Struggling readers in Grades 7-8 at a large, suburban middle school in Georgia have consistently failed to make adequate yearly progress in reading. In recent years, interest in improving the literacy of adolescents has increased due to the growing number of students experiencing reading difficulties on state and national standardized tests. The…

This article provides an extensive overview of the recent literature on student evaluation of teaching (SET) in higher education. The review is based on the SET meta-validation model, drawing upon research reports published in peer-reviewed journals since 2000. Through the lens of validity, we consider both the more traditional research themes in…

Changes to state tests impact the ability of State Education Agencies (SEAs) to monitor change in performance over time. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the Standardized Performance Growth Index (PGIz), a proposed statistical model for measuring change in student and school performance, across transitions in tests. The PGIz is a…

Deaf and hard of hearing children have shown delays and difficulties in pragmatic behaviors due to insufficient exposure to common daily discourse and underlying impoverishment in all components of language development. In a study in a school district in a southeastern U.S. state, the researchers investigated the relationship between…

Universal screening measures are an integral component of any tiered system of instructional delivery. Recent studies of screening measures have often excluded examinations of bias in predictive validity. The present study examined a common screening instrument for evidence of bias in predictive validity across the four disaggregation categories…

Technology Enhanced Learning and Teaching (TELT) is a ubiquitous feature of the learning and teaching landscape at the University of Tasmania (UTAS), supported and guided by a university-wide TELT action plan. This paper reports on the most recent stage of an ongoing investigation into the use of ePortfolio learning technology to improve students'…

Background: The pedagogical and status implications of assessment in physical education (PE) have been recognised in the past. How students perceive being assessed and graded is a neglected area, however. While some studies have garnered students' perceptions of assessment when no grade is awarded or the stakes are relatively low, we know less…

The focus of this study was to determine if there was a significant relationship amongst tenth and eleventh graders' (secondary students) Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) scores due to teacher personality styles. One model that was reviewed in this study was the five factor model. The study used the Big Five Inventory (BFI), to…

This study evaluated the use of a new primary field test method based on test equating to address inconsistent classification among field tests. We analyzed students' information on the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER), mile run (MR), and VO[subscript 2]max from three data sets (college: n = 94; middle school: n = 39;…

The relationship between grade span configuration and academic achievement of 6th-grade students as measured by the Arkansas Benchmark Examination, which is the approved NCLB criterion-referenced annual assessment, was examined. The results of a one-between two-within analysis of variance for the 3-year state-wide study of 6th graders' combined…

Psychometric properties of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Preschool (PALS-PreK) instrument were investigated in a sample of 4,518 children. PALS-PreK figures prominently in state and federal early literacy programs as an assessment of emergent literacy skills in preschool-aged children. Exploratory Factor Analysis, Confirmatory…

The Early College High School (ECHS) initiative developed in response to calls to significantly decrease the number of first-generation college and underserved students of color and from poverty who are high school dropouts or marginally graduates (i.e., ill prepared for college). The ECHS model is different from other educational reforms in that…

This three-year comparative study investigated the impact of the Reading First (RF) Program on student performance as measured by statewide-mandated English Language Arts (ELA) assessment programs. A matching procedure was used where 3 RF schools and 3 non-RF schools from two rural school districts in north Louisiana were matched. The ELA test…

This study examines the effects of two test administration accommodations on the mathematics performance of students within the context of a large-scale statewide assessment. The two test administration accommodations were resource guides and calculators. A stratified random sample of schools was selected to represent the demographic…

This study investigates the value of reporting the reading, listening, speaking, and writing section scores for the "TOEFL iBT"® test, focusing on 4 related aspects of the psychometric quality of the TOEFL iBT section scores: reliability of the section scores, dimensionality of the test, presence of distinct score profiles, and the…