Ability Grouping: This one is what it sounds like; grouping kids based on their ability. How that ability is determined is something you should find out, though, if you hear that term being thrown around a lot at your kids' school. If they're basing the entire year's math class on one standardized test, that's not the best of use of ability grouping.
Assessment: An opportunity for teachers to assess student knowledge. We used to call them tests. Today there are all different kinds, though.
- Adaptive: Usually taken on a computer, adaptive tests adjust the questions based on how the child does on the beginning questions. Questions will get more difficult when the child answers correctly and easier when the child answer incorrectly.
- Criterion-Referenced: Measures student performance based on goal, objectives or standards.
- Diagnostic: A test prior to instruction, or used to find out a new student's strengths and weaknesses.
- Formative: Not so much a test as a checkpoint during instruction, to see that kids are on the right track.
- Interim/Benchmark: These might include tests given before every grade card or based on some other time requirement.
- Norm-Referenced: Measures student performance by comparing it to a national or other "norm" group of peers.
- Performance: Students demonstrate their knowledge through a hands on activity.
- Summative: The end of year or end of unit test on what students have learned.
Differentiated Instruction: Want to impress an educator? Ask how the new curriculum provides for differentiated instruction. Differentiated instruction is when teachers adapt lessons and curricula so that students of all levels are appropriately challenged. Unless your child is the most average learner in every single subject, you want him/her to have differentiated instruction.
IEP or Individualized Education Plan: A legal document that lays out goals, accommodations (such as having a longer time for tests or a paraprofessional helper) and services that need to be provided to a child with a disability, as defined by the IDEA law (the individuals with disabilities education act). If your child is struggling but does not qualify for an IEP, there are 504 plans, which create learning plans for students and list the accommodations they need.
Rubric: A numerical guideline used to grade assignments. Each number in the guideline would have certain requirements, with the highest number (often a 4 or a 5) reserved for students who go beyond the assignment, such as writing 8 sentences instead of the 5 required. The next number down (a 3 or a 4) would be for students who completed the the 5 required sentences correctly. And so on.
Ummm. . . I just wrote a lot more than I had planned to. And this doesn't even cover half the words I was going to talk about. What do you guys think? Is this useful? Or does everyone just Google stuff anymore? These are just a few of the words other parents have asked me about in the last 6 months or so, because people know I used to be a teacher. I figured that if people are asking, it means that the Google response was probably overwhelming (like when I Google medical questions) and that this might work for a Teaching Tuesday post, but I don't know.
Is there any jargon you'd like me to translate? Or should I go back to ranting about educational topics? I want your honest opinion.
28 comments:
Now, if you can give me a lesson on that common core nonsense they are teaching my kids I will be all set. Oh, wait, no one understands it anyways, so nevermind lol.
Thank goodness my Daughter is grown and I don't have to think about things like this any longer.... good thing too because I don't understand any of the educational jargon.
So many are going to really appreciate this post.
Things are so much different than when I was in school. I wish they could just teach the kids instead of focusing on all the tests that the states are enforcing. I am homeschooling my youngest because of this.
This is a great post. With all of the testing and my daughter's IEP I really have had to learn a lot more about the educational jargon than I ever thought possible. This is an excellent resource for parents just getting started on the journey!
I just wonder what will these schools think of next to make kids feel like they aren't enough. It's bad enough the testing is all they teach, but now they are coming up with new words and jargons to further box the kids in
There's so much educational jargo these days, so this is definitely a helpful post. My son is in IEP and we have learned so much jargon, just from that alone.
Very helpful with all the changes going on in schools now. I am so confused on what to do for my kids when they enter school age
This is a nice starter guide to all of the acronyms out there that you see when working with the schools. We go thru the IEP process annually and every time we think we know them all there's a new one.
I knew most of them since I was a special ed teacher previously, but a few are new to me.
I agree with Masshole Mommy!
I struggle with all the jargon; but the common core stuff they are doing now is the worst.
But this reference is super helpful! My teachers send home notes all the time with this jargon and I'm always confused what they are talking about.
I hate all the change going on with chool. Sometimes, I think it's better to homeschool.
I don't get half the words here but I am very thankful my son has a gifted teacher who keeps a close eye on him and lets me know if he needs anything. My son gets bored with school so easy that the teacher really have to keep him engaged. I would homeschool him but he is exceptionally smart and dare I say it smarter then me. OUCH!!
I don't have kids yet or anything to think about - but, wow.. such changes, I never would have thought about it.
The Jargon is so confusing! When I go talk to the teachers they explain it all, with four kids I still have to ask what things stand for. It can be overwhelming
I think this is great information for parents and parents to be to see and read. It can be very confusing and it is nice to see it all laid out here.
There is a lot of jargon specific to higher ed. too, and even to a particular institution. It can be overwhelming if you're just there for a one-time conversation and people are throwing out words you have to ask what they mean. :)
This is really helpful for parents! It's hard to decipher what teachers are talking about sometimes.
Great post! I was so confused when I started having to go IEP meetings at my son's school. Now he's in 6th grade I think I've got a handle on it but every once in a while they throw out a new term!
We're making school decisions right now--my son starts kindergarten in the 2015-2016 school year and all the common core talk is making me nervous. I really need to get up to speed on it.
This is most helpful! There are so many terms I just don't understand and often times get really confused myself in the parent teacher conferences. I spend more time than I should asking "what does that mean?" lol.
This is a great resource for parents, especially when they are planning what questions to ask during parent-teacher conferences.
This is a really great resource. This can be handy for any parent with kids in school!!
This is a great list to have. I am going to share with some of the parents that I know.
All those terms are mind numbing. They are something I've had to become familiar with and get used to since homeschooling my child through an online charter school. Very nice explanations!
This post is brilliant! I've bookmarked it for later reference! Thank you.
I have yet to get in with the lingo that the schools expect you to understand. This is a great post, it really does help.
You have helped me understand what is going on in my children's school so much better. I've always wondered what the heck most of these words meant.
All the different words amaze me. But also which schools use them. My son's first school I never heard any of these terms- now we are in a school that uses these terms a lot and he was behind in his class because of how advanced this school is. Now I am a para there and understand it. Especially the IEP (I am a Special Ed Para)
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