Assessing students' writing performance is essential to adequately monitor and promote individual writing development, but it is also a challenge. The present research investigates a benchmark rating procedure for assessing texts written by upper-elementary students. In two studies we examined whether a benchmark rating procedure (1) leads to…

One of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic was the rapid shift to replacing traditional, paper-based tests with their computer-based counterparts. In many cases, these new modes of delivering tests will remain in place for the foreseeable future. In South Africa, the National Benchmark Quantitative Literacy (QL) test was impelled to make this…

The group project team conducted this mixed methods case study to report findings from data collected from a Non-public School Accrediting Association in the midwestern United States and how small Catholic schools use the NSBECS to monitor the school's operational vitality. The group project team identified Standard 10 of the four Standards within…

Large Language Models (LLMs) hold promise as dynamic instructional aids. Yet, it remains unclear whether LLMs can replicate the adaptivity of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS)--where student knowledge and pedagogical strategies are explicitly modeled. We propose a prompt variation framework to assess LLM-generated instructional moves' adaptivity…

The group project team conducted this mixed methods case study to report findings from data collected from a Non-public School Accrediting Association in the midwestern United States and how small Catholic schools use the NSBECS to monitor the school's operational vitality. The group project team identified Standard 10 of the four Standards within…

This report presents normative data for the easyCBM reading and mathematics assessment system, designed for students in Grades K-8 to support academic screening and progress monitoring. The normative indices provide educators with reliable benchmarks for identifying students at risk for academic difficulties, setting growth targets, and evaluating…

The Matthew Effect is an educational theory that children who begin their academic careers with lower reading scores do not catch up to their peers, instead falling farther and farther behind as their schooling progresses. This study includes a hierarchical multiple-regression analysis of within-year benchmark data for the presence of Matthew…

The Vortex School District (VSD) utilized CASE benchmark assessments as their accountability tool to measure students' progress on Tennessee's standardized testing. The researchers sought to determine the predictive relationship between math scores on CASE benchmark assessments and math scores on state-mandated standardized tests within the VSD.…

The Vortex School District (VSD) utilized CASE benchmark assessments as their accountability tool to measure students' progress on Tennessee's standardized testing. The researchers sought to determine the predictive relationship between math scores on CASE benchmark assessments and math scores on state-mandated standardized tests within the VSD.…

The Vortex School District (VSD) utilized CASE benchmark assessments as their accountability tool to measure students' progress on Tennessee's standardized testing. The researchers sought to determine the predictive relationship between math scores on CASE benchmark assessments and math scores on state-mandated standardized tests within the VSD.…

In 2016, the GED® introduced college readiness benchmarks designed to identify testers who are academically prepared for credit-bearing college coursework. The benchmarks are promoted as awarding college credits or exempting "college-ready" GED® graduates from remedial coursework. I show descriptive evidence that those identified as…

The SAT has long been used to assess students' readiness for college and to create competitiveness in college admissions. However, it has become a topic of controversy as stakeholders and researchers question its necessity, value, and validity especially where it concerns equitable access to post-secondary opportunities for underrepresented…

Multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) provide instruction and intervention to all students in schools. However, when many students within a setting demonstrate reading difficulties, there is likely a tier 1 problem which makes it infeasible to implement tier 2 or tier 3 interventions with large numbers of students due to limited resources. The…

Assessment and evaluation are at the heart of all functioning systems, as progress can be determined with the information collected by these assessments. The problem addressed in this study is the lack of actionable data to evaluate whether assessments aligned with Montessori benchmarks support the achievement of student outcomes. To address the…

The purpose of this study was to determine if ongoing, sustained professional development in the area of reading resulted in an increase in student achievement on reading scores using i-Ready reading comprehension data. For the purpose of this study, students were divided into two groups: Group 1 was taught by teachers who received ongoing,…