State leaders are using complex accountability systems, composed of standards, assessments, public reporting, rewards, and sanctions, to raise student, school, and district achievement. The public strongly supports making academic standards more challenging, despite a lack of consensus on content and outcomes. Some states may revise standards…

This study examines how rural elementary school administrators perceive the effects of high-stakes testing in comparison to suburban and urban elementary administrators. High-stakes testing had a greater impact, both positively and negatively, on rural administrators than on their counterparts in suburban and urban schools. Specifically, the…

This paper reports an assessment of the collocational competence of students of English Linguistics at the University of Granada. This was carried out to meet a two-fold purpose. On the one hand, we aimed to establish a solid corpus-driven approach based upon a systematic and reliable framework for the evaluation of collocational competence in…

As states grapple with collecting post-school outcome data, many are seeking guidance on strategies for improving response rates, especially for students who exit school early and informally by dropping out. This practice brief is intended for state and local education agency personnel charged with designing systems to collect post-school outcome…

Claude Steele's stereotype threat hypothesis has attracted significant attention in recent years. This study tested one of the main tenets of his theory--that stereotype threat serves to increase individual anxiety levels, thus hurting performance--using real-time measures of physiological arousal. Subjects were randomly assigned to either high or…

It is argued in this article that user actions need to be monitored to understand what has happened during the learning process. Monitoring on its own is not enough; user actions also need to be controlled to some degree so that users can receive the guidance they need to help them to the successful completion of the learning tasks in CALL…

Media reports are rife with claims that students in the United States are overtested and that they and their education are suffering as result. Here I argue the opposite--that students would benefit in numerous ways from more frequent assessment, especially of diagnostic testing. The regular assessment of students serves critical educational and…

States have moved rapidly over the past 20 years to institute systems of standards and assessments. State assessments in particular take on added importance at the high school level as they are required for graduation by an increasing number of states. Federal legislation mandating testing in high school also serves to increase the stakes and…

Fitness testing is an important assessment tool used by physical educators for many purposes. Some states require fitness testing to monitor individual student progress throughout the school year. Some physical educators use it to monitor the effects of the physical education curriculum and to teach concepts such as goal setting and personal…

Comprehensive examinations, long a bastion in many doctoral programs, are one of many customs under scrutiny for possible change in a movement towards more authentic means of educational assessment. This preliminary study surveyed chairs of departments of educational administration from universities across the United States to learn how computers…

The goal of this mini-curriculum is for students to examine, discover, and compare the physical and chemical properties of soil. Seven units are designed to be presented as a lecture and to allow 30 to 40 students to perform every procedure, each testing their own soil sample. Games are provided in each section to reinforce the concepts presented…

A study examined the invented spelling of kindergarten and first grade students as an indicator of problem-solving strategies. The study explored the operations, by gender, of good spellers and poor spellers and how those operations change over time. A sample of 12 kindergarten girls and 12 kindergarten boys who were learning to read and write in…

This book offers a descriptive account of the world of the British external examiner: who they are, what they do, how they are appointed, and what problems they face. Findings are based on a questionnaire survey of and personal interviews with examiners. The external examiner is independent of the university awarding the degree and quite…

Test theory encompasses models and methods for drawing inferences about what students know and can do, cast in a framework of ideas from measurement, education, and psychology. The emerging paradigm of cognitive psychology prompts new considerations about collecting and interpreting evidence, suggesting alternative models for the nature,…

Assuming the relevance of the linear precedence to the scope interpretation of adult Mandarin, this study investigated the development of this principle in Mandarin-speaking children, with a view to providing a basis for further study of parametric variation. Three kinds of sentences were examined, all of which contained mutually commanding…