Objective-Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are a valuable source of assessment for students' practical clinical and professional skills throughout their medical careers due to the OSCEs' capability to test multiple competencies in a standardized manner. Over the years, OSCEs have increasingly been integrated across medical programs to…

The "Every Student Succeeds Act" (ESSA), signed into law in 2015 and still in the midst of implementation, requires states to develop and submit to the U.S. Department of Education a state education accountability plan. Compared to the previous federal education law, the "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB), ESSA mandates that…

Professional Development Units (PDUs) were new to the AISD REACH program in 2010-2011. This report summarizes participants' experiences with PDUs and the influence of PDUs on student performance on the state academic tests (TAKS) and Student Learning Objectives.

This report examines the Texas state student academic assessment (TAKS) growth for teachers who established and met individual and/or team Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) in 2010-2011. Results are inconsistent regarding the overall influence of SLOs on student growth.

This technical assistance paper provides guidance to individuals with test administration responsibilities in adult education programs. These policies apply to the approved assessments that programs may use to report educational gains in compliance with the National Reporting System (NRS) requirements. The NRS is the accountability system for the…

The need to adequately prepare all students for the next stage in their lives has led a number of states to adopt new educational standards that reflect the expectation that all high school students will be ready for college and career when they graduate. The report "Communicating College and Career Readiness through Proficiency…

This article gives a brief introduction to the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and analyzes developmental progress of OSCE at both home and abroad and standardized patients' application in OSCE. Also, this article expounds application of OSCE in graduation exam of clinical medical students. Finally, this article summarizes…

The Academic Performance Index (API) is the centerpiece of California's state assessment and accountability system. With the recent passage of SB1458 and the pending reauthorization of both state and federal accountability legislation, there is now an unprecedented opportunity to improve the API for next generation accountability in California. In…

Creating smart, coherent education policy is painstaking work; there are technical, budgetary, and political challenges at almost every turn. But it is some of the most important work that state leaders can undertake. As Ohioans prepared to elect a new governor in late 2018, we at the Fordham Institute began rolling out a set of policy proposals…

The push for accountability in public schooling has extended to the measurement of teacher performance, accelerated by federal efforts through Race to the Top. Currently, a large number of states and districts across the country are computing measures of teacher performance based on the standardized test scores of their students and using them to…

States and school districts are exploring alternatives to state tests for measuring teachers' contributions to student learning. One approach applies statistical value-added methods to alternative student assessments such as commercially available tests and end-of course tests. The evidence suggests that these methods can reliably distinguish…

Internationalization is possible, but the objectives need careful consideration. It is noted that the majority of countries do not have any form of test quality procedure and that only a small number have reviews, registration, certification, or some combination of these approaches. Internationalization could provide benefits at the least by…

Pressures are great upon public school teachers and administrators in secondary school systems to insure their students perform well on state and national achievement tests. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (NCLB) puts an extreme amount of emphasis on students' performance on subject area tests. NCLB (2002) requires that at least 95% of the…

A program at North East High School (NEHS) was started to help improve state test scores. Senior students work with underclassmen in one of the four state test areas: Algebra, English 10, Biology, and Government to help improve scores with hopes of passing the test. State test scores help to determine whether or not a school will meet their Annual…

While many of the concepts and approaches that comprise student-centered learning have deep roots in learning theory, the cognitive sciences, and youth and child development, empirical research on student-centered learning's impact in K-12 classrooms remains limited. This report offers highlights from three studies commissioned by Nellie Mae,…