This study examines administrator perceptions of Pennsylvania's state assessment data. This study had three main purposes. The first purpose was to investigate the value and utility of state assessment data to inform decision making and the possibility of improving student achievement through the routine use of state assessment data. The second…

The implementation of Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) has been successful in multiple elementary systems across the United States. Providing three tiers of support for students struggling academically, social-emotionally, and behaviorally in the classroom setting and created success for many students until they reach the secondary level,…

The accountability era has produced school grading systems that purport to evaluate school effectiveness yet utilize hegemonic formulas that label low-scoring schools and neighborhoods, depriving them of incentive monies tied to their school grades. This quantitative study analyzed the publicly available data of 106 elementary schools in one large…

There has been explosive growth in the physician assistant/associate (PA) profession in the last ten years, leading to a meteoric increase in PA training programs. Attaining and maintaining accreditation is required for PA program operations, and thus, successfully leading an accreditation self-assessment is a critical responsibility for PA…

Researchers often assess causal effects of educational programs or policies using educational assessment data. This dissertation explores novel methods of estimating causal effects in educational assessment data and is broken into three parts. The first part proposes a regression discontinuity design with an ordinal running variable to assess the…

The purpose of this dissertation was to validate scores for a new survey tool, The Virtual Learning Assessment. This 53-item measure was designed with the intent that if scores are validated it could provide a means in which student-teacher relationships and the attributes that enhance those relationships in a remote setting could be assessed. To…

Higher education institutions across the country have examined equity in education outcomes through disaggregating student demographic data. However, it is not as common for academic institutions to also examine student learning outcomes for inequities in student learning. The current study explores what the greatest contributors are for the lack…

This research explored the knowledge, skills, and strategies early childhood teachers possess related to implementing curriculum and authentic assessment. Research suggests that early educators rate their knowledge of curriculum and authentic assessment and their implementation of both as excellent. Despite these self-reported, high levels of…

As the field of education continues to grow, new methods and approaches to teaching are being developed with the goal of improving students' understanding of concepts. While research exists showing positive effects for particular teaching methods in small case studies, generalizations to larger populations of students, which are needed to…

This quantitative study investigated Kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade teachers' perceptions regarding using assessment data to support reading development. Thirty-nine teachers from eight southwestern school districts encompassing four counties were surveyed. The researcher used The Statewide Data-Driven Readiness Study: Teacher Survey…

The purpose of this research study was to examine the role of the senior student affairs officer (SSAO) in promoting assessment practice within the Division of Student Life at Randal University. A qualitative, single-case study research design was employed to conduct this study. The case for this investigation was the Vice President for Student…

Institutions of higher education both value and need student assessment data. Faculty, as seen in numerous studies, however, have generally negatively received the formalization and reporting of student assessments to gather this assessment data. If we could better understand faculty experiences and perceptions of student assessment data within…

Assessment and testing have become accepted practices in US schools today, to the point where teachers, parents, and students consider it excessive at the expense of instructional time in the classroom. Formative assessment programs have been implemented to improve academic performance for well over a decade. The problem that was examined by this…

Teachers' observations of student performance in reading are abundant and insightful but often remain internal and unarticulated. As a result, such observations are an underutilized and undervalued source of data. Given the gaps in knowledge about students' reading comprehension that exist in formal assessments, the frequent calls for teachers'…

Policymakers and professional educators attempt to be good stewards of public funds while simultaneously raising expectations for student outcomes that reflect academic excellence in the public school system. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficiency of Texas public school districts and the factors influencing the inefficiency of…