This article explores the manner in which self-assessment in schools can play an integral role in the transformation of schools into learning organisations. The perspective adopted is based upon European experiences and describes and analyses the sociological constructs and bases supporting the process of transformation. (Contains 6 notes and 2…

This article explores changes in teachers' beliefs and practice concerning assessment after participating in a project for improving assessment practices in Norwegian schools. The project was initiated by the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training in 2008, and included a total of 77 schools, more than 600 teachers and a sample of their…

When the grade distribution within a course shifts towards higher grades, it may be due to grade inflation or grade improvement. If the positive shift is accompanied by an increase in achievement or learning, it should be considered grade improvement, "not" grade inflation. Effective learning-centered teaching is designed to promote student…

Helping all students find academic success is a central tenet of independent schools. But at many independent schools, mounting anecdotal evidence indicates that a persistent achievement gap exists between white and Asian-American students and their Latino and African-American counterparts. In 2007, Rebecca Upham, head of school at Buckingham…

The achievement gap in many developing countries is defined in terms of rich/poor and public/private. The prevailing explanation for the "developing" achievement gap is an underfunded, inefficient, and/or inadequately supplied public school sector. Via an analysis of a Colombian voucher experiment, this article examines the extent to…

When our focus is on assessment educators should work to value the nature of assessment. This paper presents a new approach to multiple-choice competency testing in mathematics education. The instrument discussed here reflects student competence, encourages self-regulatory learning behaviours and links content with current curriculum documents and…

This project sought to evaluate regional students' perceptions of their readiness to learn, assessment processes, engagement, extent to which their learning is personalised and to relate these to academic efficacy, academic achievement, and student well-being. It also examined teachers' perceptions of students' readiness to learn, the assessment…

Changes in school mathematics curricula, pedagogy and assessment, and as a consequence the pressure for changes in initial teacher preparation, are consequences both of government policy initiatives and pressure from unofficial agents such as the research community, teachers and others, though with great variation across the world. In the case of…

The Support Needs Assessment and Problem-Solving (SNAP) process is intended to assist educational teams in identifying and implementing supports for children with intellectual disability and related developmental disabilities (ID/DD) in K-12 schools. Each phase of the SNAP process is described, including identification of high priority support…

For decades, researchers and practitioners have made a great deal of effort to study a variety of methods to increase parameter accuracy, but only recently can researchers start focusing on improving parameter estimations by using a joint model that could incorporate RT and students information as CI. Given that many tests are currently…

The ability estimation procedure is one of the most important components in a computerized adaptive testing (CAT) system. Currently, all CATs that provide K-12 student scores are based on the item response theory (IRT) model(s); while such application directly violates the assumption of independent sample of a person in IRT models because ability…

Goals of social equality, authentic assessments, and effective schools have peppered U.S. educational history. In response curricula, policies, and processes are constantly evolving to meet perceived needs. Nowadays "academic achievement" and "accountability" are of greatest interest to stakeholders. While students are tested…

This study describes the development of an instrument to investigate the extent to which student-centered actions are occurring in science classrooms. The instrument was developed through the following five stages: (1) student action identification, (2) use of both national and international content experts to establish content validity, (3)…

The author reports on a national study of middle school students in 40 charter networks which finds that, when it comes to having an impact on student achievement, results vary and, overall, charter students do not learn dramatically more than their counterparts in regular public schools. The findings from the research group Mathematica and the…

Despite the present economic difficulties facing all levels of the nation's educational enterprise, a significant portion of education's resources continue to be used for evaluative activities. As a result, presumably competent evaluation personnel are sought after to evaluate activities in nearly every area of education and its cognate fields.…