This event focused on the What Works Clearinghouse practice guide, "Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision Making" (ED506645). During the event, the presenter, Sharnell Jackson, led school data teams in activities involving analysis of their own student data. This Q&A addressed the questions participants had…

Understanding and implementing effective classroom assessments are essential to increasing student achievement (Marzano, 2000). Teachers' assessment literacy is viewed as a key link in the connection between assessment quality and student achievement. According to Marzano, the relationship is seen as important as any other in the teaching and…

The notion of what it means for a student to be "career-ready" is changing as a result of the recent push by the federal and state governments to ensure that all students are prepared for college and careers by the time they graduate from high school. While much attention has been paid to the "college-ready" aspect of college…

Recent calls for an increase in educational accountability in K-16 resulted in an uptick of low-stakes testing and, consequently, an increased need for ensuring that students' test scores are reliable and valid representations of their true ability. Focusing on accountability testing in higher education, the current program of research was…

Fifteen historical and contemporary curriculum designs were analyzed for elements of assessment that support student learning and inform instructional decisions. Educational researchers are purposely paying attention to the role assessment plays in a well-designed planning and teaching process. Assessment is a vital component to educational…

Educators are committed to providing students the best possible education by using the practices and tools they know (Zmuda, Kuklis, & Kline, 2004). Unfortunately, the status quo for grading and assessment practices is faulty, outdated, and ineffective. Current practices have unwittingly hindered student progress and motivation (O'Connor,…

In this article, I explore teaching with a social foundations perspective in the unusual place of an "Introduction to Assessment" course for second-year, undergraduate, teacher candidates. By bringing the work of three candidates together with the four concerns of the proposed third edition of the "Standards for Academic and…

Researchers and educators are giving increasing scrutiny to systems-level constructs that contribute to safe, supportive, and effective schools, including school climate. School climate is a multifaceted construct that is commonly conceptualized as school community members' subjective experiences of the structural and contextual elements of a…

Lessons emerging now from successful schools have much to teach us about the practices of dynamic leaders. But if leaders can't talk about the what and the why of those practices in ways that inspire their staffs to action, they may change programs or policies, but they'll never change people. There are hard-charging school and district leaders…

This paper introduces a simple and intuitive graphical display for transition table based accountability models that can be used to communicate information about students' status and growth simultaneously. This graphical transition table includes the use of shading to convey year to year transitions and different sized letters for performance…

When we rely upon gains on some measure to support statements of prescription, we have the obligation to ensure that those measures are valid. Nearly 10 years after an influential National Research Council ("2001") report on educational assessment identified an explicit model of cognition as one of three necessary components of a valid assessment…

The 1990 Standards for Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of Students (AFT, NCME, & NEA, 1990) made a documentable contribution to the field. However, the Standards have become a bit dated, most notably in two ways: (1) the Standards do not consider current conceptions of formative assessment knowledge and skills, and (2) the Standards…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine whether the use of online puzzles in the instructional process has an effect on student achievement and learning retention. This study examined students ' perception and experiences on use of puzzle as an alternative evaluation tool. To achieve this aim, the following hypotheses were tested: using…

In Singapore and in elsewhere alike, educators nowadays are paying much more attention on the set of teaching and assessment recommendations called the 21st century skills that include creativity at the policy, programmatic, school and classroom levels. As these education systems develop and respond to the demands of the new century, educators are…

Deciding whether and how to use assessments to evaluate students' social and emotional (SE) knowledge, attitudes, and skills requires the development and critical appraisal of an assessment plan. At the state, district, and school levels, education leaders and staff can benefit from reviewing best practices and using a structured format to arrive…