Over approximately the first decade of the 21st century, Nebraska educators have experienced the development and implementation of two differing assessment systems. The STARS system, implemented in 2001, was the first standards-based assessment system that Nebraska had supported and required of schools in the state. In early 2008, the Nebraska…

This paper provides a history of ETS's role in developing assessment instruments and psychometric procedures for measuring change in large-scale national assessments funded by the Longitudinal Studies branch of the National Center for Education Statistics. It documents the innovations developed during more than 30 years of working with…

Poor quality writing skills among undergraduate geography students is a significant concern among university instructors. This article reports on a multipronged strategy aimed at improving student writing in a large, first-year human geography course. The strategy emphasized ways to provide effective feedback through teaching assistant training,…

The present study is an experimental one in nature, to find out the effectiveness of CAI package on in Physics of IX std. students. For this purpose a CAI package was developed and validated. The validated CAI package formed an independent variable of this study. The dependent variable is students' achievements in physics content. In order to find…

This study compares the use and efficacy of assessment grading tools within postgraduate education courses in a regional Australian university and a regional university in the US. Specifically, we investigate how the quality of postgraduate education courses can be improved through the use of assessment rubrics or criterion referenced assessment…

Although there have been any number of national reading reform efforts over the years, there is little evidence that such efforts have been sustained in schools over time. This study focused on addressing 2 questions: To what extent have Reading First schools in 2 states sustained the key elements of this reform over time? To what extent has…

This study explored the relationship between the reading ability and science achievement of students in grades 5, 8, and 9. Reading ability was assessed with four measures: word recognition, vocabulary, syntactic knowledge, and comprehension (23% of all passages were on science topics). Science achievement was assessed with state…

Criterion-referenced assessments have become more common around the world, with performance standards being set to differentiate different levels of student performance. However, use of standard setting methods developed in the United States may be complicated by factors related to the political and educational contexts within another country. In…

Inquiry-based instruction is common to nearly every model of gifted education. Six teachers of 14 secondary classes were briefly interviewed about their teaching and learning methods, use of inquiry-based strategies, classroom descriptions, a typical day, student expectations, and inquiry-instruction outcomes. A criterion-referenced checklist of…

Report writing is an important employability skill for Engineers and Technologists, and this case study describes how a Technology degree module took a novel approach to developing students' report writing skills. Students learned how to use a criterion-referenced critical evaluation framework for reports and other technological documents. They…

Recent changes to state laws on accountability have prompted school districts to design teacher performance evaluation systems that incorporate student achievement (student growth) as a major component. As a consequence, some states and districts are considering teacher value- added models as part of teacher performance evaluations. Value-added…

This study investigates, through a cluster randomized trial, the impact of "Math in Focus," a core mathematics program modeled after instructional approaches used in Singapore, on third- through fifth-grade students' achievement in mathematics. The program is currently being used in more than 400 school districts in the United States.…

In 2010, 6% of students in the United States were performing at an advanced level in mathematics. During the previous year, the United States produced over 987,000 low math achievers. The theoretical foundations of this research project study were found in Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI). The research problem addressed in this study is the…

The present study examined the reliability of an achievement test to measure the efficacy of task-based writing activities to improve Iranian EFL learners' reading comprehension at the intermediate level in a private language institute in Ilam, Iran, namely Alefba language institute. To achieve the goal, the techniques for evaluating reliability…

The purpose of this explanatory mixed methods study was to explore the perceptions of Nebraska teachers about their experiences in the transition from STARS to NeSA. The study explored their perceptions of the influence of the transition on implementation of a balanced assessment system. As defined by NDE, a balanced system included NeSA testing,…