NES cheat sheet

Revised Bloom's taxonomy orders cognitive objectives as remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create; assessment items should target the level named in the standard.

Webb's Depth of Knowledge has four levels - recall, skill/concept, strategic thinking, extended thinking; DOK describes task complexity rather than content difficulty.

Conceptual knowledge (why a procedure works) and procedural knowledge (executing it fluently) are separate outcomes and require different kinds of evidence.

Vocabulary tiers: Tier 1 everyday words, Tier 2 cross-disciplinary academic words (analyze, evidence), Tier 3 domain-specific terms; Tier 2 and Tier 3 require explicit instruction.

Vertical alignment verifies that prerequisite skills are taught in earlier grades; horizontal alignment verifies that standards, instruction, and assessment match within a grade level.

An enduring understanding is a big idea retained after specific facts fade, and it justifies depth of study over broad coverage in unit planning.

Disciplinary literacy varies by field: sourcing and corroboration in history, argument from evidence in science, close reading of text in English language arts.

An item's cognitive demand should match the verb of the standard it measures; items that exceed or fall below that level misrepresent student mastery.

Piaget's stages: sensorimotor (birth–2), preoperational (2–7), concrete operational (7–11), formal operational (11 and older).

Vygotsky holds that learning occurs within the zone of proximal development, and scaffolds are withdrawn as competence increases.

Universal Design for Learning has three principles: multiple means of engagement, multiple means of representation, and multiple means of action and expression.

IDEA requires the least restrictive environment; FERPA protects the confidentiality of education records; Section 504 covers students who are not eligible under IDEA.

Formative assessment informs instruction during learning; summative assessment certifies achievement after instruction for grading or reporting.

Maslow's hierarchy runs physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, self-actualization; unmet lower needs suppress academic engagement.

PBIS is tiered - universal for all students, targeted for some, intensive for few - and tier placement is driven by referral and screening data.

Effective feedback names the goal, the current performance, and the next step; praise alone does not change performance.

Differentiation adjusts content, process, or product in response to readiness, interest, or learning profile while the essential learning goal stays constant.

Polya's problem-solving model: understand the problem, devise a plan, carry out the plan, look back to check and generalize.

Worked examples outperform unscaffolded practice for novices because they free working memory for schema building; guidance is faded as expertise grows (expertise reversal effect).

Transfer is supported by varied contexts, contrasting cases, and explicit comparison; massed practice in a single format produces brittle, context-bound skill.

Multiple representations - text, diagram, graph, equation, physical model - build flexible understanding when students must translate among them.

Error analysis identifies the faulty rule behind a wrong answer; reteach the rule rather than correcting each individual item.

The inquiry cycle runs question, investigate, analyze, explain, communicate; each phase involves distinct skills that must be taught explicitly.

Academic language demands include vocabulary, sentence structures such as compare/contrast or cause–effect, and discourse moves; language supports are planned alongside content supports.

Retrieval practice and spaced review produce stronger long-term retention than rereading or highlighting.

Backward design stages: identify desired results, determine acceptable evidence, then plan learning experiences so assessment is designed before activities.

Item difficulty index p equals the proportion answering correctly (0 to 1); mid-range values discriminate between students better than values near 0 or 1.

Discrimination index equals the correct rate of the high group minus that of the low group; negative values signal a defective item or a miskeyed answer.

Distractor analysis: an option chosen by many strong students suggests ambiguity, while an option chosen by almost no one is nonfunctional.

RTI tiers 1, 2, and 3 escalate intensity, and movement between tiers is decided by progress-monitoring data rather than by calendar time.

Results should be disaggregated by subgroup and by standard before conclusions are drawn, because an acceptable average can mask a struggling group.

Inter-rater reliability is raised by analytic rubrics, anchor papers, and calibration; validity concerns whether the instrument measures the intended construct.

The reflective teaching cycle is plan, act, observe, reflect, with student-work evidence used to revise the next iteration rather than to justify prior practice.

Backward design stages: identify desired results, determine acceptable evidence, then plan learning experiences so assessment is designed before activities.

Item difficulty index p equals the proportion answering correctly (0 to 1); mid-range values discriminate between students better than values near 0 or 1.

Discrimination index equals the correct rate of the high group minus that of the low group; negative values signal a defective item or a miskeyed answer.

Distractor analysis: an option chosen by many strong students suggests ambiguity, while an option chosen by almost no one is nonfunctional.

RTI tiers 1, 2, and 3 escalate intensity, and movement between tiers is decided by progress-monitoring data rather than by calendar time.

Results should be disaggregated by subgroup and by standard before conclusions are drawn, because an acceptable average can mask a struggling group.

Inter-rater reliability is raised by analytic rubrics, anchor papers, and calibration; validity concerns whether the instrument measures the intended construct.

The reflective teaching cycle is plan, act, observe, reflect, with student-work evidence used to revise the next iteration rather than to justify prior practice.