As learning institutions, U.S. universities aim to provide abundant learning opportunities to fulfill students' right to learn. Undergraduate education is considered an important component of lifelong learning and aims to enable students to "learn how to learn." During the undergraduate stage, schools pay special attention to cultivating…

Learning outcomes within the context of assessing general education competencies have gained increasing attention within higher education. Accrediting bodies have increased standards for the assessment of general education competencies, employers continue to indicate graduates from higher education institutions are not prepared for success in the…

This executive summary synthesizes recent research on formative assessment to elucidate its core components, then examines some new approaches currently being tried in schools. It considers the evidence for them, as well as the questions and issues they continue to raise, and takes a look at the challenges schools and school systems face in…

The overarching objective of North Dakota's State Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Plan is to ensure every school's graduation rate matches its Choice Ready rate, thus eliminating the honesty gap, so students, parents and the state are able to confidently place high value on the diplomas received. In partnership with a broad and diverse group of…

Tzur and Simon (2004) postulated 2 stages of development in learning a mathematical concept: participatory and anticipatory. The authors discuss the affordances for research of this stage distinction related to data analysis, task design, and assessment as demonstrated in a 2-year teaching experiment.

This paper is a part of a three-year study, "Internationalisation and reform of secondary schooling in Kazakhstan", jointly conducted by an international team of UK- and Kazakhstan-based researchers in 2012-2014. The study was conceived as a mechanism to support education reform in the country. This was achieved through reconstructing…

The distinction between facts and moral values is highly desirable: science and politics should keep to their own territories. Traditionally speaking, science can be seen as an ivory tower, which attempts to do its job in isolation of external influences. Politics does not mandate methods of scientific research or standards of justification;…

Understanding how evaluation audiences perceive credibility can help evaluators design evaluations and reports that support appropriate use. While researchers have studied credibility assessment among various educational stakeholders, little research has been conducted with the broader public. This study explored potential factors affecting the…

This annual report highlights information on school performance and improvement in Hawaii's public schools. The report profiles academic events, trends, and outcomes. Featured are tables and figures related to demographic, financial, and educational performance. Also, comparisons to other states with relevant characteristics similar to Hawaii are…

Distractor analyses are routinely conducted in educational assessments with multiple-choice items. In this research report, we focus on three item response models for distractors: (a) the traditional nominal response (NR) model, (b) a combination of a two-parameter logistic model for item scores and a NR model for selections of incorrect…

Within their teacher preparation courses and field experiences, preservice teachers are introduced to numerous instructional practices, not all of which are considered research-based. For this reason, instruction in how to evaluate the effectiveness of one's practices is essential, but it is often a lacking component of initial certification…

School accountability systems in the United States have been criticized on a number of fronts, mainly on grounds of completeness and fairness. This study examines an alternative school quality framework--one that seemingly responds to several core critiques of present accountability systems. Examining results from a pilot study in a diverse urban…

PISA presents a new image for academic achievement, which has prompted Japanese education reforms over the past decade to innovate teaching and learning for 'PISA-style literacy'. Supported by theoretical foundations, particularly with regard to the concept of 'PISA literacy' and 'authentic assessment', these reforms have accomplished progress in…

The aim of this work is to learn more about the Expert Review Group (ERG), a small but powerful team of bureaucrats in Western Australia's Department of Education whose role is to inspect the quality and standards of pre-K to year 12 government schools. Critical education policy analysis is utilised. Iterative understandings were developed through…

Interdisciplinary programs have significantly increased in scope and scale over the past several decades, including those in British Columbia. The nature of these programs creates unique challenges for transfer and articulation processes that rely heavily on disciplinary expertise and review; these challenges are complicated by the fact that…