In March 2020, the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) virtually convened a group of experts to discuss gaps in research on eighth grade mathematics for students with disabilities (SWD) that could be addressed with the NAEP process data and data science techniques for this research. Invited experts also provided recommendations…

The "2019-2020 WIDA Assessment Guidance" provides information on the following 10 topics: (1) English Language Proficiency Requirements; (2) WIDA Assessments in Grades K-12; (3) ACCESS Annual Assessments Testing Window; (4) Indiana English Learner Entrance and Exit Criteria; (5) Test Results and Reporting; (6) User Roles and…

Purpose: The evaluation of spelling performance in aphasia reveals deficits in written language and can facilitate the design of targeted writing treatments. Nevertheless, manual scoring of spelling performance is time-consuming, laborious, and error prone. We propose a novel method based on the use of distance metrics to automatically score…

Thanks to COVID-19, schools were closed and tests were canceled. The result is that we may not see test-taking data typically seen before. For some analyses, sample sizes may not meet the minimum requirement. For others, the sample of test-takers may be different from previous years. In some situation, there may be no data at all. What do we do in…

The type of a recall task may substantially influence the effects of learning by retrieval practice. In a within-subject design, 54 university students studied two expository texts, followed by retrieval practice with either short-answer tasks (targeted retrieval) or a free-recall task (holistic retrieval). Concerning the direct effects of…

In this article, we analyze the edTPA as an instance of "performativity," as we argue that the edTPA is a "display" of quality for the purposes of incentive, control, attrition, and change. These displays are moments of productivity that boil down the complex act of teaching to a number, which can be audited by policy makers.…

The researcher, who pretests a questionnaire conventionally, is confident that a small number of interviews reveals numerous problems afflict the questionnaire. The standardized interviewer is asked to observe respondent's verbal behaviors in order to realize whether respondent misunderstands question. But this strategy fails when respondent does…

The assumed impossibility of forming a widely accepted view of social work is explained on the one hand by the contesting nature of social work definitions and on the other by a loss of professional identity since the 1960s. The aim of the article is to elaborate a third explanation based on the hypothesis that social workers adhere to their…

As states, districts, and schools plan to return for the 2021-22 school year, questions are raised about whether and how to test children with disabilities, including children with the most significant cognitive disabilities and English learners with disabilities. This FAQ addresses some common questions and provides links to useful resources.

The use of technology for teaching and learning has created a paradigm shifting in learning environments and learning process, and also the paradigm shifting has also affected the assessment processes. In addition to these, online environments provide more opportunities to assess of the learners. In this study, the Adaptive Mastery Testing (AMT)…

Background: Current demand for multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in medical assessment is greater than the supply. Consequently, an urgency for new item development methods arises. Automatic Item Generation (AIG) promises to overcome this burden, generating calibrated items based on the work of computer algorithms. Despite the promising scenario,…

Learning gains associated with multiple-choice testing formats that provide immediate feedback (e.g., IFAT®) are often greater than those for typical single-choice delayed feedback formats (e.g. Scantron®). Immediate feedback formats also typically permit part marks unlike delayed feedback formats. The present study contrasted IFAT® with a new…

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, paper-based delivery of the National Benchmark Tests (NBTs) was not possible during the 2020 testing cycle. The NBTs, being a large-scale national assessment project, did not have alternative options, other than to offer the tests online. Moving these high-stakes tests online meant that certain considerations had to…

While score comparability across test forms typically relies on common (or randomly equivalent) examinees or items, innovations in item formats, test delivery, and efforts to extend the range of score interpretation may require a special data collection before examinees or items can be used in this way--or may be incompatible with common examinee…

Data reasoning is an essential component of scientific reasoning, as a component of evidence evaluation. In this paper, we outline a model of scientific data reasoning that describes how data sensemaking underlies data reasoning. Data sensemaking, a relatively automatic process rooted in perceptual mechanisms that summarize large quantities of…