New Hampshire's Performance Assessment of Competency Education (PACE) innovative assessment system uses student scores from classroom performance assessments as well as other classroom tests for school accountability purposes. One concern is that not having annual state testing may incentivize schools and teachers away from teaching the breadth of…

Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) are an integral part of evaluating course outcomes. They are routinely used to evaluate teaching quality for the purposes of reappointment, promotion, and tenure (RPT), annual review, and the rehiring of adjunct faculty and lecturers. These evaluations are often based almost entirely on the mean or proportion…

Several studies with quantitative, qualitative or theoretical approaches have been carried out, focusing on the application of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) in the educational sector. However, despite the literature on the subject, it is difficult to draw an overview of the use of the BSC in this sector. In order to fill this gap, our research…

California's Commission on Teacher Credentialing (Commission) requires all programs of preliminary multiple and single subject teacher preparation to use a Commission-approved Teaching Performance Assessment (TPA) as one of the program completion requirements for prospective teacher candidates. Three TPA models were approved by the Commission: (1)…

While there has been considerable research on doctoral examination there is little that examines the various roles of the oral component and what issues one might consider if introducing or revising that aspect of the thesis examination process. This matter is of particular importance in Australia where it is not usual to have an oral component as…

Current issues in the use of peer assessment techniques and sociometric methods are discussed. Attention is paid to the contributions of the four articles in this volume. Together these contributions point to the continual level of change and progress in these techniques. They also show that the paradigm underlying these methods has been unchanged…

The technology acceptance model (TAM) has been widely used to assess technology adoption in business, education, and health care. The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) launched a web-based Individualized Educational Program (IEP) system for school psychologists to use in conducting evaluations and reviews. This quantitative study…

Background: In low-stakes educational assessments, test takers might show a performance decline (PD) on end-of-test items. PD is a concern in educational assessments, especially when groups of students are to be compared on the proficiency variable because item responses gathered in the groups could be differently affected by PD. In order to…

Peer review is a powerful method to enhance teaching in higher education. Peers, however, may not be the most relevant people in evaluating teaching success; as the most important stakeholders in learning, students' evaluations need to be heard. Whilst some efforts to capture "the student voice" are simplistic and may foster consumerist…

The present study aimed to detect the level of faculty members' attitudes at public universities towards the performance appraisal process and its relationship with some variables (gender, college, scientific rank, university, teaching experience, and age). The study sample consisted of (320) faculty members of both sexes in three public…

For standard- or criterion-based assessments, the use of cut scores to indicate mastery, nonmastery, or different levels of skill mastery is very common. As part of performance summary, it is of interest to examine the percentage of examinees at or above the cut scores (PAC) and how PAC evolves across administrations. This paper shows that…

The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable rating scale to assess jazz rhythm sections in the context of jazz big band performance. The research questions that guided this study included: (a) what central factors contribute to the assessment of a jazz rhythm section? (b) what items should be used to describe and assess a jazz…

Performance appraisal is necessary for summative decisions about employees, such as merit pay and promotion. The research reported here describes Extension agent perceptions of their performance appraisal system. The population studied consisted of all Tennessee Extension agents (N = 312). Surveys were completed by 218 respondents, for a completed…

"Recommendation" is a highly credible and powerful construct in marketing. This article investigates the construct "intention to recommend" in the context of student evaluations of teaching. Motivated by changes in the sector, the study explores what factors drive course recommendation and their relationship with each other. A…

Recent research on multiple measures of teaching effectiveness has redefined the role of in-classroom observations in teacher evaluation systems. In particular, most states now mandate that teachers are observed on multiple occasions during the school year, and it is increasingly common that multiple raters are utilized across the different rating…