The paper outlines the history of the different uses of 'quality' in higher education. Emphasis is given to the United Kingdom, but consideration is also given to a range of international contexts. Three different uses of 'academic quality' are identified (the state-driven, sector-derived, and the traditional academic uses) and their relationship…

This scope-review presents the milestones of how Hierarchical Rater Models (HRMs) become operable to used in automated essay scoring (AES) to improve instructional evaluation. Although essay evaluations--a useful instrument for evaluating higher-order cognitive abilities--have always depended on human raters, concerns regarding rater bias,…

Background: STEAM education emphasizes transdisciplinary application and practice; however, there is a lack of comprehensive assessment tools for evaluating K-12 students' transdisciplinary learning. Given the cross-domain instructional and learning approaches in STEAM education, this study aims to develop and validate the Learn, Use, Practice,…

Evaluation is an important tool for facilitating and promoting the growth of school members and improving the quality of schooling. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) claimed that effective school evaluation involves continuously using the results of such evaluations in school operations (2019). Based on the…

Diagnostic tests are typically administered in a multiple-choice (MC) format due to their advantages of objectivity and time efficiency. The MC-deterministic input, noisy "and" gate (DINA) family of models, a representative class of cognitive diagnostic models for MC items, efficiently and parsimoniously estimates the mastery profiles of…

This study utilizes the Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI) to evaluate the operating performance of technology universities in Taiwan. The bootstrap method is employed to analyze MPI sensitivity to verify the index's stability. Our results suggest that the universities demonstrate an adequate level of performance with little improvement required.…

One of the central components of cognitive diagnostic assessment is the Q-matrix, which is an essential loading indicator matrix and is typically constructed by subject matter experts. Nonetheless, to a large extent, the construction of Q-matrix remains a subjective process and might lead to misspecifications. Many researchers have recognized the…

Many countries have looked at schools as spaces that can impart requisite skills for future jobs through competency-based education (CBE). Yet, there is limited comparative research evidence showing countries' implementation progress. The research design adopted for this study is a meta-narrative. Stufflebeam's (2000) context, input, process and…

National Assessment Week (NAW) is a series of virtual events dedicated to advancing assessment practices in higher education. This annual event occurs during the first full week of April and represents a concentrated effort to foster assessment dialogue across the nation's colleges and universities. With a mission to enhance assessment practices…

This research article establishes the relationship between key performance indicators and the academic and research quality performance and assessment and quality assurance of any large multidisciplinary academic and research institution or university. The indicators in terms of qualitative and quantitative are being proposed below and are…

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play a crucial role in human capacity building and knowledge creation regardless of countries, which significantly contribute to the development of a peaceful, stable, independent, and self-sustaining society. Consequently, stakeholders in higher education have advocated for the establishment of Quality…

This paper reports on a set of three recent experiments utilizing large-scale speech models to assess the oral reading fluency (ORF) of students in Ghana. While ORF is a well-established measure of foundational literacy, assessing it typically requires one-on-one sessions between a student and a trained rater, a process that is time-consuming and…

Research suggests that the inspection service in England, Ofsted, has negative impacts on teachers and creates a culture of fear and performativity. Of particular concern is Ofsted's potential to harm schools and educators as they are navigating the ongoing impacts of the pandemic, growing child poverty, and crises relating to teacher retention,…

This report investigates the link between different 5 percentage point bandings of attendance and attainment for pupils at the end of Key Stage 2 (KS2) and Key Stage 4 (KS4) in state-funded mainstream schools in 2022/23. Absence from school is not the only factor that is likely to affect a pupil's level of attainment. There are a range of pupil,…

Educational tests often have a cluster of items linked by a common stimulus ("testlet"). In such a design, the dependencies caused between items are called "testlet effects." In particular, the directional testlet effect (DTE) refers to a recursive influence whereby responses to earlier items can positively or negatively affect…