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] [?]教育关注：科学离中学生有多远
《 光明日报》
什么是“科学”？——大多数中学生会这样告诉记者：“科学是指先进的生产力”，“科学是神秘深奥的学问”。那什么是“科学精神”？——“是天资”、“是勤奋”——孩子们天真和五花八门的回答，说明他们对“科学”、“科学精神”的概念由模糊而产生敬畏，最终走向疏远。有关专家认为，这正是今天我们对青少年科学精神教育的匮乏，也说明科学精神在这个社会的缺席。
教育时评：重金点燃“考研热”？ 《光明日报》
最近看到一则消息，说是重庆某高校重金奖励考研本科生。该校声明：学校除按学生考取院校的不同奖励五千至一万不等的奖金外，还规定，只要参加考研，最后一学期所有功课均可申请免听、缓考，甚至还可适当降低分数线。对于辅导学生考研的教师，在评定职称时优势将得到充分体现。
用CMM的思想提高教育管理的质量
CMM(Capability Maturity Model) 是软件业中的一个参考模型，用来考量评价和提升软件企业的整体能力，这个模型的系统性设计思想、工程思想和持续发展能力的技术性改进对一个以“软件”为生存模式的组织来说是有很重要的参考价值的。这里所说的“软件”，甚至可以延伸到一切关注流程和管理质量的组织，例如政府、学校、非盈利性组织和服务性企业。 在80年代设计的CMM 模型，参考了当时系统理论研究的成果，提供了组织不断成熟的五级模型。尽管一些组织可能比较看重如何能够达到某个级别的资质认定，对自身的软件业务产生直接影响。但是更多深刻理解CMM的组织把它当作了组织进步的参考模型，对改进本来无序或僵化的管理体系产生参考和比较。 相比较ISO 9001/9002的标准规范，CMM更适合于非工业生产型的组织，而适合于知识性/学习性组织。
现在国内发达地区的一些学校校长们开始思考如何用更先进的观念和标准提升自身的管理水平和学校的整体能力，甚至拿来ISO 作为参考标准。尽管ISO 与CMM 一样，都关注产品的质量和过程控制，但是众所周知，ISO的很多标准更适合于工业生产型企业，以产品和设计为中心，考虑人的因素相对较少。而CMM和相关的其他模型，如人力管理、软件添置、个人软件处理和系统工程的模型等等，针对不同的内容和用户群，但是具有一些相同的特性。每个模型给其研究的领域提供了结构化的视图, 一般为逐步复杂化的五层模型。 除了个人软件处理, 其他模型都意在用于一个组织，使其逐步提高总体能力。 模型的每一层为已经存在的实践提供继续发展的基础, 并为下一层的实践奠定基础。
第1级---- 初始：（个人能力）
第2 级---- 可重复：项目管理和委托处理（需求管理、项目计划、项目跟踪和监督、分包管理、软件质量保证、软件结构管理）
第3级---- 明确定义：详细说明的工程化过程（注重组织过程、组织过程定义、集成化软件管理、软件产品工程、组内协调、培训计划、同级复查）
第4级---- 可控制：产品和过程质量（定量的过程管理、软件质量管理）
第5级---- 最优化：不断改进过程方法（缺陷防范、技术变化管理、过程变化管理等）
所以，学校与其参考ISO，不如认真研究和引鉴CMM，更好地适应21世纪的知识经济特征和社会需要。先进的管理愿望也要有匹配的理论。
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Testing Services Companies Create Innovative Solutions to Help Educators Meet New Testing Mandates
By Emily Trask
Testing and assessment have been pushed to the forefront of the national agenda through President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary School Act of 2001 (ESEA). By the 2005-2006 school year, the ESEA will require states to conduct annual reading and mathematics tests to all students in grades 3-8 and reading and math tests at least once through grades 8-12. By 2007-08, states must implement science assessments to be administered once during elementary, middle, and high school for each student.
While the call for accountability has been heard around the country, simultaneously, controversy around standardized testing systems has also increased. Many educators question the efficacy and validity of standardized tests in measuring student achievement and wonder whether they are merely driving educators to "teach to the test" rather than teaching students to think critically. In an attempt to create more effective gauges of student performance, many tests now include essay and/or short answer sections.
The College Board and ACT, the organizations that administer the SAT and ACT exams respectively, have announced that essay and open response questions will now be incorporated into the exams. And, while the writing portions of these exams may not be mandatory, their inclusion demonstrates the growing significance of writing proficiency within the assessment and accountability movements.
Traditionally, individuals have scored these portions of exams by hand; however, as essays and open response questions are increasingly incorporated into exams, scoring by hand will be inefficient and virtually impossible. In response to this, a number of organizations have developed essay scoring software programs that are designed to replace human scoring and its inherent inefficiency.
ETS Technologies' first product, e-rater, was developed for use with large-scale, computer-based writing assessments. The automated essay scoring capability currently is used in the scoring of essays for the Graduate Management Admissions Test. ETS Technologies, a for-profit spinout and wholly owned subsidiary of Educational Testing Services (ETS), was established to develop and leverage ETS' emerging research and technologies in an effort to support teaching and learning outside of ETS' traditional market.
The company's e-rater scoring capability is built upon natural language processing (NLP) technology. And, while the company has found success with e-rater, it is interested in more broadly building out its assessment capabilities. As part of this expansion, ETS Technologies' is currently conducting research on the development of c-rater, an application that evaluates the conceptual accuracy of short-answer responses.
The c-rater application is designed for use with open-ended questions that measure conceptual understanding. In addition to scoring capabilities, the c-rater program produces annotated versions of students' essays with corrections and adjustments, allowing students to make improvements and resubmit their work. The company claims that its product can be used for any subject, and it currently has approximately 108 topics in its assessment database, which includes content from high-end testing programs like the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Graduate Management Admission Test, and Test of English as a Foreign Language.
Thus far, ETS Technologies has successfully piloted its c-rater application in Indiana. And, the company will release version 2.0 later this month with an expanded set of writing and analysis tools. Moreover, through ETS' recent acquisition of Mindsurf's assets, including its Discourse Instructional Delivery and Assessment Software, ETS Technologies will strive to develop formative real-time, assessment capabilities, enabling teachers to follow their students' learning and assess comprehension instantaneously. The company anticipates that the integration of the Discourse technology with c-rater will provide teachers with the ability to identify learning gaps and provide additional, appropriate resources in an effort to increase student achievement.
Similarly, Vantage Learning's IntelliMetric Essay Scoring Engine was chosen by ACT, Inc. to provide back-end assessment services for the e-Write platform. Vantage is a provider of tools and services in assessment and instruction for K-12 schools, publishers, higher education institutions, states, and commercial markets. Knowledge Analysis Technologies' Intelligent Essay Assessor is in use as an accessory online learning tool that accompanies textbooks of Holt Rinehart and Winston and Prentice Hall. As they move forward, testing services providers will be challenged to differentiate their offerings from their competitors. And, they will be pressed to counter questions of validity around these scoring and assessment mechanisms. Providers will need to prove the efficacy and efficiency of their solutions.
As compliance deadlines approach, districts and states will increasingly seek assistance in developing statewide testing systems and in closing student achievement gaps. In order to capitalize on this movement, testing services providers will need to continue to offer innovative products that provide real solutions for educators as they endeavor to raise student achievement.
Related Eduventures Research:
"Vantage Learning's Intellimetric Technology: Is K-12 Ready for Online High Stakes Testing?"
http://www.eduventures.com/news/education_industry_report/K12/archives/july2001.cfm
"High Stakes Tests to Move Online in Virginia"
http://www.eduventures.com/news/education_industry_report/K12/archives/mar2001.cfm
"Plato Partners With The Princeton Review to Expand Testing and Assessment Capabilities"
http://www.eduventures.com/news/education_industry_report/K12/archives/sept2001.cfm
"ESEA Boosts Potential for K-12 Private Sector"
http://www.eduventures.com/news/education_industry_report/K12/archives/feb2002.cfm