Rather than regard frequent and subjective testing as a negative, it should prove more beneficial for educators to offer students an opportunity to acquire life skills that will carry them through any test-taking situation. Offering students the skills necessary to succeed not only in the classroom but also through testing is where accountability…

This study aimed to investigate how students' conceptions of assessment relate to one another, how students define assessment, and how student conceptions of assessment relate to their definitions of assessment. A nationally representative sample of New Zealand secondary students (N = 705) responded to a 45-item Conceptions of Assessment inventory…

This paper examines the practice of metaevaluation as indicated by the Metaevaluation standard of the Program Evaluation Standards, as the evaluation of a specific evaluation to inform stakeholders about the evaluation's strengths and weaknesses. The findings from an analysis of eighteen metaevaluations, including a description of the data…

In their paper "Unique Characteristics of Diagnostic Classification Models: A Comprehensive Review of the Current State-of-the-Art," Andre Rupp and Jonathan Templin (2008) provide a comparative analysis of selected psychometric models useful for the analysis of multidimensional data for purposes of diagnostic score reporting. Recent assessment…

Participation in accreditation processes, on visiting teams as well as through institutional self-study, is an excellent opportunity for individual academics to augment their professional expertise in a range of higher education issues: strategic planning and assessment, resource management and capital investments, curriculum planning and program…

The formal assessment of student engagement, as it has developed in recent years, is not necessarily a faculty-driven activity. Most faculty members who teach undergraduates are involved in the informal assessment of student engagement by taking attendance, observing student behaviors or expressions in class, providing feedback on assignments, and…

Institutions often engage in elaborate assessment and planning processes that have little or no relationship to each other. Highly effective institutions are characterized by strategic planning activities that are intentionally informed by assessments of both student learning outcomes and the extent to which human and fiscal resources are being…

The National High School Center's goal is to encourage researchers, policymakers, and practitioners at all levels to engage in comprehensive, systemic efforts to maximize attainment for all high school students, with a focus on those students who have been historically underserved. To this end, it has developed a framework that consists of eight…

This study is the Thomas B. Fordham Institute's first review of the quality of state U.S. history standards since 2003. Key findings include: (1) A majority of states' standards are mediocre-to-awful. The average grade across "all" states is barely a D. In twenty-eight jurisdictions--a majority of states--the history standards earn Ds or…

Scope and method of study. This quantitative survey study examined teachers' understanding of assessment, their practices in assessing student learning and their use of assessment data to guide their teaching. Specifically, this study sought to determine if level of training had an impact on teachers' understanding of assessment, teachers'…

In 2010-11, Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) was in district-wide improvement as a result of failing to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in mathematics at the district level for the second consecutive year. This report examines student outcomes in 2010-11 as well as overall teacher outcomes and longitudinal results for schools targeted…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) All I Want for Christmas: Congress Continues Deliberations on Fiscal Year 2012 Funding; Education Programs Potentially Facing…

School choice policies are intended to provide students in poorly performing schools the option of transferring to a better school. The associated loss of funding to new competitors is expected, in turn, to benefit students who remain in their assigned schools by spurring improved performance among the educators in them. The prospects for such…

The poor U.S. standing on international tests is a product of unequal access to the kind of intellectually challenging learning they measure. While other nations have been expanding educational access to more and more of their people and revising curricula, instruction, and assessments to support the more complex knowledge and skills, the U.S. has…

The Supplemental Educational Services (SES) provision of the No Child Left Behind Act offers free tutoring services to students attending perennially underperforming schools. The author assesses the extent to which Chicago Public Schools students most in need of and who could potentially benefit the most from additional academic instruction…