Girls are now out-performing boys at GCSE level, giving rise to a debate in the media on boys' underachievement. However, often such work has been a 'knee-jerk' response, led by media, not based on solid research. Boys, Girls and Achievement - Addressing the Classroom Issues fills that gap and:
*provides a critical overview of the current debate on achievement;
*Focuses on interviews with young people and classroom observations to examine how boys and girls see themselves as learners;
*analyses the strategies teachers can use to improve the educational achievements of both boys and girls.
Becky Francis provides teachers with a thorough analysis of the various ways in which secondary school pupils construct their gender identities in the classroom. The book also discusses methods by teachers might use challenge these gender constructions in the classroom and thereby address the 'gender-gap' in achievement.

This casebook is intended to support professionals who are working in a variety of contexts to use classroom-based assessment more effectively to support teacher learning and teaching change, and to enhance the opportunities for all students to develop mathematical power. It grows out of a collaboration of mathematics teachers and teacher educators, and mathematicians, to better understand the role of assessment as an ongoing activity to help teachers reshape their own teaching practices. At the heart of each case is using assessment to make sense of what students understand and what they are confused about, deciding what counts as evidence of that understanding, and using the analysis to consider what the teacher's next instructional moves might be.
All of the cases in this volume are built around actual episodes from mathematics classrooms. Intended as decision-making exercises, they present the raw data of classroom events in a straightforward way and are designed to stimulate analysis and reflection; provoke various and sometimes conflicting interpretations of an event; bring to the fore deeply held beliefs of beginning and experienced teachers so they can be reconsidered; and engage professionals in pedagogical problem solving in the context of complex classroom settings.
This volume reflects the growing interest in cases as a pedagogical tool in teacher professional development. The cases are organized to take up key themes of the NCTM Professional Teaching Standards in ways that will assist and support teachers, teacher educators, and curriculum and staff development specialists in learning to assess and in linking assessment with curriculum, teaching, and learning. Although each case contains many ideas for linking assessment with curriculum and instruction, the most powerful use of these materials resides in their design intended to foster conversations among groups of professional colleagues. The editors' field-testing of the cases--in initial teacher certification courses and in in-service workshops--has shown that they prompt engaging and demanding analysis through a variety of analytic lenses.
A videotape containing vignettes for four of the cases in the "Casebook" is available with this book. Transcriptions of the video vignettes are printed in the case materials in the book. Course instructors and professional development facilitators will need both the "Casebook" and the videotape and should order the Casebook/Video set. The video can also be ordered separately.

This book goes back to the basic purpose of assessment - to show teachers what your students know and are able to do. The 22 activities in this book will help your students become active, engaged, responsible, and caring learners. This how to book is filled with activities which will enable you to: - keep your students active and engaged
- facilitate cooperative group projects without losing control
- raise academic achievement
- apply multiple intelligences in your classroom
- teach your students how to thinkThese strategies all involve student reflection through- writing
- discussion
- drawing
- investigating
- record keeping
- and other activities.

This text shows how competence can be assessed in counsellor training, providing material for counselling trainers as they seek to design studies which will contribute to informing good practice in the counselling profession. The text forms a summary of available research on counsellor competence and assessment, and information about current practice, including examples of assessment systems used in a range of organizations.

The affective realm is a critical, but often forgotten, aspect of schooling. The development of character and the formation of appropriate learning environments rely to a large extent on understanding the affective nature of students. Even when the focus is on cognitive achievement, affect has a role to play. Teachers frequently mention a lack of motivation as a primary reason for students not achieving as well as they should or as well as their teachers would like.
Despite the importance of affect, educators rarely make an effort to systematically collect and use information about students' affective characteristics to better understand students and to substantially improve the quality of education they receive. This book's purpose is to provide educators with the knowledge and skills they need to design and select instruments that can be used to gather information about students' affective characteristics. Once valid and reliable information has been gathered, it can be used to aid in understanding and to improve educational quality.
The second edition features:
* an updated list of affective characteristics (i.e., attitudes, values, interests, self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control)
* a dual emphasis on selecting and designing affective assessment instruments
* an emphasis on multi-scale instruments (i.e., a single instrument with multiple affective scales)
* the use of a single small data set to illustrate and foster understanding of key concepts and procedures
* a dual emphasis on data about individual students and groups of students
* a dual focus on the instrumental value of affective data and the inherent value of affective data (i.e., affect is valuable in and of itself)

This comprehensive, yet accessible, text demystifies the challenging area of competence assessement in medicine and the health sciences, providing a clear framework and the tools for anyone working or studying in this area. Written by a single, highly experienced, author, the content benefits from uniformity of style and is supported and enhanced by a range of pedagogic features including cases, questions and summaries. Essential reading for all students and practitioners of medical education, it will also be an invaluable guide for allied health professionals and psychologists with a general interest in assessment, evaluation and measurement and a useful library reference.

Assessment has become one of the most significant areas of interest in educational policy development, as well as the focus of complex political, economic and cultural expectations for change. Increasingly, governments world-wide have become aware that curricula and teachers can be indirectly controlled through programmes of assessment. Opponents of centralised systems of mass assessment claim they are ill-suited to the diverse and changing needs of learners and users of assessment.
In Assessment the UK and US writers take the reader beyond the obvious functions of assessment, and focus upon the roles it performs in the social structuring of society. They examine the myths and assumptions that underpin assessment and testing and draw attention to its cultural context.
The book provides a wide-ranging, structured and accessible approach to the study of socio-cultural origins and impacts of assessment.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203465849

The affective realm is a critical, but often forgotten, aspect of schooling. The development of character and the formation of appropriate learning environments rely to a large extent on understanding the affective nature of students. Even when the focus is on cognitive achievement, affect has a role to play. Teachers frequently mention a lack of motivation as a primary reason for students not achieving as well as they should or as well as their teachers would like.
Despite the importance of affect, educators rarely make an effort to systematically collect and use information about students' affective characteristics to better understand students and to substantially improve the quality of education they receive. This book's purpose is to provide educators with the knowledge and skills they need to design and select instruments that can be used to gather information about students' affective characteristics. Once valid and reliable information has been gathered, it can be used to aid in understanding and to improve educational quality.
The second edition features:
* an updated list of affective characteristics (i.e., attitudes, values, interests, self-esteem, self-efficacy, locus of control)
* a dual emphasis on selecting and designing affective assessment instruments
* an emphasis on multi-scale instruments (i.e., a single instrument with multiple affective scales)
* the use of a single small data set to illustrate and foster understanding of key concepts and procedures
* a dual emphasis on data about individual students and groups of students
* a dual focus on the instrumental value of affective data and the inherent value of affective data (i.e., affect is valuable in and of itself)

Assessment has become one of the most significant areas of interest in educational policy development, as well as the focus of complex political, economic and cultural expectations for change. Increasingly, governments world-wide have become aware that curricula and teachers can be indirectly controlled through programmes of assessment. Opponents of centralised systems of mass assessment claim they are ill-suited to the diverse and changing needs of learners and users of assessment.
In Assessment the UK and US writers take the reader beyond the obvious functions of assessment, and focus upon the roles it performs in the social structuring of society. They examine the myths and assumptions that underpin assessment and testing and draw attention to its cultural context.
The book provides a wide-ranging, structured and accessible approach to the study of socio-cultural origins and impacts of assessment.

This text integrates the theory and practice of learner-based assessment. Written in response to two recent movements in language teaching--learner-centered teaching and a renewed interest in authenticity in language testing--it examines the relationship between the language learner and language assessment processes, and promotes approaches to assessment that involve the learner in the testing process. Particular attention is given to issues of reliability and validity. Grounded in current pedagogical applications of authentic assessment measures, this volume is intended for and eminently accessible to classroom teachers and program directors looking for ways to include their students in the evaluation process, graduate students, and professional language testers seeking authenticity in assessment and desiring to create more interactive evaluation tools.

This text integrates the theory and practice of learner-based assessment. Written in response to two recent movements in language teaching--learner-centered teaching and a renewed interest in authenticity in language testing--it examines the relationship between the language learner and language assessment processes, and promotes approaches to assessment that involve the learner in the testing process. Particular attention is given to issues of reliability and validity. Grounded in current pedagogical applications of authentic assessment measures, this volume is intended for and eminently accessible to classroom teachers and program directors looking for ways to include their students in the evaluation process, graduate students, and professional language testers seeking authenticity in assessment and desiring to create more interactive evaluation tools.

Originally published in 1974. This final volume in the trilogy is concerned primarily with comparing the academic progress made by pupils of near-equal ability in the two types of school. It considers attainment in different subjects but also attitudes to different subjects and then follows up with a study of university students from both types of school background.

This book addresses the issue of data use in educator preparation programs towards continuous programmatic improvement. With an aim to increase the rigor in both research and practice in educational administration and teacher education, this volume will analyze the longstanding quality concerns about teacher and leadership preparation and standards for programs and educators, as well as controversies concerning national accreditation and federal efforts to mandate program reporting data. By exploring the policies and practices that influence departments of education, this volume examines the increasing pressures to improve institutional functioning, within a complex system of university, state, and national structures and organizations.

Research has indicated that assessment is a key factor in student learning. This book details the issues of assessment in the open and distance learning field, where changes in budgets, the location and environment of the students and other factors have prompted innovations in assessment.

Assessment is widely recognized as an integral part of learning for students at all levels; it can also be the bane of a teacher's or lecturer's life. Evolving information and communications technology now offers ways of reducing the burden of assessment work and giving feedback without losing the developmental benefits for students of assessment. This book draws on a range of expertise to share good practice and explore new ways of using appropriate technologies in assessment. It provides both a strategic overview and pragmatic proposals for the use of computers in assessment. Contents include: designing and using multiple-choice questions and standard question formats; using computer-assisted assessment to provide feedback; using ICT to support innovative assessment; and technical and operational issues.

This book offers a comprehensive introduction to the latest developments in the theory and practice of CAT. It can be used both as a basic reference and a valuable resource on test theory. It covers such topics as item selection and ability estimation, item pool development and maintenance, item calibration and model fit, and testlet-based adaptive testing, as well as the operational aspects of existing large-scale CAT programs.

This book offers the reader a detailed picture of the attitudes and self-concepts of pupils and their growing achievements as they move through primary education. Acknowledging the complexity of schools and schooling, the author demonstrates with charts, diagrams and data displays how reliable measures can be used to track pupils' development, and demonstrates systematic data collection and interpretation based on the well established Performance Indicators in Primary School (PIPS) project. He addresses important policy and practical questions and reaches some surprising conclusions and identifies gaps in knowledge and outlines ways to fill them.

This is the first book to offer a comprehensive look at the problem of cheating on assessments (tests) across all levels of the American educational system. It is organized around seven major objectives that identify this problem by:
1. introducing and defining the problem of cheating and documenting the extent of its occurrence;
2. cataloging and presenting information on the methods used to cheat on tests;
3. providing information on methods useful for preventing cheating;
4. describing methods used to detect cheating once it has occurred;
5. synthesizing what is known about predispositions, correlates, and cultural differences in cheating;
6. summarizing legal issues related to cheating; and
7. illustrating ways in which individuals and institutions respond to cheating.
"Cheating on Tests" is informally written using a minimum of professional jargon and numerous anecdotes and cases. Technical information is largely confined to end-of-book appendices. It will appeal to all serious stakeholders in our educational system from parents and school board members to professionals directly connected to our schools and the testing industry.

This book examines the history of formative assessment in the US and explores its potential for changing the landscape of teaching and learning to meet the needs of twenty-first century learners. The author uses case studies to illuminate the complexity of teaching and the externally imposed and internally constructed contextual elements that affect assessment decision-making. In this book, Box argues effectively for a renewed vision for teacher professional development that centers around the needs of students in a knowledge economy. Finally, Box offers an overview of systemic changes that are needed in order for progressive teaching and relevant learning to take place.

This is the first book to offer a comprehensive look at the problem of cheating on assessments (tests) across all levels of the American educational system. It is organized around seven major objectives that identify this problem by:
1. introducing and defining the problem of cheating and documenting the extent of its occurrence;
2. cataloging and presenting information on the methods used to cheat on tests;
3. providing information on methods useful for preventing cheating;
4. describing methods used to detect cheating once it has occurred;
5. synthesizing what is known about predispositions, correlates, and cultural differences in cheating;
6. summarizing legal issues related to cheating; and
7. illustrating ways in which individuals and institutions respond to cheating.
"Cheating on Tests" is informally written using a minimum of professional jargon and numerous anecdotes and cases. Technical information is largely confined to end-of-book appendices. It will appeal to all serious stakeholders in our educational system from parents and school board members to professionals directly connected to our schools and the testing industry.

With this volume, the author demonstrates how a collective goods approach to higher education research can alleviate problems of rising costs, declining resources, and growing concerns about undergraduate learning. In taking this approach, the author presents new tools of analysis-borrowed from cognitive science, economics, data analytics, education technology and measurement science-to investigate higher education's place in society as a public or private good. By showing how these tools can be utilized to re-orient current research, this volume offers scholars and policy makers an argument for the large-scale use of scientific and economic approaches to higher education's most pressing issues.

Social science researchers have become increasing attentive to the role of numbers in contemporary life. Issues around big data, national test results, and output and performance statistics are now routinely reported and debated in the media. Numbers are a powerful resource for governments as a means to manage and 'improve' their populations, and we are increasingly represented, organized and driven by an economy of numbers, which inserts itself into more and more aspects of our lives. This book critically addresses some of the ways in which numbers are deployed in educational governance and practice, and some of the consequences of this deployment for what it means to be educated, to teach, and to learn. Recognising that numbers do not simply represent, but that they change things and have real effects, allows us to move beyond a system where difficult and important issues about what we want from education and from teachers are side-stepped in the push to 'improve our numbers'. This collection offers a set of starting points from which we might speak back to numbers, drawing on research to explore how numbers change the way we think about ourselves and what we do. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Education Policy.

Computerized assessment offers many opportunities for innovations in measurement. In contrast to static paper-and-pencil instruments, computerized assessment can capitalize on the dynamic capabilities of the computer. For example, the difficulty of administered items can be adopted to the ability of the examinee, thus eliminating items that are too hard or too easy. Multimedia computers provide the opportunity to revolutionize assessment. Stereo sound, animation, and full-motion video can be incorporated into assessment tools and aid in the measurement of individual differences ranging from musical skills to interpersonal abilities.
"Innovations in Computerized Assessment" presents the experiences of leading researchers in computerized assessment. The book places particular emphasis on the dilemmas that were faced by the researchers. Questions addressed include:
* What problems did they confront?
* What were the pros and cons of various options?
* How were dilemmas resolved?
* Were the solutions good ones?

Performance tasks are highly effective tools to assist you in implementing rigorous standards. But how do you create, evaluate, and use such tools? In this bestselling book, educational experts Charlotte Danielson and Joshua Dragoon explain how to construct and apply performance tasks to gauge students' deeper understanding of mathematical concepts at the upper elementary level. You'll learn how to: Evaluate the quality of performance tasks, whether you've written them yourself or found them online; Use performance tasks for instructional decision-making and to prepare students for summative assessments; Create your own performance tasks, or adapt pre-made tasks to best suit students' needs; Design and use scoring rubrics to evaluate complex performance tasks; Use your students' results to communicate more effectively with parents. This must-have second edition is fully aligned to the Common Core State Standards and assessments and includes a variety of new performance tasks and rubrics, along with samples of student work. Additionally, downloadable student handout versions of all the performance tasks are available as free eResources from our website (www.routledge.com/9781138906969), so you can easily distribute them to your class.

Assessment has become one of the key issues in primary education over the past 10 years. This edited volume of essays brings together perspectives from all the significant participants involved in assessment in the primary school: teachers, headteachers, LEA advisors, inspectors, pupils, academics and researchers. The contributions illustrate effective assessment, and examine how it is, and can be, achieved. It will be of interest to school assessment co-ordinators, deputies and heads following NPQH courses, and lecturers on IE courses.