In response to the demand for sound science assessments, this article presents the development of a latent construct called knowledge integration as an effective measure of science inquiry. Knowledge integration assessments ask students to link, distinguish, evaluate, and organize their ideas about complex scientific topics. The article focuses on…

Institutions of higher learning serve as a portal, through which opportunities for life, and potential for social evolution are intrinsically bound. The decision of who is allowed to pass through this portal is not only a defining moment for the individual student, but also a significant portent towards the fulfillment of social justice on which…

National assessment systems can be enhanced with effective school-based assessment (SBA) that allows teachers to focus on improvement decisions. Modern computer-assisted technology systems are often used to deploy SBA systems. Since 2000, New Zealand has researched, developed, and deployed a national, computer-assisted SBA system. Eight major…

Over the last 3 decades student achievement has remained essentially unchanged in the United States, but not for a lack of spending. Over the same period a myriad of education reforms have been suggested and per-pupil spending has more than doubled. Since the 1990s the education reform attempts have frequently included judicial decisions to revise…

This statewide "Report Card to the Public" is published in accordance with Alaska Statute 14.03.120 for the school year 2013-2014. Under state law, each school district is required to report information about its performance. Public knowledge of the school system is an important part of Alaska's school accountability system. This report…

Scott and Bagaka's examine the connection between teachers' participation in professional collaboration activities and in professional development and their perception of the effectiveness of the district reform efforts. They also determine the extent to which teachers' assessment of the effectiveness of school reform efforts can lead to school…

A brief criticism of the unreliability of gain scores from standardized tests as a means of measuring the effectiveness of a performance contract. (AK)

Purpose: The purposes of the study are to provide a phenomenological description of the pre- and post-retirement experience and to examine adjustment during the two periods. Design and Methods: This is a longitudinal study of 56 Israeli men that employs both personal interviews and standard measures of physical and mental health. Results: The…

An argument is presented on whether helping students intelligently critique standardized tests is a necessary form of test preparation. The detailed analysis of typical questions reveals what students are truly asked to do on the tests.

This paper estimates the effect of charter schools on both students attending them and students at neighboring public schools. Using school-level data from Michigan's standardized testing program, I compare changes in test scores between charter and public school students. I find that test scores of charter school students do not improve, and may…

The authors used data on public high schools in New Hampshire to demonstrate how the socioeconomic status (SES) of the district can help explain variations in students' average standardized test scores and college-attendance rates and subsequent rankings of schools within states. The authors show how states can use multiple-outcome measures to…

In this essay, the author, a 5th-grade teacher, questions how well a standardized test can measure his students. This article presents a letter he wrote for the Washington state science test scorer regarding his students' test scores. He shares stories about some of the students in his class. He points out that tests can turn out to be more like…

A critical state-level indicator of progress in public education is student achievement annual performance and change over time. The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) has been very active in tracking and reporting on student achievement results and using state assessment scores and other data to analyze achievement trends. A central…

This document summarizes evaluation reports from afterschool science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs across the United States and identifies common trends and strengths that afterschool learning brings to STEM education. Like many programs nationwide, several of the programs highlighted in this paper were designed specifically to…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the implementation of a Response to Intervention framework had a positive impact on student reading achievement in urban elementary schools. This was a causal-comparative study that examined the reading performance of a sample of kindergarten through grade three students who experienced the Response to…