achievement tests: Tests used to measure how much a student has learned in key subjects.

active learning: Any situation in which students move around and do things, rather than sitting at their desks, reading, filling out worksheets, or listening to a teacher.

Advanced Placement (AP): Consists of college-level courses and examinations for high school students. The courses may take the form of an honors class or strong regular class taught by a teacher following an Advanced Placement outline via independent study.

aptitude tests: Tests that attempt to predict a person's ability to do something. The most familiar are Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests. Advocates of Gardner's Multiple Intellects maintain that IQ tests measure only linguistic and analytical reasoning and that other intelligences are not measured by traditional methods.

benchmark: A standard for measuring or judging performance within a discipline or on a task.

Classroom Action Summary: A tool used to look at a student in the context of his or her peer group. The Classroom Action Summary (CAS) also allows a teacher to look at what is currently being done to meet the needs of a student, to become aware of students with similar needs and to plan additional differentiation to meet the needs a student or group of students may have. The CAS also allows teachers to access the InSTEP when they feel they have exhausted the available differentiation opportunities available.

cluster grouping: Flexible grouping and regrouping of students within and across grade levels; not meant to be a long-term, static group.

cognitive learning: The mental processes involved in learning, such as remembering and understanding facts and ideas.

cohort: A particular group of people with something in common, for example, a class of students.

concurrent enrollment: Students can be enrolled at a home school site and other school sites to participate in instruction that is more appropriate to their abilities or potential. (dual enrollment)

constructivism: An approach to teaching based on research about how people learn. Many researchers say that each individual "constructs" knowledge rather than receiving it from others. Constructive teaching is based on the belief that students learn best when they gain knowledge through exploration and active learning.

continuous progress: A system of education in which individuals or small groups of students go through a sequence of lessons at their own pace, rather than at the pace of the entire classroom group.

cooperating schools: A school other than the students home school.

course skipping: A method of moving students through a single curricular area (course) ahead of schedule.

credit by exam: A method whereby a student is allowed to "test out" of a course and receive academic credit for the course if mastery is demonstrated.

criterion-referenced tests: Tests designed to measure how thoroughly a student has learned a particular body of knowledge without regard to how well other students have learned it.

curriculum: Usually refers to a written plan that outlines what students will be taught.

curriculum compacting: Modifying or "streamlining" the regular curriculum in order to eliminate repetition of previously mastered materials and to provide time for appropriate enrichment and/or acceleration activities while ensuring mastery of basic skills (Essential and Enduring). (compacted courses)

demonstrating mastery: Students are provided opportunities to demonstrate (including opportunities to test out of instruction) proficiency, command or expertise in content, process or product of any given instruction in order to move to an interest area or more advanced kind of instruction.

distance learning: Taking classes in locations other than the classroom or other place where the teacher presents the lesson. The growth of computers and the internet in particular have helped to grow distance learning opportunities.

early entrance opportunities: Students can start school at an earlier age and will therefore be grouped with students of similar capabilities.

enrichment: Topics and activities that are valuable and interesting to learn, but are not basic education. Knowledge that is "nice to know" but not necessarily what people "need to know".

flexible pacing: Modifying the pace at which learning takes place to coincide with the pace of the instruction; the appropriate pace varies from student to student in order to accommodate a variety of learning rates and styles.

flexible scheduling: Modifying students' regular schedules in order to connect them with instruction that is more appropriate to their assessed or demonstrated needs.

grade skipping: A method for moving students through and out of the school system ahead of schedule.

independent study: Allows a student or small group of students to pursue an area of interest related to a specific curricular area.

individualized instruction: Method(s) of organizing learning experiences so that the rate, degree, content, schedule, experiences and depth of exploration available to students stem from their assessed or demonstrated strengths, needs and interests.

InSTEP (INdividualized STudent Education Plan): A description of long range (at least one year) modified instructional services designed to accommodate exceptional programming needs. Normally initiated when existing data suggests that a student has programming needs that may not be met in the current classroom setting.

internships: Students are matched with community volunteers and take part in the volunteer's activity or at their workplace as an assistant or observer.

looping: An informal term for assigning students to the same teacher for more than one school year. Looping is rare in the United States, but is common in some parts of Europe and becoming more popular in the United States. Advocates say it helps teachers know their students and provides for more continuous learning.

mentoring: An opportunity for students to be paired with a teacher, parent or community volunteer in an area of expertise or interest on a 1-to-1 basis in order to develop their knowledge in an area and to develop a product from the experience.

pull-out programming: A method of delivering students to programming. Presentation of an individual curriculum separate from his or her peers. Requires that a student's environment be changed. Sometimes called a "pull-in" if the programming is delivered in class, but separate from his or her peers.

university courses: Students participating in university courses for which tuition may be reimbursed.