We present an analysis of students' thinking skills as evidenced by free-response exam problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. We compare two inquiry-based, laboratory-based classical mechanics courses, one taught online and one taught in person during the pandemic, and two inquiry-based, laboratory-based electricity and magnetism courses, one…

In physics education research (PER), concept inventories (CIs) have become standard instruments for assessing students' learning throughout instruction. To promote widespread use of concept inventories, previous studies have developed an approach to split a full length CI into short versions of CIs. This research extends the existing method to…

Formative assessment strategies are used to direct instruction by establishing where learners' understanding is, how it is developing, informing teachers and students alike as to how they might get to their next set of goals of conceptual understanding. For the science classroom, one rich source of formative assessment data about scientific…

Introduces the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism (CSEM) which was developed to assess students' knowledge of topics in electricity and magnetism. Reports on the number of student difficulties in electricity and magnetism. (Contains 23 references.) (Author/YDS)

This paper describes alternative assessments being used successfully at two elementary magnet schools in North Carolina and summarizes case studies of the assessment development process. Assessments, grade levels, school years, and school districts in the case studies differed, but commonalities in developing the assessments enabled the…

Magnet schools have become increasingly popular as alternatives to traditional curriculum offerings and as tools to promote voluntary desegregation in urban school districts. Most evaluations of magnet schools have been concerned with monitoring objectives and compliance with regulations. Few reports assess the impact of magnet curricula on…

The Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) was designed to eliminate and prevent minority group isolation in targeted magnet schools in the Wake County (North Carolina) Public School System; this evaluation report examines factors that relate to achieving the MSAP goals and objectives. Parent survey data were used to determine whether increased…