Despite the wide use of language tests as a basis for awarding English language course credits at Japanese universities, little has been published about how universities set policies on awarding credits according to external test scores. To narrow this gap, the characteristics of such policies were investigated in relation to the EIKEN Test in…

The overall objective of the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) is to collect the information necessary for a comprehensive picture of elementary and secondary education in the United States. The abundance of data collected permits detailed analyses of the characteristics of schools, principals, teachers, school libraries, and public school…

Our paper aims at analysing the linguistic "features" produced by Arabic learners of Italian as a foreign language. There are published studies of common errors for Arab students of Italian (Della Puppa, 2006; Giacalone Ramat et al., 2001). However, this study introduces the standardized language assessment, namely the CILS test of…

National standards for student achievement have been developed in the arts in a process that paralleled the standards discussions being held in mathematics, language arts, science, history, and other areas. The standards process, while demanding, has generated important discussion and debate about which art forms, what kind of knowledge, and what…

Providing two or more versions of multiple-choice exams has long been a popular strategy for reducing the opportunity for students to engage in academic dishonesty. While the results of studies comparing exam scores under different question-order conditions have been inconclusive, the potential importance of contextual cues to aid student recall…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) measures student science achievement nationally, state by state, and, most recently, across selected urban school districts. Periodically, the framework underlying the science assessment is revised or updated. This document, "Science Framework for the 2019 National Assessment of…

Framed with concepts from the literature on educational innovations, the present study explored postsecondary students' and instructors' evaluative comments about ACTFL's Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA). In the research on the IPA to date, few scholars have explored these key stakeholders' perceptions of the framework, and a robust…

In determining whether stumbling blocks exist in the implementation of accounting education reform in Hong Kong, a survey questionnaire was sent to all accounting departments at public universities representing accounting academics, and the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants representing the profession. The survey showed that both…

In 2013, Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) was adopted at all levels of instruction at a private university in southern California. The study reports the opinions of 1,236 Novice, Intermediate Low, and Intermediate Mid Spanish students concerning IPA and their perceptions of the way in which classroom instruction was reflected in the content…

In organizational and educational practices, sensitivity reviews are commonly advocated techniques for reducing test bias and enhancing fairness. In the present paper, results from two studies are reported which investigate how effective individuals are at detecting problematic test content and the influence such content has on important testing…

When test forms that have equal total test difficulty and number of items vary in difficulty and length within sub-content areas, an examinee's estimated score may vary across equivalent forms, depending on how well his or her true ability in each sub-content area aligns with the difficulty of items and number of items within these areas.…

This commentary argues that the OET research raises inescapable contradictions in trying to separate "language" from "communication" within a weak performance test and advocates for reconceptualizing the legitimate domain of "language" more widely, reclaiming the full potential of the communicative competence…

Kindergarten entry assessments (KEAs) have increasingly been incorporated into state education policies over the past 5 years, with much of this interest stemming from Race to the Top--Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) awards, Enhanced Assessment Grants, and nationwide efforts to develop common K-12 state learning standards. Drawing on…

The U.S. federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was enacted with goals of closing achievement gaps and providing all students with access to equitable and high-quality instruction. One requirement of ESSA is annual statewide testing of students in grades 3-8 and once in high school. Some students, including many deaf or hard-of-hearing (D/HH)…

Many Flynn effect (FE) studies compare scores across different editions of Wechsler's IQ tests. When construct changes are introduced by the test developers in the new edition, however, the presumed generational effects are difficult to untangle from changes due to test content. To remove this confound, we use the same edition of Wechsler…