Demystifying current theories and debates about assessment, The Essential Guide to Assessment will be a practical guide to show trainees and teachers how to put certain strategies and models into practice in the classroom right away. How do I develop the best methods of assessment for my own learners? How can I effectively track the progress of different children in my class? What targets should I be setting? The Essential Guide to Assessment provides answers to these questions, plus countless others. Demystifying current theories and debate about assessment, this will be a practical guide to show trainees and teachers how to put certain strategies and models into practice in the classroom right away.

Develop your students critical thinking skills and prepare them to perform competitively in the classroom, on state tests, and beyond. In this book, Moore and Stanley show you how to effectively instruct your students to think on higher levels, and how to assess their progress. As states move toward common achievement standards, teachers have been called upon to provide higher levels of rigor in their classrooms. Moore and Stanley demonstrate critical thinking as a key approach to accomplishing this goal. They explore the benefits of critical thinking and provide the tools you need to develop and monitor critical thinking skills in the classroom. Topics include: The Difference Between Higher-Level and Lower-Level Thinking Writing Higher-Level Thinking Questions Assessing Critical Thinking Strategies to Develop Higher-Level Thinking Skills

'This volume addresses a very timely and important topic, and provides both broad and in-depth coverage of a number of large-scale English tests in China, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, and about the Chinese learner.' ? Lyle F. Bachman, From the Foreword

Building on current theoretical and practical frameworks for English language assessment and testing, this book presents a comprehensive, up-to-date, relevant picture of English language assessment for students in China (Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) and for Chinese learners of English around the world. Written by well-recognized international scholars in language testing, it covers:

• the history of tests and testing systems, issues and challenges, and current research in China
• both test-designers? and test-users? points of view on test development and test validation within a range of political, economical, social, and financial contexts in China
• theoretical/conceptual perspectives on the use of the English language assessment at different levels, including societal, university, and schools
• empirical research related specifically to test development, curricular innovation, and test validation

Given the long history of objective testing and its extensive use in Chinese society, and considering the sheer number of students taking various tests in English in China and elsewhere, an understanding of the impact of English language testing is essential for anyone involved in testing and assessment issues in China and elsewhere in the world. This is a must-read volume for testing and assessment policy makers, curriculum designers, researchers, ESL/EFL materials writers, graduate students, and English language teachers/researchers at all levels.

Part of The Essential SENCO Toolkit series, this invaluable resource offers practical ideas and materials to allow SENCOs and SEN practitioners to capture learning, demonstrate the impact of SEN support, and analyse whether provision is effectively tackling barriers to learning. Chapters introduce a shared language of learning and move through seven key components: cognition, communication, creativity, control, compassion, co-ordination and the curriculum. Key features include: A framework for the holistic assessment of skills and attributes that contribute to accessing the curriculum, and a framework for intervention that is additional to, or different from, the differentiated curriculum A unique strengths-based progress tracker that establishes a baseline to inform intervention and determine progress over time A photocopiable and downloadable programme of materials, trialled and tested in both primary and secondary settings, that can be shared with teachers, senior leaders and support staff, as well as with parents/carers and pupils Providing a framework to create a holistic profile of the child and their needs, SEND Assessment empowers professionals to confidently demonstrate progress for barriers to learning that are otherwise difficult to measure. It will support SENCOs in their day-to-day roles and become a vital tool for those interested in providing effective SEN provision in educational settings.

The second edition of University Teaching in Focus distils the knowledge and insights of internationally acclaimed experts in university teaching. It empowers university teachers and contributes to their career success by developing their teaching skills, strategies and knowledge. Written in a clear and accessible style, it provides a sharp focus on student learning through the lens of four sections: Focus on subject and curriculum design Focus on subject teaching and learning Focus on students Focus on your career Each of the 15 chapters targets a key teaching and learning issue referencing seminal works, current resources and practical applications using real-world cases. The 'Your thoughts' sections encourage reflection and offer opportunities to adapt international evidence about best practice to local contexts and disciplines. This edition will be a key resource for foundational teaching development programs in higher education institutions or as a self-help manual by early career and experienced teachers who wish to enhance their students' learning.

Academic assertiveness is an essential capability that is required of students who wish to achieve academic and professional success. Written for students who are aiming to achieve college success, Achieving Success through Academic Assertiveness: Real life strategies for today's higher education students focuses on the challenges that learners face and encourages positive actions that support triumphs in learning situations. Jennifer Moon creatively explores the importance of this emerging topic and how assertiveness is linked to the process of learning and overall student development, critical thinking and academic achievement.

How can teachers use the comprehension strategies put forward in books like "Strategies That Work" and "Mosaic of Thought" to help students become not just better readers and thinkers but also better test takers? The four authors of "Put Thinking to the Test" have spent years pursuing that question and have developed a groundbreaking approach, as their colleague Ellin Keene writes in the foreword to the book:
" I knew that Lori, Patrick, Cheryl and Missy met frequently to discuss professional issues and that they were working on a book related to testing. I had no idea, however, that their proposal would be so fresh, so original and, simultaneously, so sensible and immediately useful."

Just as comprehension strategies have helped millions of students learn to read like proficient readers, they can also help students think like effective test-takers. The authors show how students can use background knowledge, mental images, synthesizing, monitoring, inferring, questioning, and determining of importance to understand the genre of tests and to think through the problems they are given. Instead of engaging in artificial and disconnected activities to cram for upcoming tests, students learn skills and strategies that will serve them throughout their school careers and beyond.

Presenting numerous classroom vignettes featuring students in grades 3-8, "Put Thinking to the Test" includes: examples of the direct application of thinking strategy instruction to test taking;actual work samples from lessons used with students;additional lesson ideas that go beyond the teaching described in the vignettes;detailed anchor charts;background on how the authors came to understand this work so that a staff, team, or individual teacher can apply these concepts in their own school setting.

Criminal Justice Internships: Theory Into Practice, Tenth Edition, guides the student, instructor, and internship site supervisor through the entire internship process, offering advice and information for use at the internship site as well as pre-planning and assessment activities. With increasingly more programs offering or requiring internships, the need for guidance is answered by McBride's counsel, offering students a means of enhancing their credentials and gaining a foothold in a competitive job market. Divided into four sections Pre-internship Considerations, Professional Concerns, The Role of the Organization, and Assessment and Career Planning this book offers resources to enrich the student's experience and lay the foundation for future professional success. Students learn basics such as choosing an internship site at either a public agency or a private firm, resume-writing techniques, effective use of social networks, interviewing skills, and the importance of setting and developing goals and assessing progress. The book serves as a reference tool for professors and supervisory personnel who assist and supervise students during their internships. Suitable for all Criminal Justice, Justice Studies, Financial Crimes and Cybersecurity Investigations, and Pre-law undergraduate programs, Criminal Justice Internships is also useful in Social Sciences programs with a service-learning component.

Interdisciplinary Education in the Age of Assessment addresses a prevalent need in educational scholarship today. Many current standards-driven curricula follow strict subject-specific guidelines, leaving educators little room for interdisciplinary innovation. This book gears itself toward developing assessment models specific to interdisciplinary education, positioning itself as a seminal volume in the field and a valuable resource to educators across the disciplines. Each chapter covers a major subject area (literacy, science, math, social studies, bilingual education, foreign language, educational policy) and discusses methods of assessing integrated/ interdisciplinary curriculum and instruction.

Interdisciplinary Education in the Age of Assessment addresses a prevalent need in educational scholarship today. Many current standards-driven curricula follow strict subject-specific guidelines, leaving educators little room for interdisciplinary innovation. This book gears itself toward developing assessment models specific to interdisciplinary education, positioning itself as a seminal volume in the field and a valuable resource to educators across the disciplines. Each chapter covers a major subject area (literacy, science, math, social studies, bilingual education, foreign language, educational policy) and discusses methods of assessing integrated/ interdisciplinary curriculum and instruction.

The primary purpose of this book is to demonstrate how proven quality assurance tools and methods that have been applied successfully in the manufacturing and service industries for the past 20 years can be applied in the testing industry. It defines what is meant by the term "quality" in testing and reviews how three business process concepts standards, process planning and design, and continuous improvement can be used to improve the way in which tests are designed, administered, scored and reported so that errors can be eliminated.

Assessment is the daily life of a teacher; designing plans, setting questions, giving feedback and grading are all activities that teachers undertake on a regular basis. Yet, the close examination of such activities can be hindered by constraints caused by the context in which different teaching and learning activities occur and an unawareness of the effect that assessment has on the students themselves. This book provides a practical guide on the effective use of assessment. It includes the use of assessment tools and pedagogical design that help students deepen their learning. Major issues on assessment and some excellent examples are presented as a useful resource to university teachers in enhancing teaching and students' learning. It will also be found useful by teachers when implementing various assessment methods. School administrators and teaching development professionals will find the book useful when making decisions related to learning and teaching issues.

A lot hangs on the summative grades that students are given. A good degree opens doors which otherwise might remain closed. Yet, as higher education is now a mass rather than an elite system, what is expected of its graduates is different from the expectations of previous generations. Students are expected not only to be able to demonstrate high standards of academic achievement, but also a variety of capabilities that have at different times been given labels such as 'generic skills' and 'transferable skills'. These abilities are difficult to grade for a variety of reasons and some graduates may be losing out because their particular strengths are given insufficient acknowledgement in current summative assessment practices. Using the UK honours degree classifications as a case study, this book appraises the way in which summative assessment in higher education is approached and shows that the foundations of current practices (in the UK and elsewhere) are of questionable robustness. It argues that there is a need to widen the assessment frame if the breadth of valued student achievements is to be recognised adequately.

@text: This volume stems from the 2003 Educational Testing Service Invitational Conference that convened leading scholars and practitioners from education, psychology, economics, statistics and public policy to discuss the important topic of measurement and accountability. The chapters cover all significant aspects of the current accountability scene, with careful but not exclusive attention to the No Child Left Behind act.

Written by nationally recognized scholars with a mandate to write in a non-technical style, this volume will appeal to anyone seriously interested in school reform and the educational accountability movement.

Everybody seems to be talking about Assessment for Learning. This book shows you how to do it. The thinking behind the highly influential 'Assessment for Learning' approach is translated into usable and practical strategies for all those teaching literacy in primary and secondary classrooms. The authors show how thinking, learning and assessment can be linked together in a creative and integrated fashion, so that thinking promotes learning, learning enables assessment to take place and assessment acts as a stimulus to both thinking and learning. Concise teachers' notes for a broad range of dynamic techniques explain for each: what the approach is how you use it for assessment how you can manage it in the classroom how it helps with learning. Downloadable resources are included with all of the activities and ideas that can be used on Interactive Whiteboards. Active Assessment for English will prove inspiring reading for all literacy teachers at primary and secondary levels, LEA advisers and inspectors.

This book focuses on dilemmas inherent in the practice of assessment in the contemporary context. New forms of assessment are being introduced in all sectors of education and training, and the culture of assessment is shifting. The authors in this volume discuss the practice of assessment, reporting empirical research on modes of assessment within a variety of educational contexts, while also addressing conceptual and theoretical aspects of assessment. Though most publications on assessment do not go beyond one sector or phase of education and only consider assessment in one national context, this volume is cross-sectoral and international in scope. This groundbreaking book illustrates the conceptual and practical dilemmas of assessment and raises issues that are relevant and applicable across a variety of modes of assessment and across various contexts where assessment takes place.

Despite their inherent, consistent emphasis in our educational system, test scores are not infallible measurements of a student's ability, skill, or knowledge. Therefore, they should not be viewed in isolation by educators and, more importantly, by parents. In this book, Estelle S. Gellman provides parents and educators with the information necessary to interpret the test scores one encounters in today's schools. While not a scathing condemnation of testing, the book strongly emphasizes that test performance must be interpreted with respect to the limitations of the test itself and how the score corresponds with other information known about the individual test-taker.

In her examination, which covers both teacher-made and standardized tests, Gellman is careful to present technical information in a way that can be readily understood by both parents and educators. The book explains the different types of tests that are used, the purposes for which they are given, and the qualities that they should exhibit. Separate chapters give attention to achievement tests, aptitude tests, and tests of personality and interests. Other chapters take on issues of testing children with disabilities and the use of test scores in decision making. By addressing the limitations of tests, this source will allow educators and parents to reap the benefit of information that they do provide.

Academic assertiveness is an essential capability that is required of students who wish to achieve academic and professional success. Written for students who are aiming to achieve college success, Achieving Success through Academic Assertiveness: Real life strategies for today's higher education students focuses on the challenges that learners face and encourages positive actions that support triumphs in learning situations. Jennifer Moon creatively explores the importance of this emerging topic and how assertiveness is linked to the process of learning and overall student development, critical thinking and academic achievement.

The aim of this book is to examine how technical and institutional factors affect the responsiveness of public and private organisations to a change in accreditation standards, with specific reference to the vocational educational and training (VET) sector and ethical standards. In particular, the authors analyse the Italian experience regarding a new accreditation standard recently adopted in the Region of Lombardy. Although based on a national experience, this innovative approach to accreditation systems in the educational sector provides a more general framework of analysis of how ethics and compliance can be applied in business organisation worldwide.

Quantitative Data Analysis for Language Assessment Volume I: Fundamental Techniques is a resource book that presents the most fundamental techniques of quantitative data analysis in the field of language assessment. Each chapter provides an accessible explanation of the selected technique, a review of language assessment studies that have used the technique, and finally, an example of an authentic study that uses the technique. Readers also get a taste of how to apply each technique through the help of supplementary online resources that include sample data sets and guided instructions. Language assessment students, test designers, and researchers should find this a unique reference as it consolidates theory and application of quantitative data analysis in language assessment.

This book investigates the education and assessment of student midwives in clinical practice, paying particular attention to how their practice is graded. Chenery-Morris brings primary research, which explores students, mentors, and midwifery lecturers perspectives of practice learning and its assessment, together with the international literature on clinical knowledge, teaching and learning in practice and assessment of students drawn from a range of healthcare and education professions. Discussing how practice is graded, what constitutes valid practice knowledge, learning in clinical practice, evaluating practice learning and failing students, this book uses Basil Bernstein's theories to throw light on how we assess and whether we should assess performance in addition to whether a student is competent to practise. This is an important contribution to the field of midwifery education. It will also be relevant to those with an interest in practice education from a range of healthcare professions.

The Aptitude Myth addresses the decline in American children's mastery of critical school subjects. It contends that a contributing cause for this decline derives from many Americans' ways of thinking about children's learning: They believe that school performance is determined very largely by innate aptitude. The Aptitude Myth traces the deep historical origins, the spread and elaboration, and the eventual triumph of the belief in the determining power of mental abilities "given" at birth and therefore fixed. Covered is 600 B.C.E. until 1926 (when the S.A.T. was first administered). The belief in aptitude, assumed by many Americans to be the modern view of learning ability, is revealed as an archaic way of thinking that originated in the imaginations of our ancient forebears and gradually gained credibility over 2,500 years. In recent times, the belief became elaborated to include the fanciful notion that more-than-modest academic study injures a child's health. Having inherited this mindset, Americans don't know how to insure that children gain mastery. A new mindset is needed. The final chapter offers a transformative mindset.

This book focuses on new perspectives on assessment in translator and interpreting education and suggests that assessment is not only a measure of learning (i.e. assessment 'of' learning) but also part of the learning process (i.e. assessment 'for' learning and assessment 'as' learning). To this end, the book explores the current and changing practices of the role and nature of assessment not only in terms of the products but also the processes of translation. It includes empirical studies which examine competence-based assessment and quality in translation and interpreting education both at undergraduate and postgraduate level. This includes studies and proposals on formative and summative assessment in a wide range of educational contexts, as well as contributions about relatively unexplored research areas such as quality assurance and assessment in subtitling for the D/deaf and the hard of hearing, and how closely translation programmes fit the reality of professional practice. The findings of this book lend support to existing theoretical frameworks and inform course planning and design in translation education. As such, it will be a valuable resource for translation educators, trainers and researchers, translation and interpreting practitioners and associated professionals. This book was originally published as a special issue of The Interpreter and Translator Trainer.

Mark Paige takes an in-depth look at the interaction of Value Added Models (VAMs) and the law of teacher evaluation. It notes that the hasty adoption of VAMs in evaluation and employment law actually complicates efforts to improve teacher quality, especially at the local level. In brief, VAMs' costs vastly outweigh their benefits. The book advocates for a complete removal of VAMs in high-stakes decisions. It sets forth numerous recommendations for administrators and policymakers to enable them to effectively deal with the complications created by VAMs.

This book brings together contributions from different scholarly contexts that address a diverse range of focused topics, as well as empirical and conceptual perspectives, on research with international studies. Some chapters focus on technical aspects, exploring opportunities for drawing causal inferences from the data, and investigating biases originating in distributional scale properties. Others are of a more conceptual nature, addressing changes in the relevance of socio-economic indicators across time and countries, examining the exposure of mother-tongue and English instruction on performance and investigating the effects of test construction on gender difference. The discussion takes a much-needed meta-perspective on the usefulness of international large-scale assessments for educational research and allows reflection upon possibilities and opportunities for their improvement. This book was originally published as a special issue of Assessment in Education.