Although the number of countries conducting large-scale assessments has increased significantly over the past two decades, this has not necessarily led to the effective use of learning assessment data in policy-making and planning. To better understand the reasons for this, the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP)…

Education systems in under-resourced environments face several challenges, some of them exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. A possible way to address some of the challenges is to apply information and communication technologies. However, effectively integrating technology into education systems is a complex task. In this paper, factors…

This article is the second of two articles in this special issue that were developed following discussions of the Assessment Working Group at EDUsummIT 2013. The article extends the analysis of assessments of collaborative problem solving (CPS) to examine the significance of the data concerning this complex assessment problem and then for…

Competency-based medical education stresses the attainment of competencies rather than the completion of fixed time in rotations. This sometimes leads to the interpretation that quantitative features of a program are of less importance, such as procedures practiced and weeks or months spent in clinical practice. An educational philosophy like…

Research on entrepreneurship education (EE) has encountered confusing ontological and methodological issues, such as definitional controversy, gaps between research and practice, and lack of theoretical foundations. These are factors holding back the further development of the research and practice in this field. This paper presents a whole…

The author's commentary focuses more on the quantitative discussion about educational assessment of the original article than on the idea of the assessment for learning, which did not raise any substantial issues. He starts by offering some general comments on the paper. He feels the authors made a number of assumptions about quantitative…

Primary school reception baseline assessment was designed to produce a single "baseline" data figure on the basis of which young children's progress across primary school could be measured and accounted for. This paper suggests that within the context of punitive performativity, head teachers might be considered "irresponsible"…

This contribution republishes extracts from two important articles published around 2000 concerning the punitive accountability system suffered by English primary and secondary schools. The first concerns the inspection agency Ofsted, and the second managerialism. Though they do not directly address assessment, they are highly relevant to this…

Increasing use of item pools in large-scale educational assessments calls for an appropriate scaling procedure to achieve a common metric among field-tested items. The present study examines scaling procedures for developing a new item pool under a spiraled block linking design. The three scaling procedures are considered: (a) concurrent…

Schools across the nation know the importance of student achievement; which is at the core of teaching and learning. Here in Texas, we have an accountability rating system that helps gauge how well students are doing annually. Texas accountability system is based on a system of indexes that provides an all-inclusive assessment of the performance…

Two years ago, Dr. Steven Adamowski, Superintendent of Norwalk Public Schools, challenged his leadership team to make sure that Norwalk's assessment system effectively supported efforts "to raise the bar and close the gaps" for all students. Dr. Michael Conner, Chief Academic Officer, and Diane Filardo, Director of Assessment…

The Every Student Succeeds Act grants states more authority over their accountability systems than did No Child Left Behind, but have they seized the opportunity to develop school ratings that are clearer and fairer than those in the past? This new analysis examines the plans submitted by all fifty states and the District of Columbia, and whether…

Higher education insiders trumpet the use of results for improvement as the most important part of the assessment cycle. Yet, at the same time, we acknowledge the rarity of improvement, especially at a program level. What are some reasons the most important phase of assessment occurs so infrequently? To seek answers, we investigated the "Use…

This handbook provides a global overview of the design, implementation and assessment of academic development centers within higher education institutions. The current nature of our complex, rapidly changing world makes it imperative that colleges and universities worldwide find ways to educate their students in new and better ways: this is…

Research focused on emotionally supportive teaching has typically run in parallel to the study of rigorous, standards-aligned mathematics teaching. However, recent work theorizes that positive and warm classroom environments may be necessary to help students meet the ambitious goals outlined in newer mathematics standards. We analyze the…