When the National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Schools (NSBECS) were first developed, principal and superintendent of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Grand Rapids, Michigan, David Faber writes in this article of his elation at the possibilities for measuring quality and for addressing total school improvement that the…

Ensuring internal validity in quantitative research requires, among other conditions, reliable instrumentation. Unfortunately, however, second language (L2) researchers often fail to report and even more often fail to interpret reliability estimates beyond generic benchmarks for acceptability. As a means to guide interpretations of such estimates,…

This study tested whether second graders use benchmark-based strategies when solving a number line estimation (NLE) task. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions based on the availability of benchmarks provided on the number line. In the bounded condition, number lines were only bounded at both sides by 0 and 200, while the midpoint…

Designing innovative high quality educational programmes to meet the workforce needs in emerging interdisciplinary areas of practice can present challenges to academics, students, employers and industrial partners. This paper demonstrates how the Tuning Process successfully helped to construct benchmark learning outcomes and competences in the…

In Australia, the impacts of urbanisation and human activity are evident in increased waste generation and the emissions of metals into the air, land or water. Metals that have accumulated in urban soils almost exclusively anthropogenically can persist for long periods in the environment. Anthropogenic waste emissions containing heavy metals are a…

A public university was established in 2014 as a cornerstone of Ecuador's sweeping higher education reforms. Four years later, Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam had developed internationally benchmarked teaching, research and community service missions within the Ecuadorian Amazon. The creation of Ikiam occurred during a period of broad…

This article presents a meta-synthesis review of quality of online education (QOE) measurement approaches. In order to survey the existing body of knowledge, a qualitative method was employed to investigate what quality of online education is comprised of and how the concept has been measured through the literature. To achieve this, a total of 112…

This paper reports on qualitative research from an Australian, K-6, faith-based school about teachers' experience of a job-embedded professional learning initiative (the "Whole-School Benchmarking of Writing," WSBoW) that was designed to improve teachers' capacity to apply data-driven decision-making to achieve improvements in student…

The Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) is a time-series database, which provides an early warning for necessary curricular reforms in mathematics and science subjects and offers an opportunity for schools and policymakers to reflect on the effectiveness of educational changes. It provides vital data for governments and researchers to…

Ninth grade is a critical juncture for students. Students who make a good transition to high school are likely to graduate within four years. Those who do not--who fail to earn as many credits as they should in ninth grade--face an elevated risk of dropping out of high school. To understand how well they are supporting ninth graders, more school…

Improving Indigenous students' literacy is a major priority area for the Australian Government, receiving significant funding to address below benchmark English literacy standardised test results. Despite this, recent benchmark tests suggest Indigenous students continue to achieve well below the national average. This systematic review discusses…

The 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) involved 57 countries and 43 different languages to assess students' achievement in mathematics and science. The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether items and test scores are affected as the differences between language families and cultures increase. Using…

This report conducted an evaluation of the initial implementation of Reading Roots 5 and determined the program's impacts on students' reading outcomes. The study employed a one-group, pre-post correlational study design. Overall, participating students' reading achievement and fluency increased over the period when RR5 was implemented. This pilot…

This study reports on the instruction provided in district-designed intensive summer reading programs. The Tier 3 intervention was provided to 374 students from 24 school districts who were not meeting the end of third-grade reading benchmarks; students were exiting third grade and entering fourth grade. Observations of the 40 classes were…

International large-scale assessments of student achievement such as International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Program for International…