The students' lack of motivation is a usual problem. The students value more the obtention of the degree than the developing of competences and skills. In order to fight this, we developed a gamification's experience based on merits and leaderboards. The merits are linked to the attainment of skills and competences that students usually do not…

This field report is the seventh in a series produced by the Center on Innovations in Learning's League of Innovators. The series describes, discusses, and analyzes policies and practices that enable personalization in education. This report introduces sessions from the "Conversations with Innovators" event held at Temple University,…

This paper considers the responses of 26 teachers to items exploring their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) about the concept of average. The items explored teachers' knowledge of average, their planning of a unit on average, and their understanding of students as learners in devising remediation for two student responses to a problem. Results…

This paper reports on one phase of a long-term project investigating mathematical content knowledge of pre-service teachers. A cohort of second year PSTs conducted a diagnostic assessment and a series of associated tutoring sessions with a primary aged child. The focus here is on the PSTs' ability to make appropriate task choices following the…

It is essential that pre-service teacher educators address pre-service teacher numeracy but with careful consideration as it incorporates more than mathematics skills. Numeracy also involves disposition towards mathematics--attitudes, confidence and mathematics anxiety; that is, the level of willingness to use mathematics skills. As part of an…

Prospective child care givers need to prepare themselves not only for employment but also for entrepreneurship in the field of child care service. In order to explore the entrepreneurial potential of prospective child care givers, an exploratory survey was conducted to survey 68 senior students of a department of child care in a public…

This paper discusses the legal implications inherent in the competency or proficiency testing issue. Competency testing is designed to respond to the public demand for accountability by placing responsibility on the educational organization, versus the learner, to assure that students no longer leave high school functionally illiterate. Following…

The paper addresses the issues of testing modifications with handicapped students in Houston (Texas) Independent School District. Using descriptive data, the performance of secondary mainstreamed and nonhandicapped students on course proficiency field tests without modifications are compared. Approximately 65% of the mainstreamed students were…

This paper provides an exposition on simple and complex comparisons within the framework of Poisson regression. Poisson regression is well suited for the analysis of event count outcomes. Since simple and complex comparisons with both analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multiple linear regression (MLR) are common, the similarities between Poisson…

Educators were asked to read a description of a minimum proficiency test required for high school graduation and select a cutoff score for it. The 24 descriptions used were formed as all possible combinations of a test content, a level of student performance, a penalty for failing the test, and a community response to the test. Of the 223…

This paper examines some of the negative consequences that have occurred in school districts attempting to comply with state legislation in regard to competency testing. It analyzes four definitions of competency assessments for elementary schools and then lists several possible results of a hasty response to competency testing mandates. The paper…

This conference paper examines issues regarding minimum competency testing, including: (1) the history and current status of minimum competency testing programs, in the U.S. and especially in the Midwest; (2) technical characteristics of minimum competency tests; (3) the relationship of minimum competency tests to the regular curriculum and…

This study presents an application of the Rasch equating methodology on a minimum competency testing program in reading and mathematics. Common item equating was performed in two stages to link the 1978-1979 form of the New Jersey Minimum Basic Skills tests to the 1977-1978 form. Both fit to the Rasch model and stability of the common item pools…

Albert Shanker, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), speaks about the national testing of teachers and calls for the creation of a new and better national examination for new teachers. While members of the AFT have a few differences with some of the current reform proposals, the AFT in general supports the overwhelming majority…

Some general questions about minimum competency tests are discussed, and various methods of setting standards are reviewed with major attention devoted to those methods used for dichotomizing a continuum. Methods reviewed under the heading of Absolute Judgments of Test Content include Nedelsky's, Angoff's, Ebel's, and Jaeger's. These methods are…