Tara Laubenstine comes from a long line of Penn Staters. When she began her college search, she knew exactly where she would apply and eagerly wait to be accepted. This week, she will graduate with her bachelor’s degree in business with a minor in psychology, after which she will pursue a career in human resource management. She made the most of her college experience by becoming involved, and with graduation on the horizon, Laubenstine sat down to speak about her college experience and offer advice to the incoming class.

North Carolina officials' switch in reading-test vendors just weeks before the new school year got underway is spotlighting the often murky process of contracts and procurements for K-12 services.

Elementary school teachers in the Peach State are using "game-based" formative assessments to take a pulse on their students' learning.

Allegations that some students lied about having disabilities so they could get special accommodations on college entrance exams have the disabilities community worried about a backlash.

As the two big groups of states craft common-assessment systems, experts warn that the smallest details could undermine their work.

This isn't the first time states and schools have turned to projects, portfolios, exhibitions, and essays to measure students' learning. Here are lessons from the last go-around.

Since learning is so nuanced, so too should be the means in which we assess it. Let's offer students the opportunity to be seen as whole people who can demonstrate different skills and knowledge in a plethora of ways over a period of time.

Louisiana and New Hampshire are among the handful of states that have stepped up to experiment with crafting new student assessments under the Every Student Succeeds Act.

Most states have raised their expectations for what constitutes proficiency on state math and reading tests in the last decade, according to a new study.

Group projects founder when students don't work well together. Here's the latest thinking on evaluating students on both content mastery and collaboration skills.

Education Week asked three 8th grade teachers to evaluate real student responses to an open-ended question on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in social studies. Here's what they said.

The PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments have evolved since they were launched in 2015. Here's a guide to understanding them now.

Here's a handy glossary on terms like project-based learning, competency-based learning, and standards-based grading.

"When the day came to administer the first test I had designed," writes Brandon Lewis, "my heart sank."

As civic education undergoes a renaissance in schools, educators are looking beyond standardized tests to determine whether the lessons empower students to embrace civic behaviors, like voting or volunteering.

The arts, geography, economics, and foreign languages will lose their place in the testing line-up as the National Assessment of Educational Progress is being streamlined to cut costs.

The collection and use of data about just how prepared individual children are to enter kindergarten can be a ticklish proposition.

The U.S. Department of Education sees two specific challenges potentially undermining the quality of the international assessment program, writes Mark Schneider.

AP has managed to dodge the partisan pitfalls that have felled other ambitious curricular efforts—so far, write Chester E. Finn Jr. and Andrew E. Scanlan.

Within three weeks, a pandemic has completely changed the national landscape on testing. The U.S. Department of Education has now excused all 50 states and the District of Columbia from the requirement that they test all their students in math and English/language arts.

D. Brooks Smith, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, will deliver the Penn State Law in University Park 2020 commencement address on May 16 in Eisenhower Auditorium.

Penn State Law in University Park will host "A Take on the Term" with Sarah Harrington and Erin Murphy, beginning at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 5, in the Sutliff Auditorium of the Lewis Katz Building.

To help teachers remotely engage their students during the coronavirus crisis, Penn State’s Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative has released its first set of free learning resources.

Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar and clinical professor of law at Penn State Law at University Park, is the recipient of the 2020 Rosemary Schraer Mentoring Award.

Penn State Law in University Park will have a mandatory credit/no-credit grading system for the spring 2020 semester in order to be supportive of students during the novel coronavirus public health crisis.

The Penn State Law in University Park Civil Rights Appellate Clinic recently filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court. Biel v. St. James, a religious liberty case that was granted certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Coronavirus and International Affairs Roundtable, taking place 9:30 a.m. Friday, April 17, via Zoom, will bring together experts in law and international affairs from Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, and the Caribbean to discuss the broader impact of COVID-19.

When Penn State Law in University Park transitioned its annual Careers in the Law event to a virtual one due to COVID-19 concerns, Assistant Dean of Career Services Magen Mihok offered the sponsoring firms a choice: to receive a full refund of their registration fee, or to consider a donation to Penn State Law’s Future Fund to support students impacted by COVID-19. The result was a true embodiment of the "We Are" spirit.

The Penn State Law, Policy and Engineering initiative is hosting a virtual speaker series — titled, “Technology, Policy and Law during COVID-19” — that will consist of six sessions throughout the month of May.

Rebecca Mattson, head of faculty and research services for the H. Laddie Montague Jr. Law Library, Penn State University Libraries, and professor of legal research at Penn State Law at University Park, has been elected vice chair/chair elect of the Research Instruction and Patron Services Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries.

Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar and Clinical Professor of Law at Penn State Law in University Park, has written a chapter on immigration law in a new legal textbook covering issues surrounding the current global COVID-19 pandemic, published by Columbia Law School.

Selected poems of Rachelle Bowser, Rachel Mennies, Erin Murphy and Eleanor Stanford have been chosen to represent the Pennsylvania Center for the Book’s 2020 Public Poetry Project, with poetry interpreted into art posters for the annual event.

Visual Art Studies program seniors Andrea Regalbuto and Gary Weyandt are showcasing their respective exhibitions “Flap/Flutter” and “MEDIAted” online via websites, Instagram, and virtual exhibits.

Penn State University Libraries is offering an Online De-Stress Fest to help students relax and unwind while completing end-of-term reports and studying for final exams. Visit through Friday, May 8, for a curated list of links, tutorials and homegrown videos that showcase the talents of University Libraries’ faculty and staff.

The Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State, through a program funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, has selected five proposals for the development of inter-domain courses that include the performing arts at their cores.

Choral students at Penn State Behrend typically end the semester with a concert. This year, because of COVID-19, they tried something different: a virtual cabaret.

Penn State Law, Policy and Engineering's "Technology, Policy and Law during COVID-19" virtual speaker series, a Penn State Extension webinar about food system disruptions, and a number of virtual exhibits at the Palmer Museum of Art and HUB-Robeson Galleries are among this weekend's and next week's cultural highlights at Penn State.

For their longstanding support of the Center for the Performing Arts and the Penn State community, Deb and Stan Latta have been named the center’s 2020 Distinguished Service Award recipients.

Daniela Claudio Pagán, a graphic design senior from Puerto Rico, has been named the College of Arts and Architecture's 2020 student marshal.

"King of King Court" by Travis Dandro, published by Drawn & Quarterly, has won the 2020 Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Novel of the Year. Penn State University Libraries sponsors the juried award and its administrator, the Pennsylvania Center for the Book.

To continue supporting Penn State faculty’s remote teaching, Teaching and Learning with Technology is offering virtual office hours each day during the week of March 16. During these sessions, instructors can get help with transitioning their courses from a residential format to remote.

The Penn State New Kensington Office of Admissions and Student Aid is available remotely for appointments, as well as scheduled virtual events for prospective students and families.

The Sokolov-Miller Family Financial and Life Skills Center at Penn State has a slate of programming for Financial Literacy Month this April and is offering help to anyone in the University community who is anxious about their financial future.