In recent years, the lower secondary school curriculum in the Republic of Ireland has been subject to assessment-led reform, many elements of which, such as the increased focus on continuous school-based assessment, reflect those of similar initiatives introduced in other countries. This paper explores the extent to which this reformed approach is…

PISA aims to serve as a "global yardstick" for educational success, as measured by student performance. For comparisons to be meaningful across countries or over time, PISA samples must be representative of the population of 15-year-old students in each country. Exclusions and non-response can undermine this representativeness and…

Despite the widespread use of school-based universal screening systems for social, emotional, and behavioral risk, limited research has examined discrepancies in ratings provided by teachers and their secondary students. Using the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener (SAEBRS; teacher report) and mySAEBRS (student report) scores…

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore teachers' and administrators' perceptions of test score pollution deriving from COVID-19-related issues that may affect students' test scores on state-mandated standardized tests for grades six through 12 in a state along the Atlantic Coast of the United States. Four research…

International large-scale assessments provide cross-national data on students' cognitive and non-cognitive characteristics. A critical methodological issue that often arises in comparing data from cross-national studies is ensuring measurement invariance, indicating that the construct under investigation is the same across the compared groups.…

The use of multistage adaptive testing (MST) has gradually increased in large-scale testing programs as MST achieves a balanced compromise between linear test design and item-level adaptive testing. MST works on the premise that each examinee gives their best effort when attempting the items, and their responses truly reflect what they know or can…

Questionnaires in educational research assessing students' attitudes and beliefs are low-stakes for the students. As a consequence, students might not always consistently respond to a questionnaire scale but instead provide more random response patterns with no clear link to items' contents. We study inter-individual differences in students'…

The problem of this research is how to use assessment for school learning and what are students' creative thinking skills? Research objectives: First, to uncover, analyze, identify, describe the learning assessment used by teachers and students of Nusantara Indah Sintang Senior High School. Second, to express, analyze and describe students'…

Teaching is a stressful profession with a high turnover rate. Schools and related institutions need to take more action to support teachers and keep teacher stress at a manageable level. The continued research and practical effort require measures to examine teachers' stress in a briefer and accurate manner. The Teacher Stress Scale is a recently…

The Chinese National Matriculation English Test (NMET) has a test purpose of producing beneficial washback to promote senior high school English teaching and learning. This article presents a large-scale nationwide survey research on student perceptions of the NMET's before-test washback on their English learning outcomes in senior high school and…

Comprehensive quality assessment is an assessment system that identifies and explores students' strengths. By examining the developmental progress made in pilot provinces that have implemented comprehensive quality assessment, valuable insights and guidance can be derived for other provinces preparing to adopt this assessment approach. In this…

This paper employs a Critical Cultural Political Economy of Education perspective to examine how, why, and to what effect the English proficiency rankings of a for-profit edu-business acquire the authority often granted to international large-scale assessments. Analysing the EF English Proficiency Index in the context of Ecuador illustrates how…

The Korean College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) aims to assess Korean high school students' scholastic ability required for college readiness. As a high-stakes test, the examination serves as a pivotal hurdle for university admission and exerts a strong washback effect on the educational system in Korea. The present study set out to investigate…

This study employed a multi-methods design to investigate the impact of preparation on Chinese test-takers' perceptions of the integrated TOEFL iBT speaking and writing design. Combining results from over 1700 surveys and 10 interviews, it was found that these Chinese test-takers, who are the most vulnerable group in the multimillion testing…

This paper presents the findings of a study which aimed at exploring the washback of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) English examinations on English teaching and learning practice at secondary schools in Bangladesh. For this purpose, a qualitative research (employing interviews with English teachers, FGDs with students and classroom…