Briggs and Peck (2015) have written a thought-provoking article on the use of learning progressions in the design of vertical scales that support inferences about student growth. Organized learning models, including learning trajectories, learning progressions, and learning maps have been the subject of research for many years, but more recently…

The school performance study of students is, due to its relevance and complexity, one of the issues of major controversy in the educational research, and it has been given special attention in the last decades. This study is intended to show a conceptual approach to the school performance construct, contextualizing the reality in the regular basic…

Within any Educational System the transition of pupils from one stage to the next, and often the associated transition from one educational establishment to another, is an area of interest for educational establishments, educationalists and educational authorities due to the effects of this movement on pupil progress, their academic achievement…

This paper explores the relationship between inspection and improvement, especially on the leadership of teaching, learning and assessment, in three contrasting further education colleges in England. In two of the three colleges, the criteria within the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) Children's Services and Skills' Common Inspection…

With the recent adoption of the Common Core standards in many states, there is a need for quality information about textbook alignment to standards. While there are many existing content analysis procedures, these generally have little, if any, validity or reliability evidence. One exception is the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC), which has…

The idea that test scores may not be valid representations of what students know, can do, and should learn next is well known. Person fit provides an important aspect of validity evidence. Person fit analyses at the individual student level are not typically conducted and person fit information is not communicated to educational stakeholders. In…

Following the election of the Conservative--Liberal Democrat UK coalition Government in 2010, there has been an urgent intensification and focus upon early years numeracy and literacy and promoting systematic synthetic phonics. This paper argues that the current narrowing of early years assessment, along with increased inspection and surveillance,…

Purpose: This paper aims to report on a census of high-level sustainability initiatives at all accredited post-secondary institutions in Canada by documenting the institutions that have undertaken sustainability assessments, have signed one or more sustainability declarations, have sustainability offices or officers or have sustainability…

The concept of growth is at the foundation of the policy and practice around systems of educational accountability. It is also at the foundation of what teachers concern themselves with on a daily basis as they help children learn. Yet there is a disconnect between the criterion-referenced intuitions that parents and teachers have for what it…

The University of Oklahoma College of Medicine reduced gross anatomy from a full semester, 130-hour course to a six and one-half week, 105-hour course as part of a new integrated systems-based pre-clinical curriculum. In addition to the reduction in contact hours, content from embryology, histology, and radiology were added into the course. The…

This article examines the rationale for my teaching philosophy. Using a personal perspective, I explain my objectives, mission, and vision in writing my philosophy of teaching statements. This article also creates a road map and reference points for educators who want to write their own teaching philosophy statements to help them make informed…

When will the new Common Core assessments roll out? What will they look like? How many hours will they take away from instructional time? And most important, what supports can I draw on to help my school with the transition to these new assessments? Assessment expert Nancy Doorey addresses these questions and provides a primer on what to expect…

Teachers may well have developed a more robust understanding of classroom assessment options, but they can still be caught off guard by misapplications of well-intended practices. Three issues, in particular, have created potential assessment missteps: the heightened rigor of the new content standards, the emphasis on using assessments for…

Quality is the core of education and it is important to standardization construction of primary and secondary education in urban (U) and rural (R) areas. The ultimate goal of the integration of urban and rural education is to pursuit quality urban and rural education. Based on analysing the related policy basis and the existing assessment models…

Lloyd Bond comments here on the Focus article in this issue of "Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives". The Focus article is entitled: "How Task Features Impact Evidence from Assessments Embedded in Simulations and Games" (Russell G. Almond, Yoon Jeon Kim, Gertrudes Velasquez, and Valerie J. Shute). Bond…