Despite the desire of employers to hire those with the critical-thinking and communication skills a general education (GE) program can offer, the value of GE programs is often questioned due to concerns about four-year graduation rates, perceived low immediate economic payoff, and a dearth of evidence to support their efficacy. This article…

The Basic School Computerization policy was created in 2011 to introduce computers and e-learning into the entire educational system to promote training and life-long learning. Using data obtained by Connect for Change Education Ghana Alliance, this paper investigates the extent to which school administration, and teaching and learning are…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the evolution of "folk" understandings of quality in higher hospitality education and the consequent implications of these understandings for current quality concerns in the field. Design/methodology/approach: The paper combines a historical survey of the stated topic…

In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education released its now famous report, "A Nation at Risk," which warned of "a rising tide of mediocrity" in American schooling. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education but largely written by a group of prominent academics, "A Nation at Risk" invoked a crisis…

Research finds that small high schools deliver better outcomes than large high schools for urban students. An important outstanding question is whether this better performance is gained at the expense of losses elsewhere: Does small school reform lift the whole district? We explore New York City's small high school reform in which hundreds of new…

In conducting this review, we examine literature that explores the merits and shortcomings of ELP test design and testing as they have evolved over time through the current era of CCR standards. In the first section, we situate the role of language testing in its broader historical and policy context. In the second section, we examine the evolving…

England's performance in international tests of student achievement continues to be disappointing. Further improvement is essential not only for students' themselves but also for economic growth. This briefing considers the impact of Academies, school spending and teacher quality. Research evidence suggests that it is right to protect school…

The m-rater scoring engine has been used successfully for the past several years to score "CBAL"™ mathematics tasks, for the most part without the need for human scoring. During this time, various improvements to m-rater and its scoring keys have been implemented in response to specific CBAL needs. In 2012, with the general move toward…

Student movement between institutions can no longer be deemed atypical. Approximately one-third of all students transfer during their college career and of those who transfer, 25% will transfer more than once. While movement from two-year to four-year institutions is still the most prevalent transfer pathway, it is important to note that 43% of…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the Measurement and Evaluation Development Program on pre-service physical education teachers' general perceptions and competency perceptions related to alternative assessment in physical education, and their competency perceptions related to educational measurement and evaluation. The…

Planning is possibly the most important step of the assessment process. This article presents a four-tiered approach to designing and implementing a general education institutional assessment plan. Categorizing the measures you use to assess established learning outcomes helps you prioritize your general education assessment initiatives and keep…

In the latter part of the 20th century, behavioral scientists and society generally adopted a cultural belief that cognitive ability was the most significant determinant of educational and workforce outcomes. This led to efforts to raise students' test scores, the promotion of teachers who were successful in doing so, and heavy if not…

The Common Core wave has swept the country. The expectation is in place for a rapid implementation of both the curriculum and the assessments. The author visited schools across the country as an external evaluator to review their transition plans, and he was struck by the great unevenness of the preparation across districts and schools. What are…

Interim assessments are increasingly common in U.S. schools. We use high-quality data from a large-scale school-level cluster randomized experiment to examine the impact of two well-known commercial interim assessment programs on mathematics and reading achievement in Indiana. Results indicate that the treatment effects are positive but not…

For the past decade, Finland has been lauded for consistently being a top performer on international assessments of student achievement. Having spent 25 years in the Ministry of Education, and then another 8 as director general of the National Board of Education, the author was heartened by these accomplishment--but he is also concerned about how…