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DSST Educational Terms Vocab

Subjects : dsst, teaching
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. Alternative public schools - most of which focus on a particular area of study - such as performing arts or science and technology but also offer regular school subjects.






2. The goal of equity is to achieve a high-quality education for all students - regardless of gender - race - ethnicity - socioeconomic status - disabilities - or special needs. Studies show widespread inequities in financial support - classroom expecta






3. The idea of E. D. Hirsch - professor of English at the University of Virginia - that there is a certain body of knowledge (core knowledge) that people must know to be well-educated - well-rounded American citizens.






4. A way of organizing instruction that tries to ensure that students have mastered each increment of a subject before going on to the next. A system that recognizes teachers or principals who are thought to be especially capable by paying them higher






5. The idea that families should have more than one alternative when enrolling their children in school.






6. Students who have a higher than average probability of dropping out or failing school. Broad categories usually include inner-city - low-income - and homeless children; those not fluent in English; and special-needs students with emotional disabiliti






7. Schools - almost always located in urban or low-income rural areas - in which an unacceptably low proportion of students meet established standards - as indicated by test scores. Also called failing schools.






8. Use of assessment strategies - such as performance assessment - constructed response items - and portfolios - to replace or supplement assessment by machine-scored multiple-choice tests.






9. Educational programs for students who - because they have a disability of some kind - require special instructional help to reach their potential. This may include specially trained teachers - innovative technology or instructional materials - access






10. Use of an approach based on behavioral science to change a person's way of doing things






11. Persistent differences in achievement among different types of students as indicated by scores on standardized tests - teacher grades - and other data. The gaps most frequently referred to are those between whites and minority groups - especially Afr






12. Schools that differ in one or more ways from conventional public schools. Alternative schools may reflect a particular teaching philosophy - such as individualization - or a specific focus - such as science and technology. Alternative schools may als






13. The practice of dividing students for instruction according to their perceived abilities. Students are placed on a particular track (college-bound - general - vocational - and remedial) and given a curriculum that varies according to their perceived






14. An informal term for assigning students to the same teacher for more than one school year.






15. Tests designed to measure how thoroughly a student has learned a particular body of knowledge without regard to how well other students have learned it..






16. A technique for teaching language arts that emphasizes the reading and writing of whole texts (sometimes beginning with picture books) before analyzing words and individual letter sounds.






17. U.S. legislation passed in 1965 that provided large amounts of federal aid to states and local districts as part of the larger War on Poverty. ESEA must be reauthorized periodically by the Congress. The most well-known provision of ESEA is Title I -






18. A certificate issued to parents that can be used as full or partial payment of tuition for any nonpublic school.






19. Refers to Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 - which is intended to improve education in high-poverty communities by targeting extra resources to schools and school districts with the highest concentrations of povert






20. Although this term has many possible meanings - it usually refers to a written plan outlining what students will be taught (a course of study).






21. A theory of intelligence developed in the 1980s by Howard Gardner - professor of education at Harvard University. Gardner defines intelligence broadly as 'the capacity to solve problems or fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural sett






22. The idea that one gender or the other is short-changed by school practices and expectations. The term may refer to the difficulties boys tend to have in conforming to classroom routines and learning to read and write - or it may refer to lower averag






23. Standardized tests designed to measure how a student's performance compares with that of other students.






24. The GED exam is a high school equivalency test that was first developed in 1942. Each year - approximately 800 -000 adults receive a GED diploma






25. A classification of educational objectives developed in the 1950s by a group of researchers headed by Benjamin Bloom of the University of Chicago. Commonly refers to the objectives for the cognitive domain - which range from knowledge and comprehensi






26. Researcher Lauren Resnick has defined higher-order thinking as the kind of thinking needed when the path to finding a solution is not specified - and that yields multiple solutions rather than one. Higher-order thinking requires mental effort because






27. Intended results of schooling: What students are supposed to know and be able to do.






28. Specific descriptions of performance of a given task at several different levels of quality. Teachers use rubrics to evaluate student performance on performance tasks. The way a teacher provides support to make sure students succeed at complex tasks






29. Schooling at the high school level that allows students to spend a part of the school day attending traditional classes and the rest of the day learning a trade - such as auto repair or cosmetology. Vocational classes may be held in the same school b






30. A self-governing educational facility that operates under contract between the school's organizers and the sponsors (often local school boards but sometimes other agencies - such as state boards of education). The organizers are often teachers - pare






31. Intelligence quotient






32. Preparing students for a test by concentrating on the particular things the test contains rather than on the broader body of knowledge the test is intended to measure. An extreme example would be drilling students on the 20 words the teacher knows wi






33. A revision of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act - the IDEA is a federal law passed in 1991 and amended in 1997 that guarantees a free appropriate public education for eligible children and youth with disabilities. According to the law -






34. NAEP (pronounced 'nape') - is also known as The Nation's Report Card. It is a federally funded program (currently contracted to Educational Testing Service in Princeton - N.J.) that provides information about the achievement of students nationally an






35. Schools - almost always located in urban or low-income rural areas - in which an unacceptably low proportion of students meet established standards - as indicated by test scores. Also called low-performing schools.






36. In current usage - the term usually refers to specific criteria for what students are expected to learn and be able to do. These standards usually take two forms in the curriculum:






37. Assigning students to classes based on their past achievement or presumed ability to learn (also known as homogenous grouping)






38. The practice of placing students with disabilities into regular classrooms.






39. Analyzing existing sources of information (class and school attendance - grades - test scores) and other data (portfolios - surveys - interviews) to make decisions about the school. The process involves organizing and interpreting the data and creati






40. Learning materials designed to help students understand abstract ideas by handling physical objects. An abacus is a mathematics manipulative.






41. The case heard by the United States Supreme Court in 1954 in which racial segregation in public schools was held to be unconstitutional.






42. A student whose first language is other than English and who is in a special program for learning English (which may be bilingual education or English as a second language).






43. A collection of student work chosen to exemplify and document a student's learning progress over time.






44. The responsibility of an agency to its sponsors and clientele for accomplishing its mission with prudent use of resources. In education - accountability is currently thought to require measurable proof that teachers - schools - districts - and states






45. A form of instruction that seeks to 'maximize each student's growth by meeting each student where she is and helping the student to progress.






46. The effort to ensure that what teachers teach is in accord with what the curriculum says will be taught and what is assessed on official tests.






47. The way a teacher organizes and administers routines to make classroom life as productive and satisfying as possible. What some people might describe narrowly as 'discipline.'






48. A theory of education that places importance on the complete experience of learning and the ways in which the separate parts of the learning experience are interrelated.






49. Students with certain special needs - as specified by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) - have a legal right to a special plan written by a multidisciplinary team. After a series of tests and observations determine the child's ne






50. In testing - an estimate of how closely the results of a test would match if the test were given repeatedly to the same student under the same conditions (and there was no practice effect).