This study examined the relationship between observable teacher characteristics and productivity as measured by an increase in student achievement on a standardized test using a value-added approach. This analysis focused on teachers of algebra, geometry, and 11th grade English Language Arts in Arkansas. The authors generated a value-added score…

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is often seen to be constraining and focused on specific skill development for specific occupations. This goal is at odds with the demands of a knowledge economy that requires more general educational outcomes for an uncertain and unpredictable labour market. For this reason, Hui (2012) has…

Whether or not a school is dysfunctional depends largely on how dysfunctionality in schools is defined and measured. Dysfunctionality, as any construct, is subject to definition and interpretation, and it is thus always marked by perspectivism. But regardless of the definition games occasionally played by academics, some form of reality takes…

The new entrance exam reform programs that have been presented in a number of provinces and regions adhere to the direction of new curriculum reform. Within these programs, comprehensive evaluation serves as the weather vane for quality education. The high school academic proficiency test serves as a firmly fixed benchmark for learning ability,…

In this report, ACT presents a definition of "work readiness" along with empirically driven ACT Work Readiness Standards and Benchmarks. The introduction of standards and benchmarks for workplace success provides a more complete picture of the factors that are important in establishing readiness for success throughout a lifetime. While…

The recent rapid proliferation of distance education necessitates the need for strong levels of academic accountability. An important factor found to influence and predict student success is students' perceptions of their online courses. Understanding how learners perceive their online learning environment is paramount to effective course design…

Graphs are widely used to model structures and relationships of objects in various scientific and commercial fields. Chemical molecules, proteins, malware system-call dependencies and three-dimensional mechanical parts are all modeled as graphs. In this dissertation, we propose to mine and index those graph data to enable fast and scalable search.…

This document outlines the results of the "2013 Postgraduate Research Experience Survey" ("PRES"), where 48,401 replies were received from 122 participating institutions. Redeveloped for 2013, our biennial survey is the only national survey to gather insight from postgraduate research students about their learning and…

This biennial report from Noel-Levitz assists colleges and universities with raising the bar on student retention and degree completion subgoals by benchmarking key predictive indicators such as term-to-term persistence and the ratio of credit hours completed vs. credit hours attempted. The report is based on a Web-based poll of campus officials…

In 2011, CASE founded the Center for Community College Advancement to provide training and resources to help community colleges build and sustain effective fundraising, alumni relations and communications and marketing programs. This white paper summarizes the results of a groundbreaking survey on alumni relations programs at community colleges…

The current study investigated variability in student performance on a concurrent verbalization measure based on a grade-level sample math word problem and sought to determine to what extent the variability in verbalization scores is related to scores on a reliable measure of reading (DIBELS Next) and math (easyCBM) and to student factors (e.g.…

Rising college prices, stagnating incomes, and diminished asset values have led to the widespread perception that college is "unaffordable" for more and more people. The role of student aid in reducing the prices many students pay is too complex to be widely understood, and in spite of increasing enrollment rates, most people do not question the…

The judgmental approaches used by the Governing Board to set National Assessment of Educational Progress achievement levels have been the subject of a great deal of controversy and have sometimes led to results that were considered "unreasonable." The NCES requirement that the achievement levels be used on a trial basis and be…

This study examines the influence of action research on California community college practitioners' attitudes, beliefs, and behavior using the Center for Urban Education's (CUE) Equity Scorecard tools and process. This developmental evaluation study began March 2011 and concluded April 2012. The pseudonym of the field site studied is Las Flores…

This research provides the first review of publicly available assessment information found on Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members' websites. After providing an overarching review of benchmarking assessment data, and of professionally recommended assessment models, this paper examines if libraries contextualized their assessment…