A Representative Educational Technology Challenge
An innovative private school has decided to redo its high school mathematics and science
curriculum in response to recent emphasis on the integrated nature of science and
mathematics, and strong interest in having more graduates pursue college majors in
science, mathematics, and engineering disciplines. However, to maintain the school’s
accreditation, its students must perform acceptably on standardized tests that have been
developed to test knowledge on traditional science and mathematics topics, rather than
assess skills in putting that knowledge to practical use. There are at least two fundamental
issues to address:
1. How should the new curriculum be designed in order to achieve both goals—
(a) encouraging more students to pursue further studies in math, science, and engineering, and (b) ensuring that students will generally perform well on the existing standardized tests?
2. What kinds of formative assessments will help students and teachers maintain
steady progress toward both goals?
