The article provides a global comparison of IB World Schools in the lusophone space, including countries in three different world regions, in response to a lack of research on international education in Portuguese-speaking countries. Following an introduction to the literature on this topic, focusing on a widely known typology of international…

This report examines the role of English learner (ELs) status in four-year college enrollment and bachelor's degree completion among Houston Independent School District (HISD) high school graduates. We divide students into four groups: students who are never classified as EL (hereafter referred to as "Never EL" students), ELs who are…

Evidence-centered assessment design (ECD) explicates a transparent evidentiary argument to warrant the inferences we make from student test performance. This article describes how the vehicles for gathering student evidence--task models and test specifications--are developed. Task models, which are the basis for item development, flow directly…

In many large-scale assessment programs, achievement level descriptors (ALDs) provide a critical role in communicating what scores on the assessment mean and in interpreting what examinees know and are able to do based on their test performance. Based on their test performance, examinees are often classified into performance categories. The…

In this study, we investigated a variety of Reader effects that may influence the validity of ratings assigned to AP® English Literature and Composition essays. Specifically, we investigated whether Readers exhibit changes in their levels of severity and accuracy, and their use of individual scale categories over time. We refer to changes in these…