The purpose of this document is to establish the statewide policy for the participation of students in the Utah Performance Assessment System for Students (U-PASS). The central elements of this policy are: (1) Rules for inclusion in the statewide assessment program (U-PASS); (2) Limited allowances for exempting or excusing students from…

New Visions for Public Schools is the largest education reform organization dedicated to improving the quality of education children receive in New York City's public schools. For 16 years, New Visions has worked with the public and private sectors to develop programs and policies that energize teaching and learning and increase student…

The current study investigated the discreet task completion hypothesis presented by C. H. Skinner (2002) by investigating how the rate of interspersing affects performance on and preferences for academic assignments. Specifically, 70 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students were presented with four assignment pairs of multiplication problems.…

We conducted correlational and performance discrepancy analyses on exam and achievement data taken from students in three psychology courses. Across courses, the same findings emerged. First, only a small fraction of students consistently performed more strongly on one type of assessment (e.g., multiple-choice) than on another (e.g., short…

Data collected by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has consistently shown public school students performing more poorly than those in private schools. But when a more sophisticated assessment model was applied to recent NAEP data for students in grades 4 and 8, the achievement gap narrowed considerably and reversed for…

In this article, the author presents empirical results concerning the effectiveness of campus, online, and hybrid (i.e., a mix of campus and online) instruction in business education. The sample is derived from graduate students enrolled in economics, computer information systems, and finance courses at a regional university. The author…

If equitable achievement is one's goal, he or she must have authentic assessments that are reflective of the community's expectations and meaningful to the students and to him or her. Such assessments require a systemic commitment from which one starts with the school's mission and plans backwards to support and rethink curriculum, structures,…

In this article we examine empirical evidence on the criterion, predictive, transfer, and fairness aspects of validity of a large-scale language arts performance assessment, referred to as the Performance Assignment (PA). We use multilevel models to avoid biased inferences that might result from the naturally nested data. Specifically, we examine…

The purpose of the study reported in this article was to provide empirical evidence of students' views about a state performance assessment and its effects in science and social studies classrooms in Maryland. We developed 2 student questionnaires, 1 for each subject, and administered them to a statewide, stratified random sample of students in…

This book discusses and highlights portfolios as an alternative assessment practice in the classroom. Chapters in the book address such topics as aspects of portfolios beyond a collection of student work; what to consider when evaluating portfolios; the different types and purposes of student portfolios; issues involving management and ownership…

K. K. Waltman and D. A. Frisbie (1994) observed that teachers and parents often interpret grades given to students in both absolute and relative senses. They conclude that this sort of interpretation is illogical and may indicate misunderstandings in several areas. Absolute and relative methods of assigning letter grades are approached from…

Goal-directed performance appraisal (PA) theory includes four components: rating context, performance judgment, performance rating, and evaluation. This study focuses on the components of rating context and performance rating. For the study, the rating context was a large civil service organization that must produce documentation for attorney…

Unstable, and potentially invalid, variance component estimates may result from using only a limited portion of available data from operational performance assessments. However, missing observations are common in these settings because of the nature of the assessment design. This paper describes a procedure for overcoming the computational and…

Three mathematics scoring methods are being used or explored in large scale assessment programs: (1) item-by-item scoring; (2) holistic scoring; and (3) "trait" scoring. This study investigated all three methods of scoring on three mathematics performance-based assessments. Mathematics assessment tasks were selected from a pool of pilot tasks…

The humanities framework presented in this paper is not intended to be a state prescribed curriculum, course syllabus, or study guide. Instead, the framework discussed in the paper is designed to help local schools develop their own curricula to address their own goals as well as those of the state and the nation. An introductory section of the…