Standardized testing is an external control mechanism for K-12 public schools. Principals, nested between internal and external influences, must manage the tension created by testing's roles as both an internal improvement tool and as an external control mechanism. Five competing narratives, each shaped by author academic background, significantly…

Faculty and students may benefit from using a well-designed instrument to meet the objectives of both institutional assessment requirements and direct student learning in the discipline. This paper discusses how accounting rubrics can be used to evaluate and assess student learning by providing an organized approach to determine student success on…

Assessment of learning has become very important for government, universities and accrediting agencies. In this article, two variables are examined, leadership and teamwork, in the context of a survey used by one mid-south university for assessment purposes. This survey demonstrates the problems that arise when the sequential steps of the research…

An effect size of about 0.70 (or 0.40-0.70) is often claimed for the efficacy of formative assessment, but is not supported by the existing research base. More than 300 studies that appeared to address the efficacy of formative assessment in grades K-12 were reviewed. Many of the studies had severely flawed research designs yielding…

Much of the research on students' understanding of the greenhouse effect and global warming reports poor results. Students are claimed to hold misconceptions and naive beliefs, and the impact of teaching on their conceptions is also low. In the present study, these results are called into question, and it is argued that they may to a large extent…

If students cannot express themselves in the language of the assessor, and if the assessor is not familiar with the cultural constraints within which students operate, it is difficult for the assessor to collect evidence of adequate performance. This article describes the assessment of three digital artefacts where the assessor strove to…

The purpose of this paper is to outline and explain the evaluation system used by the Rhode Island Department of Education to measure the effectiveness of compensatory education programs. An exposition of how relevant background, program and financial information is collected is presented. In addition, a delineation is made of the methods…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) recently expanded its national survey to include state representative samples on a trial basis. In 1992, the NAEP undertook studied non-response in the trial assessment through two simulation projects. The first looked at state assessments that were similar to NAEP tests for states with low…

Practices identified by experts as critical variables in eliciting writing samples were checked against 12 randomly selected studies using holistic ratings to derive descriptions of inferential statistical results for described samples. The studies often lacked precise information about these variables, limiting understanding of writing evaluation…

Research on the quality of foreign medical graduates (FMG) in terms of their competence or manifest abilities as measured by examinations, and their performance or actual behavior is briefly reviewed. In addition, some of the methodological problems that make research on foreign medical graduates difficult to interpret are critiqued, and…

Proposes that there be more direct carryover of what has been learned about measurement in research to measurement in teaching (specifically, grading). Major sources of error in the measurement process are identified, and seven tested social science research strategies are presented. Suggests that to the extent measurement is varied and repeated,…

An introduction to profiles is presented with examples provided to permit an overall appraisal of the potential of profiles, of the principles upon which they might be based, and of the problems that will have to be overcome if their potential is to be realized in practice. The larger scale examples of profiles discussed are the Scottish Pupil…

Despite the popularity of outcome-based education, research documenting its effects is rare. As an umbrella concept embracing various reform efforts, OBE defies easy definition. This article explains two OBE models (Mastery Learning and the Outcomes-Driven Developmental Model used in Johnson City, New York, Schools) and summarizes recent state OBE…

In this article, the authors present a study of experienced faculty's beliefs about the assessment of interdisciplinary student work. The study focuses on faculty's close analysis of student work produced in interdisciplinary courses, such as integrative final papers, written examinations, and capstone presentations. The authors begin by reviewing…

Educational assessment concerns inference about students' knowledge, skills, and accomplishments. Because data are never so comprehensive and unequivocal as to ensure certitude, test theory evolved in part to address questions of weight, coverage, and import of data. The resulting concepts and techniques can be viewed as applications of more…