A full year of progress in advancing education reform across America is documented in each of the Foundation for Excellence in Education's Annual Reports. Throughout the illustrated pages of the reports, readers can find data-rich updates on the work of Foundation for Excellence in Education to advance student-centered policies in more than 40…

Critical thinking is an important outcome of a college education. Assessment techniques that require students to demonstrate their understanding of course concepts are referred to as authentic assessment and promote the development of critical thinking. Little research exists on the types of assessment and grading practices utilized by community…

Instructors are continually looking for means to improve outcomes for students in online courses. This article examines the instructional design of courses to determine if consistent components implemented in a recently established online master's degree program can produce significant student outcomes. The authors detail the construction and…

Drawing on the distinction between absent and present presences, this article contributes to our understanding of how new managerial and performative discourses are played out in a secondary school context in Sweden. The consequences of numerous educational reforms during the last 20 years include a surge of new independent schools and increased…

This article reports on the decline in writing ability skills in secondary and higher education students. The author discusses changes that have affected student writing skills over the recent decades and offers recommendations for improving these skills, such as: implementing intensive freshman writing courses; adjusting existing course…

To manage effective grading reform, education leaders must engage teachers, parents, communities, and policymakers in a rational discussion about grading. Doug Reeves suggests that leaders start the conversation with a discussion of the principles on which all stakeholders can agree; make clear what will not change under the new grading policy; be…

This article aims to solve the following problematic issue: how the most essential elements of student learning achievement evaluation should be properly designed? The answers are pursued by the validation of identification of evaluation types, formulation of evaluation criteria and choice of assessment methods. Designing of the most essential…

Poor class attendance is detrimental to student success. This is especially true in entry-level college mathematics courses, where habitual non-attendance can have lasting effects that greatly limit a student's options for continued academic success. The purpose of this study was to design an attendance incentive and to evaluate its impact on…

Recently, Attali and Powers investigated the usefulness of providing immediate feedback on the correctness of answers to constructed response questions and the opportunity to revise incorrect answers. This article introduces an item response theory (IRT) model for scoring revised responses to questions when several attempts are allowed. The model…

This study provides evidence that peer marking can be a reliable tool for assessing laboratory reports in large cohorts. It was conducted over a 4-yr period with first-year undergraduates ([asymptotically equivalent to]180 students/cohort) taking a mammalian physiology course, but the procedure adopted would be applicable to any other…

Grading discussions for quality and participation has been an area studied by researchers as the growth of online and distance learning has become a foundational component in academic environments. Research regarding assessment for online discussions has been in favor of employing and communicating specific rubrics for participation, as well as…

Students rarely use their graded exams to study. An alternative method of grading exams, based on self-reflection, encourages students to use their mistakes as a learning resource. In this grading method, the test is returned with each question simply marked as "right" or 'wrong." Students can then go over their exams and resubmit them with…

The importance of formative assessment has been widely evidenced; but it has also been shown to be under threat in a higher education world of shrinking finances, increasing student numbers and decreasing student/staff ratios. How is all this formative assessment to be carried out and marked? And at the same time, how is the concept of…

An introductory, multidisciplinary lecture-laboratory course linked with a summer research experience has been established to provide undergraduate biology and chemistry majors with the skills needed to be successful in the research laboratory. This three-credit hour course was focused on laboratory skills and was designed to reinforce and develop…

Helping students to construct robust understanding of physics concepts and develop good solving skills is a central goal in many physics classrooms. This thesis examine students' problem solving abilities from different perspectives and explores strategies to scaffold students' learning. In studies involving analogical problem solving…