I’ve just found out I’m going to be part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Technology Assessment development (see the E-school News story: On the way: Nation’s first tech-literacy exam: Tech literacy to be added to Nation’s Report Card beginning in 2012).
The recent NAEP developed assessments for science and math have generally been well received, and I’m looking forward to being a part of the effort to create something similar for technology literacy. Of course I’m curious to see how this will play out, since technology literacy is not a subject or a discipline like math or science.
I’m hoping that part of the solution will be to increase opportunities for students to study real engineering, design and programming in K-12. My background as an electrical engineer is no doubt part of that hope.
There are two committees working on these frameworks, a steering committee and a planning committee. I’m on the planning committee. The first meeting is next week in Washington, DC, and I’ll know a lot more after that. One question I will definitely ask is how transparent the process will be. The last NAEP assessment planning was done before blogs became as ubiquitous as they are now. The eschool news story says there will be public input and hearings, and an extensive review process. Let’s hope this extends out as far as the net reaches.
Update – I’ve been asked to remove the names of the committee members for now…
Stay tuned! – Sylvia
