CCTV investigates MOOCs at Harvard and MIT, explaining why the data may be misleading and more.

Edmentum has some great advice on preparing student for next generation assessments.  

Utah does not participate in PARCC or SBAC assessments, however the information about preparing students for next generation assessments in this blog are applicable for all online testing.

Utah developed its own state assessment, SAGE.

Administrators discussed school experiences with SAGE Interim assessments.  This was a good opportunity to see the value of mid-year assessments, which are essentially a practice test.  

Discussion focused on what information students and teachers gained, the value of having a test run, and concern about taking time away from instruction for additional assessments.

Administrators also shared other school data that will assist with planning instruction for the remainder of the year. 

The past two days we have all experienced some interruptions in our wireless access throughout the school district.  This downtime has come at a critical time when we are using many wifi only devices to connect for testing.  

We are in the process of changing over our network switch, which we suspect is at the heart of this issue.  We have been waiting for the completion of construction on our new data center to change to an updated Cisco 4500 Core Switch which will enable our network have gigabit service to our access points.  This upgrade will enable more devices to take advantage of our network with less interruptions.  

Construction looks on schedule to finish this month.  For the interim, internet traffic has be rerouted through another switch.  Thanks for your patience as we continue to make upgrades to our network to sustain digital learning in our schools.