The purpose of this study was to examine the approaches used by directors in divisions of student affairs to initiate and sustain change. Determining the common and most effective approaches to change used by directors was a second purpose. Additionally, the researcher was interested in common change initiatives taking place and other factors that…

Effect sizes are commonly reported for the results of educational interventions. However, researchers struggle with interpreting their magnitude in a way that transcends generic guidelines. Effect sizes can be interpreted in a meaningful context by benchmarking them against typical growth for students in the normative distribution. Such benchmarks…

In this article, we review translation, adaptation policies, and practices in providing test accommodation for English language learners (ELLs) in the United States. We collected documents and conducted interviews with officials in the 12 states that provide translation accommodations to ELLs on content assessments. We then summarized challenges…

International large-scale assessments are now part of the educational landscape in many countries and often feed into major policy decisions. Yet, such assessments also provide data sets for secondary analysis that can address key issues of concern to educators and policymakers alike. Traditionally, such secondary analyses have been based on a…

There is widespread agreement with in the field of early childhood education that vocabulary is important to literacy achievement and that reading aloud can support vocabulary growth. However, there are unexplored and significant problems with the ways we assess young children's vocabulary learning from read-alouds. This paper critically reviews…

This paper analyzes a higher education policy issued in China in 2002: "the Quality Assessment of Undergraduate Education Policy." It examines students' perceptions of the policy impacts and students' roles in the evaluation process by semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys. It reveals that the quality assessment in China…

This article addresses the change in the transitional process from secondary school general education to gainful employment within the framework of societal modernisation processes in Germany. We analyse the relationship between the options for and restrictions upon individual educational mobility under the conditions imposed by the various…

Recent years have seen unprecedented growth in the size, diversity and academic orientation of undergraduate student populations. There is evidence that the use of innovative pedagogies using information and communications technology has the potential to address such student diversity by offering opportunities for a more personalised student…

Despite the acknowledged importance of assessment in education, there has been minimal research into the preparation of preservice teachers for the important role of involving preservice teachers in marking, grading, moderating and providing feedback on student work. This article reports on a pilot project in which preservice teachers participated…

This study examined the empirical differences between the tendency to omit items and reading ability by applying tree-based item response (IRTree) models to the Japanese data of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) held in 2009. For this purpose, existing IRTree models were expanded to contain predictors and to handle…

Assessing Pupils' Progress (APP) arose from a government drive to increase the amount of teacher-based assessment within school and to make this consistent across schools. We conducted semi-structured interviews with head teachers to gain insight into how their schools applied APP and we compared the APP levels for English and Maths, provided by…

With the articulation of new "Holistic and Balanced Assessment" initiatives in Singaporean schools, a new standard of conceptualising and enacting classroom assessment is expected of Singaporean teachers. This paper draws on findings from a study of the diversity of classroom assessment "concourse", representing the variations…

Purpose: Few studies have examined the role of inclusivity in international assessments of student achievement, such as the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study). The current study examined how the inclusivity of students with disabilities at the classroom level across countries may be associated with achievement scores,…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Do Good Assessment Practices Measure Up to the Principles of Assessment?; (2) Healthy Assessment: What Nursing Schools Can Teach Us about Effective Assessment of Student Learning; (3) Development of a National Survey for Secondary Mathematics Teacher Education…

An increasing number of researchers are calling for learning progressions to be used as interpretive frameworks for teachers conducting classroom assessment. The argument posits that by linking classroom assessments to learning progressions, teachers will have better resources to interpret and take instructional action on the basis of what…