The National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP) is responsible in New Zealand for the national assessment of primary school children's achievement in the essential learning areas, one of which is social studies. Individual interviews are one of the approaches used to assess students' understanding. The assessors are registered teachers, selected…

As a result of the standards-based movement in education there is an increased need for teacher competency in the area of student assessment and evaluation. This study examines assessment education at one pre-service teacher education program in Ontario, Canada. Through a questionnaire administered to 288 teacher candidates, this study identified…

A concept inventory is a standardized assessment tool intended to evaluate a student's understanding of the core concepts of a topic. In order to create a concept inventory it is necessary to accurately identify these core concepts. A Delphi process is a structured multi-step process that uses a group of experts to achieve a consensus opinion. We…

At the beginning of the last 20 years so-called "quality revolution" it was expected from most of the established national quality agencies that internal quality systems and the development of an internal quality culture would emerge automatically in the HEI from the external quality impact. The author argues that a better balance must be found…

Assessing general education is not that different from assessing any other type of academic program, but there are some distinctions that make it even more challenging than other types of assessment. This article addresses methods for working with nondepartmentally based and interdisciplinary areas within general education, providing some examples…

Automated assessment technologies have been used in education for decades (e.g., computerised multiple choice tests). In contrast, Automated Essay Grading (AEG) technologies: have existed for decades; are "good in theory" (e.g., as accurate as humans, temporally and financially efficient, and can enhance formative feedback), and yet; are…

Federal education policy will soon undergo a major revision, with significant consequences for the state's own policy and practices. This report seeks to help federal and state policymakers consider this restructuring and one of its core questions: How should schools and school districts be held accountable for the academic progress of their…

"PISA 2009 at a Glance" is a companion publication to "PISA 2009 Results", the six-volume report on the 2009 survey conducted by the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA assesses the extent to which students near the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills that…

Thirteen percent of the 2008-2009 senior class in one southeastern state did not pass the science portion of the state's high school graduation test. Another 5% failed to pass the math portion of the graduation test, leaving these students unable to obtain a high school diploma. The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative research study was…

At a time when scientific and technological competence is vital to the nation's future, the weak performance of U.S. students in science reflects the uneven quality of current science education. Although young children come to school with innate curiosity and intuitive ideas about the world around them, science classes rarely tap this potential.…

This is an Instructional Module for a course entitled Assessment and Instruction for Educational Leaders addresses classroom assessment and the evaluation of instruction. The goal of this course is to help aspiring educational leaders to develop teacher observation and evaluation skills, better understand the construction of teacher generated…

In a novel approach to initial teacher education, we combined a program review perspective and a psychological perspective. First, we assessed the extent to which student teachers (n=137) felt that components of their BEd program prepared them for teaching and whether these components represented meaningful program dimensions. Through content…

This paper reviews, from 1990-2010, the place of different aspects of skill in the literature associated with the influential world conferences of Jomtien and Dakar. It then looks at the particular history of the treatment of skill within the series of global monitoring reports (GMRs) from 2002-2010. The GMR was one of the key mechanisms set up,…

The development of key competences for lifelong learning has been an important policy imperative for EU Member States. The European Reference Framework of key competences (2006) built on previous developments by the OECD, UNESCO and Member States themselves. It defined key competences as knowledge, skills and attitudes applied appropriately to…

Items on test score scales located at and below the Proficient cut score define the content area knowledge and skills required to achieve proficiency. Alternately, examinees who perform at the Proficient level on a test can be expected to be able to demonstrate that they have mastered most of the knowledge and skills represented by the items at…