In a time of declining resources in institutions of higher education, we grapple with how priorities are to be set for the limited resources available. Most vulnerable are those students labeled underprepared by colleges and universities. Should we argue that the limited resources available ought to be used to support these students through their undergraduate years? And, if we decide that we want to do that, what evidence of their potential for success can we provide that will justify the use of these resources? Through longitudinal research that follows students who have been so labeled over all their college years, we can begin to find answers to these questions.
"Time to Know Them" is the first book that follows the experiences of a group of students over their entire academic experience. No previous studies have brought together the factors incorporated in this study:
*examining writing and learning on a true longitudinal basis;
*studying a multicultural urban population;
*investigating the relationship between writing and learning by examining papers written over time for regularly assigned academic courses across a range of disciplines; and
*taking into consideration non-academic factors that influence academic performance such as race, gender, socio-economic status, and ideological orientation.
Through interviews twice a semester over six years, the collection of papers written for all courses, observations of instructional settings, and analysis of required institutional tests of writing, the author has been able to pull together a more complete picture of writing and intellectual development over the college years than has previously been available in any study. Students are seen to acquire the ability to handle more complex reasoning tasks as they find themselves in more challenging intellectual settings and where risk-taking and exploration of new ideas are valued. The integration of students' previous life experiences into their academic studies allows them to analyze, critique, modify, and apply their previously held world views to their new learning. These changes are seen to occur over time with instructional settings and support providing key roles in writing development. Personal factors in students' lives present difficulties that require persistence and dedication to overcome. Never before have the complexities of real individual lives as they affect academic performance been so clearly presented.

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.

This book's contribution will be a very big one--and not just in size...there is no compAndium of examples like it. As such, it's invaluable. It will be very useful to those who plan and carry out assessment on campuses.

?Thomas A. Angelo, director, AAHE Assessment Forum

Brings together in one volume the best current knowledge of what assessment methods work best and how their principles should be incorporated into all effective assessment efforts?whether at institutional, program, or department levels. Drawing from 165 actual cases?and reporting 86 of them in their entirety?the authors illustrate methods and techniques of assessment covering a wide range of objectives in diverse types of institutions.

How students are assessed can determine not only the quality, type, and degree of education they receive, but has long-term consequences for their future. Assessment by standardized testing often labels poor and minority children in ways that exclude them from opportunities, while failing to measure their true potential. Assessment for Equity and Inclusion confronts the debate between standardized testing and alternative assessment methods, locating strategies of assessment by which students are included rather than excluded. This collection initiates a substantive discussion on assessment, presenting multiple possibilities of innovative practice from various theoretical, historical, practical, and critical perspectives. After describing the historical and political framework of assessment and its alternatives, the contributors then move on to describe their own successful strategies. They also address broader conflicts in curriculum and the issues that must be faced in order to finally realize meaningful and equitable evaluation.

Score reporting research is no longer limited to the psychometric properties of scores and subscores. Today, it encompasses design and evaluation for particular audiences, appropriate use of assessment outcomes, the utility and cognitive affordances of graphical representations, interactive report systems, and more. By studying how audiences understand the intended messages conveyed by score reports, researchers and industry professionals can develop more effective mechanisms for interpreting and using assessment data. Score Reporting Research and Applications brings together experts who design and evaluate score reports in both K-12 and higher education contexts and who conduct foundational research in related areas. The first section covers foundational validity issues in the use and interpretation of test scores; design principles drawn from related areas including cognitive science, human-computer interaction, and data visualization; and research on presenting specific types of assessment information to various audiences. The second section presents real-world applications of score report design and evaluation and of the presentation of assessment information. Across ten chapters, this volume offers a comprehensive overview of new techniques and possibilities in score reporting. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

There have been many important changes in the participation of women and men in American society over the past quarter-century. Tests play a role in those changes by providing evidence of the diverse achievement and proficiency of women and men. They aid the learning process and reflect inequalities in opportunity to learn and participate. In addition, they provide useful information in considering what alternatives in education and work make most sense for individuals and influence views about groups of students, educational programs, and a wide range of issues. For all of these reasons, it is important that tests assess fairly and reflect accurately the ways young people are and are not achieving as well as desired.
The test performance of women and men is a research topic of historical interest and has received much attention in recent years. Because of this increased interest, there is a great deal of new research and data available. The purpose of the study presented in this volume was to review this new information with two objectives in mind:
*to clarify patterns of gender difference and similarity in test performance and related achievements, and
*to see what implications those findings might have for fair assessment and, as a corollary, examine the assessment process as a possible source of gender differences.
This study is interested in tests used in education to assess developed knowledge and skill. In order to gain a broader view of gender similarity and difference, the contributors looked at other types of measures and other characteristics of young women and men. Their hope is to contribute to a firmer basis for insuring fairness in tests--an objective which is particularly important as the field moves increasingly to new forms of assessment in which there is less experience.

This book provides an authoritative overview of the criteria and standards of the doctorate across a wide range of international settings, with a particular focus on the practices of examining. Presenting case studies and research from 13 universities in 13 countries across Africa, Asia, North and South America, Australia, and Europe, the book is based on in-depth interviews and comparative analyses of the PhD examining experience. It reveals the variations and similarities in different academic traditions and investigates the extent to which there are comparable expectations and standards across countries. It suggests that criteria and standards - both written and unwritten - are broadly similar, but shows that there is a need for much more explicitly formulated criteria and standards for an internationalised approach to doctoral assessment. Following on from the 2019 book The Doctorate as Experience in Europe and Beyond, this book will be of great interest to current and potential doctoral examiners, researchers of higher education, and university administrators.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the history and current status of policy, research and practices of curriculum, classroom instruction and assessment in Japan. It outlines the mechanism of curriculum organization and the history of the National Courses of Study, and assesses the theories of academic ability model. It also discusses in detail the history of "Lesson Study" - a characteristic teaching practice in Japan which utilizes groups, and reviews the history of educational assessment in Japan. Case studies on the practice of portfolio assessment in the Period for Integrated Study, as well as the practice of performance tasks in subject-based education are illustrated to show various examples of teaching practices. Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment in Japan explores: * Child-centered Curriculum and Discipline-Centered Curriculum * Theories based on Models of Academic Achievement and Competency * Various Methods for Organizing Creative Whole-Class Teaching * Performance Assessment in Subject Teaching A good guideline for those who would like to use the idea of "Lesson Study" in order to improve their own teaching and management practices and a reference to all working in educational improvement, this book will be of interest to educators and policymakers concerned with curriculum practices or those with an interest in the Japanese education system.

The accreditation of prior learning (APL) is a key component of the current drive towards competence-based education and training. The author of this guide emphasizs that APL is now part of the continuum of learning, not a stand-alone assessment service. This second edition has been broadened to include the needs of APL for employers, including case studies, the contribution of the Access of Assessment Initiative in TECs, the Accreditation of Unpaid Work projects and other fundamental developments such as IiP and NVQs.

Assessing media education is a formidable task because both assessment and media education are complex and controversial concepts. Assessment, which can take place at the individual student, class, sequence, program, department or unit, and university levels, is questioned in terms of reliability, validity, relevance, and cost. Media education, which has been challenged at a number of schools, finds faculty and administrators in the midst of soul-searching about how to clearly articulate its missions and purposes to a broader audience.
Departments are under increasing national, state, and institutional pressure to get assessment procedures carried out quickly, but there is an obvious danger in rushing to implement assessment strategies before establishing what is essential in media education. In communication education in general, the "what" of assessment is often discussed in terms of skills, attitudes, affect, values, and knowledge. People assess students to determine what they know, think, feel, value, and can do. Here it is suggested that one of the places to start defining what students should learn from their media education is by identifying outcomes. Outcomes can be assessed in a variety of ways, but first they need to be developed and clearly articulated.

"The question that dismays all teachers and ought to concern every parent because of what it reveals about what school can do to a child's curiosity -- ?Will this be on the test?' -- will never be answered again in the same way. Bob Rothman offers a rich and compelling account of the unfolding revolution in testing in America's schools."
-- Richard P. Mills, Vermont commissioner of education

An award-winning journalist, Rothman cuts through the assessment debate -- a debate often characterized by misrepresentations and jargon -- to offer a highly accessible examination of the shift in thinking about testing. He underscores that any change must begin with the And: what we want students to know and be able to do. Such changes demand a new way of knowing what students can achieve--and a system that enables them to achieve.

With the Common Core poised to markedly amplify the accountability stakes in public education, the pressure to post steep outcomes gains has never been fiercer. Unsurprisingly, flashy and expensive school improvement initiatives that promise quick fix solutions have become pervasively en vogue across the K-12 landscape. As Justin A. Collins compellingly demonstrates in Burning Cash, these flashy acronym reform plans provide for abundantly vivid theatre, but offer no muscle for the heavy lifting required to transform instructional quality. Collins pens a forceful case that despite the dizzying change swirling around the classroom walls, student engagement remains a fixture of a paramount importance. Taking a decided detour from the student engagement literature to date, Burning Cash spells out an entirely fresh means of numerically charting student engagement levels across all classrooms over time. Were the status quo to instead persist, a high school diploma will remain the end of the educational line for millions of schoolchildren. By reliably quantifying the nature of student engagement at the classroom level, teachers and administrators are supplied a powerfully telling barometer by which to gauge educational quality. Also left at educational leaders' disposal are data-informed guideposts that illuminate the improvement work left to be done. As Los Angeles Schools' John Deasy champions in the book's foreword, when student higher-order thinking balloons and disengagement is eradicated, test score spikes are extreme and sustained, no matter the school district's zip code. And that means the promise of the American dream is enlivened without additionally burdening deficit-riddled budgets.

This guide contains an overview of existing successful appraisal practices and practical suggestions for both those managing and undertaking appraisal. The book takes into account up-to-date policies and changes in appraisal.

This volume presents chapters by researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who study the impact of classroom portfolios in the assessment of writing achievement by elementary and middle grade students.
The focus throughout the volume is on the tension between classroom assessment and externally mandated testing. It presents the efforts of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to understand the impact of classroom portfolios for the assessment of writing achievement by elementary and middle grade students. Under the auspices of the Center for the Study of Writing, the editors conducted a national survey of exemplary portfolio projects, arranged for a series of "video visits," and held several working conferences. The result of this work is a broad-ranging tale: the aspirations of teachers and administrators to move the machinery of schooling in the direction of more authentic and engaging tasks, the puzzlement of students when they realize that the assignments are real and that the teacher may not have a "right answer" in mind, and the tensions between ivory-tower ideas and everyday classroom practice.
Divided into four sections, this research volume:
* provides a historical perspective, develops the conceptual framework that serves as a background for many activities described throughout, and discusses numerous practical issues that confront today's researchers and practitioners;
* views the phenomenon of writing portfolios through a variety of broadview lenses such as teacher enthusiasm, student reflection, assessment tension, the portfolio as metaphor, and the locus of control;
* conveys important conceptual issues with a balance toward pragmatics; and
* offers unique insights from the perspective of one individual who serves as scholar, researcher, and teacher.

This book enables the lecturer to explore issues, dilemmas and situations which confront the stakeholders in further and higher education. These dilemmas include competency models of learning and assessment, resource issues in assessment, the pressures of overwork on lecturers, and the maintenance of personal integrity. The book explores how assessment and evaluation of student learning and tutors teaching are affected by institutional and governmental arrangements.

Environmental pragmatism is a new strategy in environmental thought. It argues that theoretical debates are hindering the ability of the environmental movement to forge agreement on basic policy imperatives. This new direction in environmental thought moves beyond theory, advocating a serious inquiry into the merits of moral pluralism. Environmental pragmatism, as a coherent philosophical position, connects the methodology of classical American pragmatic thought to the explanation, solution and discussion of real issues.
This concise, well-focused collection is the first comprehensive presentation of environmental pragmatism as a new philosophical approach to environmental thought and policy.

Using case studies from schools and colleges, this book outlines different forms of assessment, highlights their purposes, and provides practical guidelines to their implementation.

As the commitment to performance assessments as a strategy of reform has increased across the nation, so has the controversy surrounding the purposes, development, implementation, and effects of alternative forms of assessment. One of the first of its kind, this edited volume provides an incisive and comprehensive account of the issues pertaining to performance assessments. The 10 papers comprising the volume were originally written to establish a conceptual framework for a three-year U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement sponsored national study of performance assessments.
Written by leading experts in the field, the papers explicate the central issues regarding the development, implementation, and utility of performance assessments. The topics covered by the papers include:
* a discussion of contemporary as well as historical events in the performance assessment movement;
* technical characteristics of performance assessments, including reliability, validity, generalizability, and calibration;
* conceptualization and calculation of the costs of performance assessments;
* the implications of performance assessments on students who have traditionally done less well in American schools, including racial and linguistic minorities;
* the fit between performance assessments and organizational change in education; and
* the utilization of performance assessment as an instrument of state policy.
Readers will find the policy and technical issues covered in this volume to be useful from a variety of academic, research, and policy perspectives including conceptualizing and implementing performance assessments.

How can formative assessment be used as a means to support teacher professional learning? This book presents several studies, from different countries, on approaches to formative assessment of teachers, both before they start working, and during their careers. These approaches draw on insights from studies into effective teacher professional development. Together, the chapters in this book provide an overview of the various ways in which formative assessment may be used to support teacher professional learning, and shed light on choices that can be made in designing such assessments. The studies illustrate how teachers may perceive formative assessment methods, how their learning processes might unfold during formative assessment processes, and which struggles they may have to deal with during the process. The book furthermore addresses questions concerning the impact of formative assessments on teacher learning. As such, this volume provides theoretical as well as practical prospects, as well as challenging ideas for how formative assessment may move further towards being an effective means for supporting teacher learning. This book was originally published as a special issue of Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice.

Human judgements underlie all assessments regarding the quality of students' understandings, and such judgements are conceptually complex and elusive. The study of the complexity of the judgement process is in its infancy but clearly warrants further critical investigation. However, what is demonstrated from the wide variety of international teacher judgement practices presented in this volume is that teacher judgement requires a lot more than a set of standards, criteria and annotated examples. Understandings of assessment theory by pre-service teachers through to more experienced teachers, and opportunities for all to critically reflect and consider their judgements of student work, are vital. Teachers are struggling to maintain their interpretive freedom at the local, professional level in contexts where central policies promote standardisation or 'regulation' of judgement practice, for accountability purposes. This book was originally published as a special issue of Assessment in Education: principles, policy & practice.

Assessment of educational achievement, whether by traditional examinations or by teachers in schools, attracts considerable public interest, particularly when it is associated with 'high stakes' outcomes such as university entry or selection for employment. When the individual's results do not chime with their or their teachers' expectations, doubts creep in about the process of assessment that has arrived at this result. However, educational assessment is made up of many layers of complexity, which are not always clear to the general public, including teachers, students, and parents, and which are not easily understood outside of the expert assessment community. These layers may be organized in highly co-dependent relationships that include reliability, validity, human judgment, and errors, and the uses and interpretations of the various types of assessment. No-one could reasonably argue that the principles and complexities of educational assessment should be core learning in public education, but there is a growing realization that trust in the UK assessment system is under some threat as the media and others sensationalize or politicize any problems that arise each year. This book offers the first comprehensive overview of how the general public is considered to perceive and understand a wide variety of aspects of educational assessment, and how this understanding may be improved. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Oxford Review of Education.

The contributions in this book highlight a topical common educational theme - the model of outcomes-orientated standards in education. The authors share their experience and knowledge on the global preoccupation with quality control models that deal

Social Justice and Educational Measurement addresses foundational concerns at the interface of standardized testing and social justice in American schools. Following John Rawls's philosophical methods, Stein builds and justifies an ethical framework for guiding practices involving educational measurement. This framework demonstrates that educational measurement can both inhibit and ensure just educational arrangements. It also clarifies a principled distinction between efficiency-oriented testing and justice-oriented testing. Through analysis of several historical case studies that exemplify ethical issues related to testing, this book explores and propounds speculative design principles and arguments in favour of radically democratic school reforms, which address how the future of testing might be shaped to ensure justice for all. These case studies cover the widespread use of IQ-style testing in schools during the early decades of the 20th century; the founding of the Educational Testing Service; and the recent history of test-based accountability associated with No Child Left Behind. Social Justice and Educational Measurement will be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in education, testing and assessment, and the philosophy of education. It will also be of interest to policymakers and educational administrators.

Self-assessment is increasingly used in higher education as a strategy for both student learning and assessment. This book examines the full range of concerns about self-assessment, placing it in the wider context of innovative teaching and learning practices.

This collection presents educational assessment research from Latin America, adding to a relatively small but growing body of research considering educational assessment and evaluation issues in this large region. The predominance of Chile reflects its early highly centralized education system, and the fact that it adopted national testing before other Latin American countries. It was also an early participant in international assessment programmes. Other countries have followed the trend of implementing national testing, and to a lesser extent participating in international surveys. The complementary development of technical expertise in quantitative research methods has enabled extensive analysis of the large data sets generated by these testing and assessment programmes. Taken together, the evidence reported provides a means not only of reviewing educational quality issues in Latin America, but also of facilitating comparisons that allow the context specificity of equivalent research conducted in western developed countries to be considered. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice.