Teaching Strategies That Prepare Students for High-Stakes Tests

"Helps building and district-level administrators realize that they don′t have to abandon sound and effective instructional practices to prepare students for high-stakes tests."—Sheila Smith, Science SpecialistJackson Public Schools, MS

"I encourage trainers to discuss this text and its applications with teachers to enhance the performance of students on state and national tests. This book meets a very specific need in classrooms."—J-Petrina McCarty-Puhl, TeacherRobert McQueen High School, Reno, NV

Improve student performance on high-stakes tests with research-proven practices for teaching to standards!

Standardized tests are one of the leading measures of student achievement and educator accountability today, so it is important to give students the necessary skills to perform well on state exams and to align instructional practices with standards. This step-by-step manual outlines a straightforward, powerful model for infusing state standards and knowledge benchmarks into lesson plans and day-to-day assessments to boost overall achievement.

Grounded in the results of more than 30,000 studies, the best practices shared by the authors are linked specifically to the two types of knowledge—declarative and procedural—assessed on high-stakes tests and are ranked according to their effectiveness for each type. To help educators maximize testing results while meeting state standards and ultimately deepening student learning, the text provides a solid framework that empowers teachers to easily:

• Unpack state standards by grade level into measurable units
• Identify the key elements of state tests
• Determine and assess critical benchmarks
• Select the most appropriate and meaningful strategies based on new data on the effectiveness of various instructional practices

From reproducible templates to tangible tactics for mapping lesson plans, this resource offers comprehensive tools for teachers to nurture learning and ensure success in all students.