State and federal policymakers "see" school performance via formal measures -- data collected with attendance sheets and standardized tests. Such an approach, though not without its merits, is extremely limited and inherently exposed to the threat of systematic misperception and unintended consequences, especially as policymakers try to…

Primary school teachers in England are responsible for the statutory assessment of writing, using a set of criteria. The aim of this research was to analyse the responses of teachers to the criteria "at the expected" standard. An elicitation exercise with 10 primary school teachers was conducted, where teachers talked through their…

This report describes the authors' findings from a scoping literature review on the topic of instructional system coherence. The authors reviewed 77 pieces on coherence published from 1990 to 2023, including articles, reports, books, dissertations, and conference papers. The scope and definition of alignment and coherence have seemed to expand…

I review opportunities and threats that widely accessible Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered services present for educational statistics and measurement. Algorithmic and computational advances continue to improve approaches to item generation, scale maintenance, test security, test scoring, and score reporting. Predictable misuses of AI for…

Ohio Revised Code 3302.038 requires the Department of Education and Workforce ("the Department") to submit a report regarding the effectiveness of the school district and building report cards by Dec. 31, 2024. The statute requires the Department to study data from the Ohio School Report Cards for the 2021-2022, 2022-2023, and 2023-2024…

Marginalization, widely associated with poverty, inequality, and underdevelopment restricts access to resources, limits freedom of choice, inhibits the development of individual capabilities, and makes it challenging to escape from marginalized circumstances. We examine marginality in mathematics teaching and its complexities in the tightly…

In Britain, the opportunity to succeed is still heavily shaped by your socio-economic background -- the social and economic circumstances that you grew up in. As the 2024 General Election fast approaches, the Sutton Trust's "Fair Opportunity for All" is a roadmap for the next government, exploring how they can break the link between…

Meta-assessment, or the assessment of the outcomes assessment process, is a useful strategy to communicate, guide, document, and provide feedback on assessment practices. We share the creation of a rubric that aligns with assessment processes aimed to improve student learning and development in higher education. More specifically, the rubric was…

States are responsible for evaluating teacher preparation programs (TPPs) through program reviews. We use data from Massachusetts to describe the first analysis of program review ratings and their relationship to in-service outcomes for TPP graduates. When comparisons are made across all schools and districts in the state, a TPP's review scores…

Suitable execution of moderation policy is challenging but crucial for the trustworthiness and credibility of internal high-stakes assessment systems. In formal education, policies are rarely implemented as intended. Instead, they are "enacted" in ways influenced by mediating factors including the internal and external contexts of…

Often considered dumping grounds for those who cannot function in mainstream schools, alternative education providers are seen as outliers in the provision of schooling. With schools as relatively stable workplaces, alternative education provision makes for a rich laboratory to further our understanding of the causal impact of schooling on a range…

Written with faculty in mind, "Assessment by Design" is a practical resource that will also be useful to student affairs staff and administrators dedicated to using assessment to improve learning in curricular and co-curricular settings. This book presents the Cycle of Assessment as a framework that supports assessment in service of…

Historically, opportunities to develop cultural competency in sport and exercise psychology graduate programs have been limited (Lee, 2015). Recently, major sport psychology organizations across the world have started to require cultural competency in their credentialling requirements. While this represents progress, these requirements can be met…

After a decade of comparative and international education research, evaluation, reflection, and introspection, there still may not be a clear answer to the question: What difference does an "Annual Review of Comparative and International Education" make? Bereday's questions regarding the field from the 1960s largely remain unanswered,…

Assessment and institutional research offices have too much data and too little time. Standard reporting often crowds out opportunities for innovative research. Fortunately, advancements in data science now offer a clear solution. It is equal parts technique and philosophy. The first and easiest step is to modernize data work. This column…