How are educational values and pedagogical approaches inscribed into automated education technologies and their data visualizations? In this article we analyze the design process and technical and pedagogical debates of a team of researchers and developers working on an automated scoring tool for primary school students' early writing as part of…

Assessing student achievement over multiple years is complicated by students' memberships in shifting upper-level nesting structures. These structures are manifested in (1) annual matriculation to different classrooms and (2) mobility between schools. Failure to model these shifting upper-level nesting structures may bias the inferences…

Kindergarten Entry Assessments (KEAs) have grown in popularity over the past decade due to the Race to the Top -- Early Learning Challenge Grant offered by the U.S. Department of Education in 2015. This study addresses kindergarten teachers' perceptions of data from North Carolina's school readiness assessment and their perceptions of what…

Following a high-quality early care and pre-K experience, the kindergarten-through-third-grade years set the foundation upon which future learning builds; and strengthening this continuum creates opportunities for later success. Key components of a quality experience in K-3 include school readiness and transitions, kindergarten requirements,…

In an increasingly data-driven society, making decisions with data is a requirement not only for research scientists but also for navigating life more generally (Kjelvik & Schultheis, 2019). An informed citizenry must be prepared to discover patterns, predict outcomes, make decisions with data, and evaluate data-based claims for legitimacy and…

This qualitative case study was designed to explore elementary teacher perceptions of what it means to provide an equitable education for their students. These perceptions allow educational leaders insight into how teachers navigate systems that create inequities and what professional development may be needed to further support equitable learning…

This study focuses on the culturally responsive leadership practices of a South Texas school principal. Texas ranks second out of 10 states with the highest emergent bilingual enrollment. Culturally responsive leadership integrates a dynamic view of the socio-political and cultural contexts in a school setting. As the student population becomes…

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created an unprecedented set of obstacles for schools and exacerbated existing structural inequalities in public education. In spring 2020, as schools went to remote learning formats or closed completely, end-of-year assessment programs ground to a halt. As a result, schools began the…

The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created an unprecedented set of obstacles for schools and exacerbated existing structural inequalities in public education. In spring 2020, as schools went to remote learning formats or closed completely, end-of-year assessment programs ground to a halt. As a result, schools began the…

Because pre-academic and social-emotional capabilities at kindergarten entry predict later academic and social success, there has been great concern with the level of "readiness" at kindergarten entry. Many states require a kindergarten readiness assessment (KRA). However, how readiness is defined, who or what entity is doing the…

The National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is intended to assess all Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 to ensure equity and inclusion. This paper explores the extent to which equity and inclusion are achieved for students with disability through NAPLAN reporting. Document analysis of publicly accessible NAPLAN…

The validity of evidence obtained from classroom assessments in schools is an important concept as significant decisions are made from teachers' judgments of this evidence. However, what is not clear are the classroom assessment practices that teacher teams use to ensure that the evidence of student learning produced from classroom assessments is…

Teacher-level factors are theoretically linked to student outcomes in data-based instruction (DBI; Lembke et al., 2018). Professional development and ongoing support can increase teachers' knowledge, skills, and beliefs related to DBI, as well as their instructional fidelity (McMaster et al., 2020). However, less is known about how each of these…

Through our national thematic reports HM Inspectors of Education share their professional view on particular aspects of education. This report focuses on sharing the key features which, when taken together, make the greatest difference to using assessment effectively to improve learning and teaching and in turn, outcomes for children and young…

The early elementary school years are widely understood to be critical to a child developing a strong foundation for future academic success. Children arrive at kindergarten from diverse settings and experiences, and not all of them are "kindergarten ready." Kindergarten readiness refers to the skills and abilities needed to succeed in…