This book summarizes the international evidence on methodological issues in standard setting in education. By critically discussing the standard-setting practices implemented in the Nordic countries and by presenting new methodological approaches, it offers fresh perspectives on the current research. Standard setting targets crucial societal objectives by defining educational benchmarks at different achievement levels, and provides feedback to policy makers, schools and teachers about the strengths and weaknesses of a school system. Given that the consequences of standard setting can be dramatic, the quality of standard setting is a prime concern. If it fails, repercussions can be expected in terms of arbitrary evaluations of educational policy, wrong turns in school or teacher development or misplacement of individual students. Standard setting therefore needs to be accurate, reliable, valid, useful, and defensible. However, specific evidence on the benefits and limits of different approaches to standard setting is rare and scattered, and there is a particular lack with respect to standard setting in the Nordic countries, where the number of national tests is increasing and there are concerns about the time and effort spent on testing at schools without feedback being provided. Addressing this gap, the book offers a discussion on standard setting by respected experts as well as profound and innovative insights into fundamental aspects of standard setting including conclusions for future methodological and policy-related research.

This volume considers the role of initial and continuing teacher education in uncertain times. It highlights key principles and methods that preserve curiosity and optimism regarding the potential of teacher education, and regarding the manifold achievements of pre-service and in-service teachers. It explores how teacher education can produce teachers who are committed to counter-oppressive curricula and pedagogies, and reflects the critical role of teacher educators as public academics.

Both educators and their students are involved in the process of assessment - all parties are expected to meet and exceed expectations in the face of competing conditions. New practices are being developed to enhance students' participation, especially in their own assessment, be it though peer-review, reflective assessment, the introduction of new technologies, or other novel solutions. Though widely researched, few have measured these innovations' effectiveness in terms of satisfaction, perceived learning, or performance improvements. Innovative Practices for Higher Education Assessment and Measurement bridges the gap between political discourse, theoretical approach, and teaching practices in terms of assessment in higher education. Bringing new insights and presenting novel strategies, this publication brings forth a new perception of the importance of assessment and offers a set of successful, innovative practices. This book is ideal for educators, administrators, policy makers, and students of education.

A volume in Contemporary Perspectives in Race and Ethnic Relations Series Editors: M. Christopher Brown II, Alcorn State University and T. Elon Dancy II, University of Oklahoma Filling in the Blanks is a book dedicated to helping policymakers, researchers, academics and teachers, better understand standardized testing and the Black-White achievement gap. This book provides a wealth of background information, as well as the most recent findings, about testing and measurement concepts essential to understanding standardized tests. The book then reviews theories and research that has been conducted which explain the differences in performance between Black and White test takers on many standardized tests. Most notably, Filling in the Blanks presents several new theories that address why Black students do not perform as well as their White counterparts. These theories present very novel and innovative perspectives to understanding these test performance differences. The book ends with a host of recommendations that are intended to address the concerns and questions of several stakeholder groups. . The series centers on volumes that treat race and ethnicity in conjunction or parallel with social sciences, human studies, public policy, and/or education and that disseminate ideas and strategies useful for various communities against a backdrop of race and/or ethnicity in America. Books in this series foreground novel thinking about race and ethnicity, important policy/praxis issues, developing trends and responses across society, and the concerns of public and/or institutional constituencies. To the extent possible, books in the series explore the interconnection of multiple perspectives, while concurrently articulating implications resultant from the intersections of race/ethnicity (i.e. gender, class, sexual orientation, creed, ability). Each volume investigates one or more critical topics missing from the extant literature, and engages one or more theoretical perspectives

The objective of this book is to advance our understanding of the design, implementation and evaluation of test-driven external accountability policies for improving both academic excellence and equity. This book provides new insights into debates about the efficacy of high-stakes testing through critical synthesis of previous studies and through systematic analysis of the achievement gap trends over the past 15 years. The core findings have implications for contemporary national and state policy efforts, as mandated by NCLB, to close the achievement gap. The book alerts readers to scientific, institutional and technical threats to the current test-driven school accountability system, and possible consequences if we fail to counteract those threats and continue the current policy course with underfunded mandates and an over-reliance on testing and sanctions.

Originally published in 1972, there were many 'classics' dealing with assessment and testing on the market at the time, but most of these left the inexperienced reader bewildered in the early stages, because of their size and insufficient explanation of the many technical terms used. There were a distinct lack of books which gave students in Colleges of Education dealing with psychology for the first time a simple explanation of basic terms in assessment and testing, and which introduced them briefly to the different types of tests available. Assessment and Testing aimed to fill this large gap. It looks at such key psychological terms as 'sample', 'objectivity', 'subjectivity', and such basic statistical terms such as 'mean', 'standard deviation', and 'normal curve of distribution'. Because it assumes that the reader has no knowledge of such terms, it gives careful and simply illustrated explanations of each. In the same way, in simple language, with any technical terms explained and illustrated, it explains intelligence and personality tests, questionnaires, sociometric measures, projection techniques, and other areas of assessment and testing which every practising teacher will meet. The book aims to be essentially practical. It is appreciated all the time that the readers are those who will teach children. It is designed to provide a solid foundation upon which the reader can build later to augment his own experience of identifying children's particular needs.

This book explores how peer reviews are used in school improvement, accountability and education system reform. Importantly, these issues are studied through numerous international cases and new empirical evidence. This volume also identifies and describes barriers and facilitators to the development, use, sustainability and expansion of school peer review. School peer reviews are a form of internal evaluation driven by schools themselves rather than externally imposed, such as with school inspections. Schools collaborate with other schools in networks, collect data through self-evaluation and in school review visits. They provide feedback, challenge and support to each other. Despite the increased use of school peer review in system reform and school improvement, very little research has been conducted on this model and there is a dearth of literature that looks at the phenomenon internationally. This book fills this gap and will be an invaluable source for academics in school leadership and educational evaluation and accountability, as well as those working at the level of executive leadership in school networks, NGOs and in government policy-making.

Pearson Revise is the revision series from Pearson, the assessment experts. From the very start of your GCSE, Pearson Revise is the best way to keep learning up to date, practise skills and prepare for assessments and exams. one-topic-per-page format helps you revise more quickly, without the hassle exam-style worked examples match the new specification and demonstrate good exam technique 'Now try this' exam-style practice questions let you test understanding of a topic problem solving support throughout including tricky questions on easy topics and strategies and techniques for answering harder questions. complete coverage of the new specification including brand-new topics. visual explanations of key concepts help you revise quickly and recall key skills in exams. Part of a comprehensive range of learning and revision support available for Pearson Edexcel and AQA GCSEs from Pearson Revise including: Revision Guides, Revision Workbooks, Revision Cards, Practice Papers Plus all linked to a free online learning portal.

This book reports the results of a research project that investigated assessment methods aimed at supporting and improving inquiry-based approaches in European science, technology and mathematics (STM) education. The findings were used to influence policy makers with guidelines for ensuring that assessment enhances learning. The book provides insights about: - The concept of competence within the STM domains and its relevance for education - The conceptualisation and teaching of four key competences: scientific inquiry, mathematical problem-solving, design processes, and innovation. - Fundamental aspects of the two main purposes of assessment, formative and summative, the relations between the two purposes and ways of linking them. - The main challenges related to the uptake of formative assessment in daily teaching-learning practices in STM and specifically, the usability of formative on-the-fly dialogue, structured assessment dialogue, peer assessment and written teacher feedback. - The systemic support measures and tools teachers need in order to integrate formative assessment of student learning into their classroom practices and how it can conflict with summative assessment practices. - How research-based strategies for the formative use of assessment can be adapted to various European educational traditions to ensure their effective use and avoid undesirable consequences. - How relevant stakeholders can be invited to take co-ownership of research results and how a productive partnership between researchers, policy makers, and teachers can be established. - Concrete research vistas that are still needed in international assessment research.

This volume draws together interdisciplinary approaches from political philosophy, social work, medicine and sociology to analyze the theoretical foundations and practical examples of evidence-based and evidence-informed education for the public good. It presents a range of conceptions of the evidence-based and evidence-informed education and a justification for why the particular examples or issues chosen fit within that conception for the sake of public good. It explores the current literature on evidence-based and evidence-informed educational policy, research and practice, and introduces a new term, 'evidence free', meaning actions of some policymakers who disregard or misuse evidence for their own agenda. The demands about the quality and relevance of educational research to inform the policy and practice have been growing over the past decade in response to the Evidence-Based Education movement. However the literature is yet to tackle the question of the interrelationships between evidence, research, policy and practice in education for the public good in an international context. This book fills that gap.

This book explores the influence of high stakes standardised testing within the context of South Korea. South Korea is regarded as a shining example of success in educational achievement and, as this book reveals, pressurised standardised testing has been a major contributing factor to its success. This unique country provides an excellent setting from which to explore the powerful relationship that exists between testing and learning and can advance our understanding of which factors and test conditions will positively and negatively influence learning. This book follows the test activity of a group of Korean university students preparing for the TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication) and posits a revised model of the influence of testing on learning. It calls for a more socially situated view of tests and test-takers considered in relation to the sociocultural, historical, political and economic contexts in which they are embedded.

This volume builds a conceptual basis for assessment promoting learning in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classrooms and proposes practical assessment approaches and activities that CLIL teachers can apply in the classroom. CLIL as an educational context is unique, as language and content learning happen simultaneously. The efficacy of such instruction has been studied extensively, but assessment in CLIL classrooms has drawn much less attention. The present volume aims to fill this gap. Arranged based on different ways that content and language are integrated in CLIL, the chapters in this book together build a solid theoretical basis for assessment promoting learning in CLIL classrooms. The authors discuss how assessment eliciting this integration yields insights into learners' abilities, but more importantly, how these insights are used to promote learning. The contributors to the volume together build the understanding of classroom-based assessment as cyclic, of teaching, learning, and assessment as inter-related, and of content and language in CLIL classrooms as a dialectical unity. This volume will spark interest in and discussion of classroom-based assessment in CLIL among CLIL educators and researchers, enable reflection of classroom assessment practices, and foster collaboration between CLIL teachers and researchers. The assessment approaches and activities discussed in the volume, in turn, will help educators understand the scope of applications of assessment and inspire them to adapt these to their own classrooms.

In this book we respond to a higher education environment that is on the verge of profound changes by imagining an evolving and agile problem-based learning ecology for learning. The goal of doing so is to humanise university education by pursuing innovative approaches to student learning, teaching, curricula, assessment, and professional learning, and to employ interdisciplinary methods that go far beyond institutional walls and include student development and support, curriculum sustainability, research and the scholarship of teaching and learning, as well as administration and leadership. An agile problem-based learning (PBL) ecology for learning deliberately blurs the boundaries between disciplines, between students and teachers, between students and employers, between employers and teachers, between academics and professional staff, between formal and informal learning, and between teaching and research. It is based on the recognition that all of these elements are interconnected and constantly evolving, rather than being discrete and static. Throughout this book, our central argument is that there is no single person who is responsible for educating students. Rather, it is everyone's responsibility - teachers, students, employers, administrators, and wider social networks, inside and outside of the university. Agile PBL is about making connections, rather than erecting barriers. In summary, this book is not about maintaining comfort zones, but rather about becoming comfortable with discomfort. The actual implementation is beyond the scope of this book and we envisage that changing perceptions towards this vision will itself be a mammoth task. However, we believe that the alternative of leaving things as they are would ultimately prove untenable, and more distressingly, would leave a generation of students afraid to think, feel, and act for themselves, let alone being able to face the challenges of the 21st century.

This Tutor's Guild AQA GCSE (9-1) Delivery Pack for English Language (Grades 3-5) is curriculum matched and contains everything needed for a whole academic year of private tutoring: 38 complete lessons, complete with plans, activities and homework Detailed explanation on the use of the pack Information for parents Specification guidance Advice on preparing for the exam Needs analysis for the parents and the students Mapping guide to the Revise GCSE Series Progress and End-of-Lesson Report templates Differentiation and extension ideas Customisable certificates in the digital version of the pack

Online Assessment, Measurement and Evaluation: Emerging Practices provides a view of the possibilities and challenges facing online educators and evaluators in the 21st Century. As technology evolves and online measurement and assessment follow, ""Online Assessment, Measurement and Evaluation: Emerging Practices"" uses established evaluation principles to employ new tools in evaluation systems that support stakeholders, clarify values and definitions of the evaluation methods, encourage thought about important questions, and refresh the readers' memories of contexts and backgrounds. This book also adheres to evaluation standards of feasibility, propriety, utility, and accuracy in order to help participants realize that technical issues and methods are only worthwhile when they are in the service of helping people make thoughtful choices.

Assessment is a fundamental issue in research in science education, in curriculum development and implementation in science education as well as in science teaching and learning. This book takes a broad and deep view of research involving assessment in science education, across contexts and cultures (from whole countries to individual classrooms) and across forms and purposes (from assessment in the service of student learning to policy implications of system wide assessment). It examines the relationships between assessment, measurement and evaluation; explores assessment philosophies and practices in relation to curriculum and scientific literacy/learning; and details the relationships between assessment and science education policy. The third in a series, Valuing Assessment in Science Education has chapters from a range of international scholars from across the globe and staff from Monash University, King's College London and University of Waikato. The two previous books in the series examined research relevant to the re-emergence of values in science education and teaching across the spectrum of science education as well as across cultural contexts through the professional knowledge of science teaching. This third book now moves to examine different aspects of generating understanding about what science is learnt, how it is learnt, and how it is valued. Valuing Assessment in Science Education will appeal to all those with some engagement with and/or use of research in science education, including research students, academics, curriculum development agencies, assessment authorities, and policy makers. It will also be of interest to all classroom science teachers who seek to keep abreast of the latest research and development and thinking in their area of professional concern.

This contributed volume is an exciting product of the 22nd MAVI conference, which presents cutting-edge research on affective issues in teaching and learning math. The teaching and learning of mathematics is highly dependent on students' and teachers' values, attitudes, feelings, beliefs and motivations towards mathematics and mathematics education. These peer-reviewed contributions provide critical insights through their theoretically and methodologically diverse analyses of relevant issues related to affective factors in teaching and learning math and offer new tools and strategies by which to evaluate affective factors in students' and teachers' mathematical activities in the classroom. Among the topics discussed: The relationship between proxies for learning and mathematically related beliefs. Teaching for entrepreneurial and mathematical competences. Prospective teachers' conceptions of the concepts mean, median, and mode. Prospective teachers' approach to reasoning and proof The impact of assessment on students' experiences of mathematics. Through its thematic connections to teacher education, professional development, assessment, entrepreneurial competences, and reasoning and proof, Students' and Teachers' Values, Attitudes, Feelings and Beliefs in Mathematics Classrooms proves to be a valuable resource for educators, practitioners, and students for applications at primary, secondary, and university levels.

This book provides the basics of student self-assessment and implementation challenges, and it offers practical solutions and examples for navigating the use of student self-assessment in various subject disciplines in primary schools, secondary schools and higher education. It provides an informed approach for educators to understand the complexities and subtleties involved in implementing self-assessment, and how this might include and impact on teachers and students. Involving students in assessment is not a new idea nor is student self-assessment a new assessment tool in schools. Despite the advantages and the necessity for including it in our pedagogic processes explicitly, the use of student self-assessment has been far from commonplace and consistent in classrooms, schools and universities. This book makes clear the choices of what, how and why student self-assessment is important and usable in the classroom. This book is designed for educators at different levels, and educational researchers. It will provide food for thought for pre- and in-service teachers and school leaders who are interested in nurturing independent and self-directed learners by involving students in the assessment process and maximising student learning through the use of student self-assessment.

Higher education and innovation policies are today seen as central elements in national economic competitiveness, increasingly measured by global rankings. The book analyses the evolution of indicator-based global knowledge governance, where various national attributes have been evaluated under international comparative assessment. Reflecting this general trend, the Shanghai ranking, first published in 2003, has pressured governments and universities all over the world to improve their performance in global competition. More recently, as global rankings have met criticism for their methodology and scope, measurements of various sizes and shapes have proliferated: some celebrating novel methodological solutions, others breaking new conceptual grounds. This book takes a fresh look at developments in the field of knowledge governance by showing how emerging indicators, innovation indexes and subnational comparisons are woven into the existing fabric of measurements that govern our ideas of higher education, innovation and competitiveness. This book argues that while rankings are becoming more numerous and fragmented, the new knowledge products, nevertheless, tend to reproduce ideas and practices existing in the field of global measurement.

This book presents evidence-based practices for appropriate assessment of and school-based services for young English language learners. It identifies and addresses the challenges of assessing and intervening with these students at the curricular, instructional, environmental, and individual levels, particularly the complexities of determining the presence or absence of learning disabilities. Case studies and comparisons with fluent English speakers illustrate the screening and evaluation process - including multi-tier system of supports (MTSS) and response to intervention (RTI) - and proactive intervention planning in core literacy and math domains. Together, these chapters model effective teaching practice, advocacy, and teamwork with parents and colleagues as well as policy development toward meeting the needs of this diverse student population. This invaluable guide: Examines challenges of data collection when working with English language learners. Traces the development of dual-language fluency and competence. Discusses language-acquisition issues affecting oral language assessment. Reviews commonly used assessment and intervention tools in use with English learners. Features specialized chapters relating to reading, writing, and mathematics competencies. Can be used regardless of first language spoken by students. Assessment and Intervention for English Language Learners is an essential resource for researchers, professionals, and graduate students in diverse fields including school and clinical child psychology; assessment, testing, and evaluation; language education; special education; and educational psychology.

The educators are dedicated and concerned. The curriculum is successful. Yet some students aren't reading at grade level, and meetings air problems without making progress. Many students continue to flounder, leading to more meetings with the same lack of meaningful results. The Practitioner's Guide to Curriculum-Based Evaluation in Reading gives researchers and professionals the means to break this frustrating cycle, crafted by authors who have not only been there and done that, but can explain in depth how to replicate the method. Focusing on reading but applicable across subject areas, this highly accessible guide defines curriculum-based evaluation (CBE), provides conceptual background, and analyzes its component steps. Assessment and intervention are given equal attention within a problem-solving model featuring tools for skill assessment, progress monitoring, goal setting, and other bedrock tasks. Chapters build to lead readers beyond classroom strategies to guidelines for problem solving and decision making to effectively address individual student needs. Included in the coverage: The curriculum-based evaluation process. Relating CBE to the Multi-Tier System of Support model. Using CBE in daily practice, both in classwork and schoolwide. Decoding, early literacy, and reading comprehension. Progress monitoring and decision making. Plus FAQs, handouts, and other supplemental materials. This level of educational insight and pedagogical detail make the Practitioner's Guide to Curriculum-Based Evaluation in Reading a clarion call for researchers, graduate students, and professionals in school and clinical child psychology; assessment, testing, and evaluation; applied linguistics; language education; special education and allied education; educational psychology; and social work.

This volume provides an analysis of what we know about turning around "failing" schools in the United States. It starts with an in-depth examination of the barriers that hinder action on turnaround work. The book analyses the reasons why some schools that find themselves in serious academic trouble fail in their efforts to turn themselves around. Beginning with a discussion of what may best be described as "lethal" reasons or the most powerful explanation for failed reform initiatives, which include an absence of attention to student care and support; a near absence of attention to curriculum and instruction; the firing of the wrong people. Covered in this volume are "critical" explanations for failed turnaround efforts such as failure to attend to issues of sustainability, and "significant" explanations for failed turnaround efforts such as the misuse of test data. The volume concludes by examining what can be done to overcome problems that cause failure for turnaround schools and reviewing ideas in the core technology of schooling: curriculum, instruction, and assessment. As well as exploring problems associated with the leadership and management of schools to see where improvement is possible and an analysis of opportunities found in relationships between schools and their external partners such as parents and community members.

This book gathers original studies presented at the PROMS 2016 conference on Rasch theories and Rasch-based applications. It provides significant examples used to address practical measurement problems across a range of disciplines, including: Classic Testing Theory (CTT), Item Response Theory (IRT), philosophy of measurement, dimensionality, the role of fit statistics and research, business and industrial applications, health-related research and the latest Rasch-based computer software. PROMS welcomes empirical and theoretical studies and workshops, preferably with an emphasis on the Rasch model. Special attention is paid to manuscripts submitted by non-native English-speaking authors from Pacific Rim countries, regions and beyond. PROMS 2016 (Pacific Rim Objective Measurement Symposium) was held July 30-August 3, 2016 in Xi'an, China. The goal of the conference was to bring together researchers, scholars and professors from research institutes, universities, hospitals, business and management sectors, as well as professional practitioners, to exchange and share ideas, problems and solutions regarding the multifaceted aspects of the Rasch model and on the much debated yet highly topical issues of objective assessment.

A critical issue in higher education is the effective implementation of assessment with the core purpose of promoting productive student learning. This edited collection provides a state-of-the-art discussion of recent, cutting-edge work into assessment for learning in higher education. It introduces a new theme of scaling up, which will be welcomed by theorists, researchers, curriculum leaders and university teachers, and showcases the work of leading figures from Australia, England, continental Europe and Hong Kong. The work illuminates four key elements: (1) Enabling assessment change; (2) Assessment for learning strategies and implementation; (3) Feedback for learning; (4) Using technology to facilitate assessment for learning. Solidly research-based and carrying important implications for enhanced practice in assessment for learning at the university level, it is a must read for academic developers, researchers, university teachers, academic leaders and all those interested in assessment matters.