Despite the many changes in education over the past century, grading and reporting practices have essentially remained the same. In part, this is because few teacher preparation programs offer any guidance on sound grading practices. As a result, most current grading practices are grounded in tradition, rather than research on best practice. In an…

This article investigates assessor decision making when using and applying a marking guide for a note-taking task in a specific purpose English language listening test. In contexts where note-taking items are used, a marking guide is intended to stipulate what kind of response should be accepted as evidence of the ability under test. However,…

This purpose of this pre-post, quasi-experimental evaluation was to explore the impact of grading rubric use on student academic performance. Cross-sectional data were derived from 80 undergraduates enrolled in an elective course at a research university during spring and fall 2009. The control group (n = 41), who completed the course's Assignment…

"A Tale of Four Electrons" is a creative writing assignment used with 10th-grade Honors Chemistry students. The project helps students consolidate their learning about bonding--an important unifying theme in chemistry--and answers questions such as (1) How are ionic, metallic, and covalent bonds related? (2) How do variations in electron…

This paper proposes a new model for team building, which enables teachers to build coherent teams rapidly and fairly for the term projects of software engineering courses. Moreover, the model can also be used to build teams for any type of project, if the team member candidates are students, or if they are inexperienced on a certain subject. The…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) SLO-Based Grading Makes Assessment an Integral Part of Teaching (Nagy N. Bengiamin and Christina Leimer); (2) Editor's Notes: Assessing Assessment's ROI (Trudy W. Banta); (3) Assessment Plans: A Tool for Sanity (Shannon M. Sexton); and (4) Lessons from…

Although course management systems (CMSs) were originally designed for teachers to manage their teaching, little interest has been directed at students' learning. Moodle is usually regarded as a CMS. However, how to make full use of its powerful features and design them into learning tools has rarely been investigated. This study investigates two…

Blogging has been recommended as a suitable tool for learning during internship due to its associated usefulness in collaborative learning, reflection, communication, and social support. In this study, blogging was incorporated into the internship activities of two discipline-specific groups of interns: information management (n = 53) and nursing…

Superintendents and principals can have a positive and decisive impact on student achievement and higher graduation rates. Their essential leadership can illuminate the path to excellence for faculty and students. In upgrading curriculum and instruction, school leaders need to keep abreast of practices proven effective in other districts and…

This article is an effort to add to computer-assisted language learning by extending a study on an essay critiquing system (ECS) feedback to secondary school language learners' writing. The study compared two groups of participants' performance, namely the treatment group which received both the system feedback and teacher feedback (i.e., blended…

The acquisition of programming skills specially in introductory programming courses poses an important challenge for freshmen students of engineering programs. These courses require students to devote a sustained effort during the whole course and a failure to do so may contribute to not passing the course. However, it is difficult for the…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between student performance on Reading Curriculum-based Measures (R-CBM) and student performance on the Alaska's standards based assessment (SBA) administered to students in Studied School District (SSD) Grade 3 through Grade 5 students in the Studied School District as required by…

This second edition of the bestselling book includes practical suggestions for arranging your classroom, talking to students, avoiding the misbehavior cycle, and making your school a place where students learn and teachers teach. The book also contains enlivening Q&A from teachers, letters from students, and tips for grading. This new edition has…

To find out whether the education community shares a collective understanding about how students should be evaluated, we surveyed 202 educators (from all grade levels) and scientists attending assessment workshops (Pennsylvania, California, and Massachusetts) or judging a national student competition (Washington, DC). The educators and scientists…

Tutors' intentions when providing feedback may not be accurately perceived and acted on by students. In this study, 19 biological sciences students and six tutors were interviewed concerning the tutor's intentions when providing specific feedback and the students' perceptions and usage of that feedback. A phenomenological approach was used to…