This study was designed to assess the effects of states' adoption of more rigorous standards as part of the current wave of standards-based reform on student achievement using comparative interrupted time series analyses based on state-level NAEP data from 1990 to 2017. Results show that the effects of adopting more rigorous standards on students'…

This study was designed to assess the effects of states' adoption of more rigorous standards as part of the current wave of standards-based reform on student achievement using comparative interrupted time series analyses based on state-level NAEP data from 1990 to 2017. Results show that the effects of adopting more rigorous standards on students'…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has periodically published reports using results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to compare the proficiency standards that states set for their students. Since standards vary across states, the results of the various state assessments cannot be used to directly compare…

The National Assessment Program -- Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) in Australia is a series of literacy and numeracy tests that are used for purposes of school comparison. This paper argues that a key question for this use lies in whether or not this is a reasonable, or valid, use of the test data. Using Kane's argumentative approach to validity,…

The debate on the stringency of licensure exams for prospective public school teachers is on-going, including the recent controversial roll-out of the educative Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA). We leverage the quasi-experimental setting of different adoption timing by states and analyze multiple data sources containing a national sample of…

This study finds that, breaking with decades of slow improvement, U.S. reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other assessments have seen historic declines since most states implemented national Common Core English and math curriculum standards six years ago. This descriptive analysis is designed to…

New York State's system of public elementary and secondary schools is in steep decline, but it is salvageable. The roots of its problems pre-date the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, but the system's response to that challenge accelerated discontent with the schools and harmed students. The damage of those years will not be undone if…

The "gender gap" in attainment is an issue in Scotland but is also an international phenomenon. In Scotland, this gap continues to be apparent as girls outperform boys in national examinations. This raises challenges for those working in schools and for policymakers in responding to this phenomenon. This article focuses on appraising…

A recent literature provides new evidence that school resources are important for student outcomes. In this paper, we show that school finance reform-induced increases in student performance are driven by those states that had test-based accountability policies in place at the time. By incentivizing school improvement, accountability systems (such…

Measuring Early Learning Quality & Outcomes (MELQO) was initiated to address needs for child development and quality of early childhood education (ECE) data, specifically for low- and middle-income countries. Drawing from existing tools, MELQO convened a consortium to create open-source tools to be adapted to national contexts, simultaneously…

The 2008 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Arts Assessment was administered to selected 8th grade students throughout the nation, and in 2009 the results from that administration were publicly reported. In the spring of 2010, building on the format and structure of the 2008 national assessment, the researcher administered a…

Using qualitative data from two Chilean public schools, I interrogate the expectation that standardised testing motivates staff to critically self-assess themselves and to be accountable for failing evaluations. The research findings bring new insights into looking at ways in which school members, especially head managers, strategically debate,…

Concern is often raised about the performance of Australia's "best" mathematics students on international studies, relative to past students and other countries. An important consideration in developing strategies to ensure our most proficient mathematics students experience learning growth is an understanding of the distribution and…

Studies using tests scores as the dependent variable often report point estimates in student standard deviation units. We note that a standard deviation is not a standard unit of measurement since the distribution of test scores can vary across contexts. As such, researchers should be cautious when interpreting differences in the numerical size of…

Utilizing the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data, this study examined (1) how fourth and eighth-grade ELLs' mathematics and reading scores on national tests compared to their non-ELL peers' scores over the testing period between 2003 and 2011, and (2) if gender and ethnicity contributed to variation in the growth patterns…