The assessment and evaluation process is crucial for building or reforming any educational system. Saudi Arabia, via its different educational entities, has invested heavily in developing assessment and evaluation programs and practices at many levels of the education sector. A national student assessment framework is needed to support…

A growing number of countries has a strong interest in assessing the quality of their talent-support systems. We propose combining two relevant conceptual frameworks -- hemerotopes and the learning and educational capital approach -- to better achieve this end. Hemerotopes provide qualitative categories for assessing the degree to which countries…

Start-up incubators are one of a number of micropolicy interventions used by states to support their technology entrepreneurs. Since 2000, the number of incubators in the United States has almost trebled while that in Europe has more than doubled. This article outlines the challenges involved in attempting to evaluate the contribution of the…

Experiential learning is an effective educational tool across many academic disciplines, including career development. Nine different institutions bridged by the National Institutes of Health Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training Consortium compared their experiments in rethinking and expanding training of predoctoral graduate students and…

This book seeks to illustrate the research on mathematics competencies and disposition in China according to the conceptual development and empirical investigation perspective. Mathematics education in China has a distinguishing feature a focus of attention to mathematical competency. Paradoxically, there has not been an explicit, refined, and…

Meaningful and sustained assessment is best achieved when a campus unit takes a collaborative leadership role to work with other departments, offices, and groups. Simply developing and implementing assessment in isolation and for the unit itself is not enough. While the value of collaboration among diverse campus constituents is widely recognized,…

Purpose: The goal of this article is to conduct macro-level analysis of human capital (HC) development strategies, pursued by four countries commonly referred to as BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Design/methodology/approach: This analysis is based on comparisons of macro indices of human capital and innovativeness of the economy and a…

Teachers are now experiencing the age of quantitative test-driven assessment, in which there is little weight accorded to teacher-based judgement about student progress. In the Australian context, the NAPLaN test has become a driving force in school and teacher accountability. The language of NAPLaN is one of bands and numerical scores and…

These protocols represent a working guide for planning and implementing national sample assessments in connection with the national Key Performance Measures (KPMs). The protocols are intended for agencies involved in planning or conducting national sample assessments and personnel responsible for administering associated tenders or contracts,…

In this article, the characteristics of five test review models are described. The five models are the US review system at the Buros Center for Testing, the German Test Review System of the Committee on Tests, the Brazilian System for the Evaluation of Psychological Tests, the European EFPA Review Model, and the Dutch COTAN Evaluation System for…

Teacher quality has been the focus for much of the past decade as scholars and practitioners debate the differences between teacher quality and teacher effectiveness. What is a highly qualified teacher? Is it a person that possesses a degree in the subject area they teach or one with a set of skills and knowledge to engage learners to think and…

The Plus 50 Initiative is a three-year initiative of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), launched in June 2008 and funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. It was created to support a pilot group of two-year institutions to develop or expand campus programs that engage plus 50 learners. The overarching goal of the Plus 50…

This report describes work using nationally representative 2005 data from the School Nutrition Dietary Assessment-III (SNDA-III) study to develop a simulation model to predict the potential implications of changes in policies or practices related to school meals and school food environments. The model focuses on three domains of outcomes: (1) the…

The author discusses the work of Britain's Assessment of Performance Unit, a national program of performance monitoring to identify the incidence of underachievement. (CL)

Examined the stages of evaluation practice and use at a national multisite community service program with an internal evaluation department. Reviews challenges to evaluation use and organizational supports for it and discusses the integrated theory of use of K. Kirkhart (2000) at both site and national levels. Summarizes lessons learned in this…