. www.naesp.org

National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) was established in 1916. The mission of NASSP is to foster excellence in the professional efforts of middle and high school principals as well as assistant principals. A search of this website’s resources revealed relatively few dealing with parent education, but a substantial number related to educational assessment. www.nassp.org

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), founded in 1926, has a membership of more than 100,000—most of whom are early childhood educators. The association’s website contains a rich array of resources dealing with the education of young children, for example, NAEYC position statements dealing with guidelines for appropriate curriculum and assessment of children, ages 3 through 8. Many books and brochures prepared especially for parents are described on this website. www.naeyc.org

National Middle School Association (NMSA), established in 1973, has a membership of more than 30,000. NMSA members are focused exclusively on the growth of middle level education. This website contains a large collection of links to informational sources relevant to middle school issues, for example, a substantial collection of K-12 teacher resources. The website also contains a special collection of tips for parents of middle school youngsters. www.nmsa.org

Education Week on the Web is the online version of a widely read weekly publication devoted exclusively to educational concerns. Although this online publication deals with a full range of educationally relevant topics, more than a few of its reports focus on assessment, accountability, and evaluation. Because of the perceived “newsworthiness” of stories regarding educators who are coping with assessment-based pressures, frequent visitors to this site are often apt to encounter descriptions of such situations. www.edweek.org

The National Education Association (NEA), established in 1857, currently boasts 2.7 million members. A key mission of NEA is to restore “public confidence in public education.” A search engine is employed on this website to provide site visitors with a substantial set of resources. This website offers considerable collections of NEA and non-NEA resources that parents will find of use. Some, but not many of this websites offerings relate to educational assessment and accountability. www.nea.org

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) was established in 1916 as a trade union representing workers in education, health care, and public service. Its membership now exceeds one million nationwide. Because the AFT regards itself as an “ideas-driven union,” considerable attention is given on this website to an analysis of issues that currently represent a union priority. www.aft.org

The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) was founded in 1865 and is currently the professional home for more than 14,000 educational leaders. This website contains a search-capability as well as links to many types of sites, for example, associations, in the classroom, and just for fun. The latter “for fun” category includes a clearinghouse for last-minute travel and restaurant guides. A search for “assessment” information yields a substantial number of entries. www.aasa.org

Assessment Related

The Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation, and Educational Policy (CSTEEP), is located at Boston College. Since its founding in 1980, CSTEEP has conducted research dealing with assessment, evaluation, and testing-related policies, This website contains a substantial set of resources as well as links to related websites. www.csteep.bc.edu

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is a nationwide, nonprofit organization of public officials who lead K-12 education in the 50 states. This website is a rich resource for those who wish to monitor state-level assessment activities throughout the U.S. The website also contains a host of practical guidelines regarding how states can satisfy the accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. www.ccsso.org

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is an international scholarly association devoted to the field of educational research. A large organization, AERA’s members are divided into various divisions, Division D, for instance, is concerned with measurement and research methodology. The website contains recent newsletters of its divisions, including the most recent Division D electronic newsletter. www.aera.net

The National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) is headquartered at UCLA, but is jointly staffed by CRESST partners from a number of major universities and testing organizations. Funded by the U. S. Department of Education, the thrust of most CRESST projects over the years has been toward research on assessment and evaluation topics related to K-12 education. Ongoing CRESST projects are featured as well as a rich collection of CRESST-produced reports, newsletters, and policy briefs. www.cresst.org

The Consortium for Equity in Standards and Testing (CTEST),located at Boston College, is committed to promoting the more fair use of educational standards and assessments. Its members include such prominent equity-oriented organizations as the National Urban League and the National Council of La Raza. At this website, numerous reports, newspaper articles, and web links are provided—all of which are concerned with the promotion of assessment equity, especially among racial, ethnic, and linguistic minorities. www.csteep.bc.edu/ctest

The National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest) is an advocacy organization that works toward ending abuse, misuse, and defects of standardized testing, A goal of FairTest is to ensure that the evaluation of students is fair, open, and educationally sound, This website describes the full range of FairTest activities. One such activity is the Assessment Reform Network, an online discussion group whose participants are generally committed to FairTest’s goals. The site also lists information about K-12 testing in the U.S. and publications that are available from this organization. www.fairtest.org

Achieve, Inc. is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1996 by governors and corporate CEOs who were committed to the view that high-level content standards, rigorous tests to assess those standards, and performance-based accountability could promote excellence in the nation’s schools. Links to federal agencies, state agencies, educational organizations, and other resources are available. www.achieve.org

The Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL) is a private, non-profit organization located in Aurora, Colorado. Established in 1966, this regional laboratory has taken a major leadership role in the analysis of how educators can most effectively employ content and performance standards. This website lists a variety of McREL publications, often authored or co-authored by Robert J. Marzano, dealing with standards-relevant topics. A searchable database regarding standards and benchmarks is also available. www.mcrel.org

The ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation (ERIC/AE), located at the University of Maryland, is operated by the U.S. Department of Education. The mission of ERIC/AE is to (1) provide balanced information regarding educational assessment, (2) offer resources to encourage responsible test use, and (3) promote the best resources within the scope of the clearinghouse. At one time, this clearinghouse catered chiefly to the concerns of psychometric researchers. In recent years, however, its activities have shifted decisively toward the needs of educational practitioners. Visitors to this site can find answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs), gain access to a substantial library of resources about assessment, and locate links to a wide range of assessment-related websites. www.ericae.net

WestEd was established in 1995 by the consolidation of two western regional educational laboratories. WestEd is a nonprofit agency specializing in educational research, development, and service. One of this agency’s chief activities deals with assessment, standards, and accountability. The website contains a substantial number of assessment-related resources. For example, it lists Improving Classroom Assessment: A Toolkit for Professional Developers. The toolkit contains numerous staff-development activities related to assessment as well as many samples of both selected-response and constructed-response assessments. The site also has its own search engine that can be used to locate desired materials. www.wested.org

The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (NWREL) is one of the nation’s federally funded regional laboratories. Over the years, NWREL has devoted special attention to projects associated with educational assessment and evaluation. This site identifies a wide variety of educationally relevant content, but provides a formidable description of the laboratory’s assessment and evaluation program. That program features numerous strategies for evaluating students’ responses to constructed-response tasks, an assessment resource library, and a “Library in the Sky” featuring thousands of links to educational resources on the internet. A focused search capability is also provided. www.nwrel.org

Performance Assessment Links in Science (PALS ) is an online resource bank of K-12 performance assessment tasks indexed according to the National Science Education Standards. PALS, developed by SRI International, contains tasks, directions for students, administrative procedures, rubrics, and examples of student work. Rater-training materials are available. Many of the materials and procedures identified on this website are applicable to subject areas other than science. www.pals.sri.com

The Buros Institute of Mental Measurements, now located at the University of Nebraska, has for more than 65 years provided assistance to those using commercially published tests. The Institute’s Tests in Print serves as a comprehensive bibliography for all known commercially published tests. The Buros Institute’s Mental Measurements Yearbook, the cornerstone of the agency’s publishing activities, contains timely and consumer-oriented test reviews. More than a dozen of these periodically revised yearbooks have now been published. This website contains on-line test reviews as well as links to myriad assessment-related sites. www.unl.edu/buros

Alfie Kohn is an outspoken critic of the way that standardized tests are being currently misused and, as consequence, how the pressures to raise students’ scores on threes tests are degrading education. A frequent lecturer on this topic, Kohn has created a website containing a host of references and resources that can be used to oppose the misuse of high-stakes tests. The site is replete with leads and links to the writings of those who share Kohn’s views regarding the negative impact that America’s preoccupation with test scores is having. www.AlfieKohn.org

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) is the world’s largest private educational organization. Its website contains a wide range of content related to assessment. Many visitors to the ETS site will be interested in its description of the College Board SAT Program because of the SAT’s widespread use as a college admission examination. The ETS website contains a substantial amount of information dealing with how one can prepare for the SAT. Site visitors will find it interesting to see how a major publisher of educational aptitude tests deals with the issue of test preparation for its own examinations. The site also contains descriptions of ten major testing programs offered by ETS. www.ets.org

The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) is an independent, bipartisan group established by the U.S. Congress in 1988 to set policy for, and oversee the activities of, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), frequently referred to as “The Nation’s Report Card.” This website, as would be expected, provides considerable information about current and past NAEP endeavors. The website contains a modest set of links to other sites, mostly governmental, but is dominantly focused on NAGB policies and NAEP activities. Because more widespread administration of NAEP is now required by the NCLB Act, substantially increased use of this website is likely. www.nagb.org

Parent Education/Involvement

The Learning Community (TLC) is a nonprofit organization that works on behalf of kids and parents. The goal: to get parents more involved in their child's education, to equip teachers with resources to encourage parents to become involved, and to provide anyone with 24 hour free access to thousands of Tips for Parents, parenting videos, and useful weblinks. www.TheLearningCommunity.org

The National Parent Information Network’s (NPIN) mission is to provide access to research-based information about the process of parenting and about family involvement in education. There is a virtual library available at this site that is a great resource for parenting information. In addition, a bimonthly electronic magazine is available containing news, information, and resources. www.npin.org

The National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education (NCPIE) was founded in 1980, at the initiative of what was then the National School Volunteer Program (now National Association for Partners in Education). From the outset, the participating organizations included parent organizations and advocacy groups as well as national education organizations representing teachers and administrators. The group has been meeting monthly ever since to monitor legislation, initiate projects, and share information and ideas about research, programs, and policies. NCPIE is a coalition of major education, community, public service, and advocacy organizations working to create meaningful family-school partnerships in every school in America. www.ncpie.org

The National Parenting Education Network (NPEN) is committed to advancing the field of parenting education. NPEN started when a volunteer group of parenting practitioners came together informally to share their interest in supporting and strengthening the field of parenting education. www.npen.org
The National Education Association (NEA) This is a direct link to the portion of the website that is specifically for parents. A variety of resources are assembled to help you get involved in your child's education. Some examples include The Parents Guide to Testing and Accountability and A Parent's Guide To Choosing Supplemental Services Providers. www.nea.org/parents/

Children, Youth, and Families Education and Resource Network (CYFERNET) This website is designed to be used by those needing comprehensive children, youth, or family information. It is organized into useful categories including Parent/Family, Early Childhood, School-aged Children (K-8), Teens, and Community. www.cyfernet.org

The U.S. Department of Education This link is for the section of the website specifically devoted to parents and families. A comprehensive list of information is available, including, for example, what to look for in pre-K programs, school readiness, charter schools, college scholarships, award winning schools, etc. Sample topics headings include: Preparing My Child For School, Finding K-12 Schools, Helping My Child Learn To Read, and Ensuring My Child’s School Success, etc. http://www.ed.gov/audience/audience.jsp?type=I&top=Parents+%26+Families

The Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education (ERIC/EECE) has over 35 years of service to educators, parents, and families focusing on the development, education, and care of children from birth through early adolescence. ERIC has the largest database of citations of education materials and journal articles in the world. Established in 1966, ERIC is supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Research and Improvement and is administered by the National Library of Education. www.ericeece.org

The Parents as Teachers National Center (PATNC) provides the information, support and encouragement parents need to help their children develop optimally during the crucial early years of life. Their goals include: empowering parents to give their children the best possible start in life; providing children a solid foundation for school and life success; increase parent knowledge of child development and appropriate ways to stimulate their children's intellectual, language, social, and physical development; increase parent feelings of competence and confidence; enhance parent-child interaction and strengthen family relationships; prevent child abuse and neglect; provide for early detection of developmental problems; develop strong partnerships between parents and schools. www.patnc.org

The Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) was founded in 1983 at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Their goal is to develop strategies to promote the educational, social success, and well-being of children, families, and their communities. HFRP publishes research on a variety of topics, including family, school, and community partnerships; early childhood care and education; evaluation and accountability; etc. www.gse.harvard.edu/hfrp/