The 2015 TIMSS Grade 5 study was administered for the first time in South Africa in August 2015. The study was led by a team of researchers at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in collaboration with the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). Providing the first, nationally representative, internationally comparative compendium of data on Grade 5 learners in South Africa, the report is a new indicator of the health of our educational system. The analyses describe in detail the current picture of achievement for learners in the country, highlighting key individual, family, school and provincial differences. The results also include key developments concerning preschool attendance, early learning environments, as well as the importance of educational expectations and academic beliefs, and the damaging effects of bullying. The findings highlight the importance of early achievement and the need to understand the multiple layers of influence on educational pathways, with the conclusions and recommendations highlighting an unequal, yet treatable system. The Grade 5 study sits alongside the Grade 9 study which has been carried out in South Africa since 1995, recently completing its fifth round.

This practical, very effective resource helps elementary school teachers and curriculum leaders develop the skills to design instructional tasks and assessments that engage students in higher-level critical thinking, as recommended by the Common Core State Standards. Real examples of formative and summative assessments from a variety of content areas are included and demonstrate how to successfully increase the level of critical thinking in every elementary classroom! This book is also an excellent resource for higher education faculty to use in undergraduate and graduate courses on assessment and lesson planning.

Bernard R. Gifford As we edge toward the year 2000, the information age is a reality; the global marketplace is increasingly competitive; and the U.S. labor force is shrinking. Today more than ever, our nation's economic and social well-being hinges on our ability to tap our human resources-to identify talent, to nurture it, and to assess abilities and disabilities in ways that help every individual reach his or her full potential. In pursuing that goal, decision-makers in education, industry, and government are relying increasingly on standardized tests: sets of question- with identical directions, time limits and tasks for all test-takers-designed to permit an inference about what someone knows or can do in a particular area. CALIBRATING DIFFERENCE Our emphasis on standardized testing rests on a premise that is so basic it often escapes notice: that we humans are different from each other in ways that are both meaningful and measurable. We differ in terms of cognitive ability; aptitude for performing different kinds of mental and physical tasks; temperament; and interests. But somehow, without sufficient examination, we have taken a great collective leap from that commonplace to the notion that there are precise, measurable gradations of innate ability that can be used to direct children to the right classrooms, and adults to the right job slots.

Educational assessment serves many purposes -- selection for further education and employment; monitoring the performance of educational systems; providing diagnostic feedback on the processes of learning. Throughout the world, and in all these ways, more is constantly being demanded of assessment systems. Yet these roles are not always in harmony. Conflicts stem from the wide range of interest groups involved; within given societies, but also, and increasingly, involving the outside world as well.

This book explores global and cross-national influences on assessment systems and their likely development. It combines comparative and general analyses with in-depth accounts of a wide range of countries, including those in political and economic transition. Explicit connections are made between general issues and specific cases.

Assessment in Transition: Learning, Monitoring and Selection in International Perspective
- explores the factors determining the nature of assessment systems and reform, and the increasing prominence and importance of educational assessment
- provides accounts of the roles of assessment in a range of national contexts
- examines the tensions between the roles of assessment, and how far these are or could be resolved.

It is unique in its sustained analysis of emerging international trends, its treatment of national systems and the effects of international agencies' activities, and in applying theories drawn from economics, politics, sociology, statistics and psychology to the subject.

Bernard R. Gifford and Linda C. Wing Standardized testing has become a ubiquitous feature of American life. As a major source of information for reducing uncertainty in the alJocation of merit based educational, training, and employment opportunities, testing affects the life chances of individuals. Moreover, testing inOuences the way in which our societyjudgesitselfandprovides for ourcollective future. Test scores may determine a child's admission to lcindergarten and promotion to the fIrst grade. Most states award the high school diploma only ifa student has passed a minimum competency test. Major institutions of higher education typically require applicants to supplement their records of academic achievement with scores on college admissions tests. In the labor market, as a condition of employment or assignment to training programs, more and more employers are requiring workers to sit for personnel selection tests. Additionally, it has become commonplace to use test scores to calibrate our national sociopolitical condition and our capacity to compete with other countries in the global economy. In short, with increasing frequency and intensity, scores on examinations that purport to be objective and precise measures of individual knowledge, abilities, and potential are playing a critical role in the opportunity marketplace. Similarly, test scores are exercising growing influence in assessments of our social and economic institutions and in policy decisions about the relative invesunents that should be made in each. In all these instantiations, test scores are at the center of high-stakes decision making about the future of individuals and of the nation itself."

In the wake of recent federal legislation entitled No Child Left Behind, high-stakes standardized testing for accountability purposes is being emphasized in educational systems across the U.S. for all students - including English Language Learners (ELLs). Yet language proficiency mediates test performance, so ELLs typically receive scores far below those of other students. This book explores how tests have become de facto language policy in schools, shaping what is taught in school, how it is taught, and in what language(s) it is taught. In New York City, while most schools responded to testing by increasing the amount of English instruction offered to ELLs, a few schools have preserved native language instruction instead. Moreover, this research documents how tests are a defining force in the daily lives of ELLs and the educators who serve them.

The goal of this book is to emphasize the formal statistical features of the practice of equating, linking, and scaling. The book encourages the view and discusses the quality of the equating results from the statistical perspective (new models, robustness, fit, testing hypotheses, statistical monitoring) as opposed to placing the focus on the policy and the implications, which although very important, represent a different side of the equating practice. The book contributes to establishing "equating" as a theoretical field, a view that has not been offered often before. The tradition in the practice of equating has been to present the knowledge and skills needed as a craft, which implies that only with years of experience under the guidance of a knowledgeable practitioner could one acquire the required skills. This book challenges this view by indicating how a good equating framework, a sound understanding of the assumptions that underlie the psychometric models, and the use of statistical tests and statistical process control tools can help the practitioner navigate the difficult decisions in choosing the final equating function. This book provides a valuable reference for several groups: (a) statisticians and psychometricians interested in the theory behind equating methods, in the use of model-based statistical methods for data smoothing, and in the evaluation of the equating results in applied work; (b) practitioners who need to equate tests, including those with these responsibilities in testing companies, state testing agencies, and school districts; and (c) instructors in psychometric, measurement, and psychology programs.

Over the last 20 years there have been a large number of technical advances and changes in the field of educational and psychological testing. According to Anne Anastasi, The decade of the 1980's has been a period of unusual advances in, psychological testing. Technological progress, theoretical sophistication, and increasing pro fessional responsibility are all evident in the fast-moving events in this field (A. Anastasi, Psychological Testing, Sixth Edition. New York: Macmillan, 1988). On the psychometric front, advances in topics such as item response theory, criterion-referenced measurement, generalizability theory, . analy sis of covariance structures, and validity generalization are reshaping the ways that ability and achievement tests are constructed and evaluated, and that test scores are interpreted. But \Jsychometric advances, as substantial and important as they have been, are only a fraction of the major changes in the field of testing. Today, for example, the computer is radically chang ing the ways in which tests are constructed, administered, and scored. Computers are being used to administer tests "adaptively." That is, the sequence of questions an examinee is administered depends upon his or her performance on earlier administered items in the test. Tests are "adapted" to the ability levels of the examinees who are being assessed. One result is shorter tests with little or no loss in measurement precision. Computers are also being used to store or bank test items. Later, items of interest can be selected, and the computer is used to print copies of the test."

This collection of essays is a case study of a major educational reform enacted in Texas in 1987: an effort to test all entering college students to gauge their basic skills. The contributors were involved in implementing this reform, which aims to remedy academic deficiencies among college students and to retain students through graduation. The book chronicles how legislators, staff and educators designed the test, program, and necessary policies to support the reform.

The essays in this book chronicle the work of legislators, staff, and educators in implementing House Bill 2182, which requires testing for all entering college students and mandates developmental education for students who fail to meet the established criteria. Among the issues discussed are test development, minority concerns, prevention of bias, handicapped needs, and program evaluation. "From Politics to Policy" presents a model for other states to emulate, and is valuable to students and teachers of education, policy analysis and psychometric testing, as well as to agencies and legislators involved in state-level educational reform.

I personally learned to know Ralph Tyler rather late in his career when, in the 1960s, I spent a year as a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. His term of office as Director of the Center was then approaching its end. This would seem to disqualify me thoroughly from preparing a Foreword to this "Classic Works. " Many of his colleagues and, not least, of his students at his dear Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, are certainly better prepared than I to put his role in American education in proper perspective. The reason for inviting me is, I assume, to bring out the influence that Tyler has had on the international educational scene. I am writing this Foreword on a personal note. Ralph Tyler's accomplishments in his roles as a scholar, policy maker, educational leader, and statesman have been amply put on record in this book, not least in the editors' Preface. My reflections are those of an observer from abroad but who, over the last 25 years, has been close enough to overcome the aloofness of the foreigner. Tyler has over many years been criss-crossing the North American con tinent generously giving advice to agencies at the federal, state, and local levels, lecturing, and serving on many committees and task forces that have been instrumental in shaping American education."

In response to the emerging need to develop teachers as professionals who evaluate their own work, this book presents the foundations of self-evaluation as well as self-evaluation models and tools that are likely to help educational practitioners to evaluate their own teaching, and thus raise the level of their professional functioning. The book is intended to serve several groups: student teachers whose socialization into the teaching profession should include the perception of self-evaluation as an inherent part of teaching; the student teachers' supervisors who are expected to help in developing the knowledge and skills that are needed for purposes of self-evaluation; and teachers, school principals, and university instructors in departments of teacher education, who are interested in teacher's growth and in the development of teaching as a profession.

This book analyses accountability and quality policies relating to learning standards and examines their implications for assessment in higher education. Whilst primarily focusing on the Australian setting, this analysis is located within a broader frame of reference that includes the United Kingdom (UK), the United States of America (US), and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Across these settings, comparative measures of learning have been seen as a policy 'solution' to the problem of 'proving quality' in a globalised and increasingly competitive higher education market. Comparative measures of learning depend on the specification of learning standards. Learning standards attempt to articulate the capabilities expected of graduates, and students' achievement of these is determined through the practices of assessment carried out within institutions. Quality policy, learning standards and assessment practices all intersect within the broader umbrella of accountability, with relevance to governments, higher education providers, employers, parents, and students. The findings reported in this book highlight a number of policy influences, including the rising demands for national and international comparative data on learning standards to compare quality and inform student choice in a globally competitive market.

In an age that dictates accountability and verifiability of educational programs, institutions of higher education are called on to justify their programs. To meet these demands, there is a need for improved methods for the evaluation of teacher education programs. More importantly, there is a need for the development of methods and procedures to conduct continuous and on-going evaluation that can aid the process of program improvement. Many institutions have had difficulties in developing and implementing satisfactory systems for conducting needed evaluation. In recent years the standards for the approval of teacher education programs in all of the states were strengthened as were the standards for approval by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). These revised standards put even more emphasis on accountability and the need for both summative and formative evaluation in a teacher education program. Tennessee Technological University has long been recognized as an institution with an exemplary project in program evaluation. As a result, in 1986, the state of Tennessee established at Tennessee Technological University, a Center for Teacher Education Evaluation. The Center began work in July 1986, on the development of models and systems for conducting teacher education program evaluation. To most, teacher education program evaluation is simple and straightforward. Evaluation includes a set of options, a set of criteria, data collection and interpretation, x and then use in meeting accountability needs.

"an invaluable guide for practitioners, quality assurors, university managers and students themselves who wish to better understand the importance of assessment for learning, and it will further scholarship in the field significantly."

-Professor Sally Brown

Assessment for Learning in Higher Education is a practical guide to Assessment for Learning (AfL); a term that has become internationally accepted in Higher Education and features in the learning and teaching strategies of many universities. It is also mandated by official bodies such as QAA in the UK. Many staff in Higher Education are uncertain about how to implement AfL, especially in times of increasingly constrained resources and this vital new guide provides solutions that make best use of assessment as a tool for learning.

This book provides an important and accessible blend of practical examples of AfL in a variety of subject areas. The authors present practical, often small-scale and eminently do-able ideas that will make its introduction achievable. It provides practical case examples both for new lecturers and more experienced staff who may be interested in embedding AfL principles and practice into their university teaching. AfL approaches go beyond minor adaptations to teaching practice, and signify a shift in the foundations of thinking about assessment. With this in mind there is guidance on the development of effective learning environments and communities through the use of:

It provides helpful, realistic guidance backed up by relevant theory and is written in an accessible, jargon-free style, grounded in practical experience and brought to life via a wide range of illustrative examples and case studies.

Assessment for Learning in Higher Education fills a vital gap in assessment literature and as AfL is increasingly on the Higher Education agenda, with the promotion of assessment as a tool for learning, this book will become an essential handbook to guide all academic practitioners.

A volume in The Achievement Gap, Research, Practice, and PolicyC. Kent McGuire and Vivian W. Ikpa, Series EditorsThe interplay between sociopolitical forces and economic agendas becomes apparent when oneexamines the June 28, 2007 United States Supreme Court Decision, Parents Involved In CommunitySchools v. Seattle School District . In a reversal of the 1954 Brown Decision, the UnitedStates Supreme Court ruled that public schools could not use race as a factor when assigning childrento public schools. Given demographic shifts, globalization, economic instability, and ideologicalshifts, the reversal was expected. However, it is essential that policymakers, educators, and other stakeholders consider the impact of attending segregated schools on the achievementgap that continues to exist between minority groups and European Americans attending resegregatedneighborhood schools.This book will focus on the test score gaps between African American and European American students. The achievement gapsbetween these two groups will be analyzed will be presented and elaborated. Additionally, the authors will analyze how changes inschool characteristics such as: racial composition; school composition; school expenditures, and socio economic level of neighborhoodsaffect achievement gap trends in the Norfolk School District. An examination of the achievement gap trends in an urbanschool district will serve to better inform public policy and school reform efforts.The specific goals of this book are to describe the achievement gap between minority African-American students and European-Americanstudents in the Norfolk school district and to present strategies utilized by urban districts to narrow the gap. One unique feature ofthis book is that it provides a data-driven research-based analysis of the achievement gap between minority and European-Americanstudents.

The Classical Hollywood Reader brings together essential readings to provide a history of Hollywood from the 1910s to the mid 1960s. Following on from a Prologue that discusses the aesthetic characteristics of Classical Hollywood films, Part 1 covers the period between the 1910s and the mid-to-late 1920s. It deals with the advent of feature-length films in the US and the growing national and international dominance of the companies responsible for their production, distribution and exhibition. In doing so, it also deals with film making practices, aspects of style, the changing roles played by women in an increasingly business-oriented environment, and the different audiences in the US for which Hollywood sought to cater. Part 2 covers the period between the coming of sound in the mid 1920s and the beginnings of the demise of the `studio system` in late 1940s. In doing so it deals with the impact of sound on films and film production in the US and Europe, the subsequent impact of the Depression and World War II on the industry and its audiences, the growth of unions, and the roles played by production managers and film stars at the height of the studio era. Part 3 deals with aspects of style, censorship, technology, and film production. It includes articles on the Production Code, music and sound, cinematography, and the often neglected topic of animation. Part 4 covers the period between 1946 and 1966. It deals with the demise of the studio system and the advent of independent production. In an era of demographic and social change, it looks at the growth of drive-in theatres, the impact of television, the advent of new technologies, the increasing importance of international markets, the Hollywood blacklist, the rise in art house imports and in overseas production, and the eventual demise of the Production Code. Designed especially for courses on Hollywood Cinema, the Reader includes a number of newly researched and written chapters and a series of introductions to each of its parts. It concludes with an epilogue, a list of resources for further research, and an extensive bibliography.

"Boot Camp For Your Brain: A No-nonsense Guide to the SAT I" is probably the best book on the market for sheer effectiveness at raising scores. If you diligently study the material on a regular basis and make a sincere effort, you will be completely prepared for the real SAT I*. This text, with regular revisions and improvements, has been used as the official textbook of The World's Best Prep Course for the SAT I since 1989. While it

Assessment is a key area of interest and debate in education. Its increased use by governments as a powerful means of influencing educational practice are now features of the educational scene worldwide. This volume was the first major international review of such developments and it explores the impact of assessment on all areas of education, from teaching skills to policy-making.

The contributors take a global perspective to spotlight the common problems facing teachers and students, policy-makers and politicians through the world as they seek to reconcile issues of equity and national development, educational imperatives and finite state resources. The contributions discuss the changing role of assessment and public examinations, and consider such specific issues as the development of a market economy in educational provision, the difficulties of measuring standards in international studies, and accreditation of absolute rather than relative competencies.

This book, written by two leading authorities in the field, provides a systematic application of concepts of situational crime prevention to internet and e-commerce crime, exploring ways in which concepts of crime prevention developed in other contexts can be fruitfully applied in this new environment. Their argument is that situational crime prevention works, and is ideally suited to proving the means of developing measures to combat rapidly growing e-commerce crime. Chapters in the book seek to identify the specific opportunities and transactions in which crime can occur in the e-commerce environment, and the different kinds of information which are crime targets --identified as intellectual property, intelligence, information systems and services of various kinds (banking, purchasing etc). Consumer products are also examined with a view to identifying the elements that make them particularly vulnerable to theft.

Phil R. Manning "Can you prove that continuing education really makes any difference?" Over the years, educators concerned with continuing education (CE) for health professionals have either heard or voiced that question in one form or another more than once. But because of the difficulty in measuring the specific effects of a given course, program, or conference, the question has not been answered satisfactorily. Since CE is costly, since CE is now mandated in some states for re-registration, and since its worth has not been proven in for mal evaluation research, the pressure to evaluate remains strong. The question can be partially answered by a more careful definition of continuing education, particularly the goals to be achieved by CEo Another part of the answer depends on the development of a stronger commitment to evaluation of CE by its providers. But a significant part of the answer might be provided through the improvement of methods used in evaluation of continuing education for health professionals. To address this last concern, the Development and Demonstration Center in Continuing Education for the Health Professions of the Univer sity of Southern California organized and conducted a meeting of academi cians and practitioners in evaluation of continuing education. During a three-day period, participants heard formal presentations by five invited speakers and then discussed the application of the state of the art of educa tional evaluation to problems of evaluation of continuing education for health professionals."

Large-scale assessments (LSAs) play a growing role in education policy decisions, accountability, and education planning worldwide. This book focuses on central issues that are key components of successful planning, development and implementation of LSAs. The book s main distinction is its focus on practice- based, cutting-edge research. This is achieved by having chapters co-authored by world-class researchers in collaboration with measurement practitioners. The result is a how-to book whose language is accessible to practitioners and graduate students as well as academics.

No other book so thoroughly covers current issues in the field of large-scale assessment. An introductory chapter is followed by sixteen chapters that each focus on a specific issue. The content is prescriptive and didactic in nature but based on the most recent scientific research. It includes successful experiences, exemplary practices, training modules, interesting breakthroughs or alternatives, and promising innovations regarding large-scale assessments. Finally, it covers meaningful topics that are currently taking center stage such as motivating students, background questionnaires, comparability of different linguistic versions of assessments, and cognitive modeling of learning and assessment.