An issue in the current push for reform in mathematics education is the call to address statistics at the precollege level. This volume represents the emerging findings of an interdisciplinary collaboration among a group of mathematics educators, cognitive scientists, teachers, and statisticians to construct an understanding of how to introduce statistics education and assessment for students in elementary and secondary schools. A premise shared by the contributors to this volume is that when students are introduced to statistics at the K-12 level and provided with opportunities to "do" statistics that are related to actual life situations, they will be better prepared for decision making in the real world.
The interdisciplinary nature of the group of researchers stimulated a lively interchange of ideas for enhancing the learning, teaching, and assessment of statistical understanding, which is reflected in this volume. Mathematics educators contribute their insights into how teachers teach mathematical ideas and heighten our awareness of the ecological needs of the current mathematics classroom. Cognitive scientists share their understanding of developmental differences in learning and present theoretical perspectives that contribute to the design of effective learning environments. Classroom teachers share their ideas about classroom activities and assessment of student learning, as well as their concerns for in-service training and workshops to help teachers acquire skills in this new content area. Statisticians offer their understanding of what is feasible to teach in the early grades, and what their view is of statistical literacy.
The book is organized around four interdependent themes: content, teaching, learning, and assessment. By focusing their respective chapters on particular themes, the authors intend to cultivate a better understanding of how each relates to improvements in statistics education. This is the first book to:
* address statistics learning in grades K-12,
* address issues of statistical curriculum content in grades K-12,
* address issues of assessment of statistics learning in grades K-12,
* bring issues of technology instruction and assessment in statistics education in grades K-12, and
* look at teacher education for statistics instruction in grades K-12.
This is a must-read book for both practitioners and researchers involved in K-12 mathematics education.

This second book focuses directly on the classroom, on the challenges individual teachers face in the classroom-based assessment, and how these challenges have been and are being met in a range of international contexts.

This volume provides in-depth coverage of a key piece of today's human resource selection technology--the viability of alternatives to paper and pencil multiple-choice selection tests. Each chapter of this edited volume presents an intensive examination of a key "alternative to multiple-choice testing." The content of the book's chapters ranges from reviews of issues associated with, and evidence available for, the use of particular selection text alternatives (computerized testing, performance assessments) to empirical investigation of other alternatives (biodata, creative skills); from examination of standards for choosing among selection tests to practitioners' and test takers' perspectives. This book is important for researchers and practitioners in the human resource selection field who have wanted a resource that provides a comprehensive examination of multiple-choice selection testing and its alternatives.

This special issue is based on a workshop which began with a description and examination of the current National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) standard-setting model, then looked to standard-setting applications outside of education. These applications included those that focus on human performance and the adequacy of human performance; in these contexts, raters were asked to focus on the knowledge and skills that underlie competent performance. Researchers also examined applications that focus on the impact of environmental agents on life and the ecology; in these cases, raters began with the knowledge that more (or less) of a substance is better and, as for NAEP, the judgment task was to determine "how good is good enough." They wished to examine parallels in the objectives, empirical grounding, judgmental requirements, and policy tensions for standard setting in NAEP and in other domains. These papers were commissioned to examine the current state of affairs and residual issues with respect to achievement-level setting in NAEP and to help determine whether the models and methods used in other disciplines have useful application to education. It is important to note that the papers represent the authors' views, not necessarily those of the committee or National Research Council. This issue and the workshop discussion point out a number of analogies between the objectives, requisite data, judgment requirements and policy issues for NAEP and other applications. The editors hope that this issue and wide distribution of these papers will prompt others to join in this interesting analysis and debate.

Full Contributors:
Donna E. Alvermann, University of Georgia, USA, Mary Bailey, University of Nottingham, UK, Paul Brock, NSW Department of Training and Education, Australia, Greg Brooks, National Foundation for Educational Research, UK, Jay Campbell, Education Testing Service, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, Michelle Commeyras, University of Georgia, USA, Lizanne DeStefano University of Illinois, USA, Alan Dewar, Dukeries Community College, Nottinghamshire, UK, Beverly Falk Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA, Georgia Ernest Garcia, University of Illinois, USA, Colin Harrison University of Nottingham, UK, Louise Hayward St Andrew's College, Glasgow, UK, Jim Hoffman, University of Texas, USA, Sue Horner, Schools Curriculum and Assessment Authority, UK, P. David Pearson, Michigan State University, USA, Terry Salinger, International Reading Association, USA, Ernie Spencer, Scottish Office Education and Industry Department, UK, Denis Vincent, University of East London, UK

This text puts forward the argument that higher education must develop better and more consistent practices with regards to the evaluation of training and development. Most evaluations are valueless unless they start by clarifying the puropse they are intended to serve, and this usually means clarifying whose puropses are being served. This text provides a guide to best practices and uses examples and case studies from both the UK and abroad to show the benefits that can be gained from using evaluation effectively.

Owing to daily work pressures and concerns, many teachers have little opportunity for considering and furthering their understanding of different issues surrounding assessment. Written in a user-friendly, jargon-free style, this text provides the reader with points of growth or change in the field of assessment. Each chapter in the text ends with a section on questions/exercises and further reading.

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.

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.

Current economic difficulties and the challenge of competing in the world market have necessitated a rethinking of American approaches to the utilization of people in organizations. Management now recognizes a need to have workers take on more responsibility at the points of production, of sale, and of service rendered if the United States is to compete in rapidly changing world markets. This development means that much more is expected of even entry-level members of the American workforce. Thus, even more is expected of our high schools and colleges to provide this type of workforce.
The need of American management for workers with greater skills and who can take on greater responsibility has spawned many commissions, task forces, and studies. All of them have contributed to the vast evidence documenting the need for a more highly skilled workforce. These studies are summarized and synthesized in this book. However, what remains largely undone is the development of methods to assess the necessary skills that have been identified. A major portion of this book deals with assessment issues.
"Workforce Readiness: Competencies and Assessment" explores the state-of-the-art in the specification of competencies (skills) and their assessment for students entering the world of work from both high school and college. Both individual and team competencies are examined via data that has been reported and collected in various settings--schools, laboratories, and industrial facilities.

Educational assessment, at one time a relatively uncontroversial subject, is now riven by a diversity of views. The most crucial division is between those who continue to believe in the effectiveness of objective assessment techniques and those who favour alternative methods. This book presents an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses and rationales for both.

Educational assessment, at one time a relatively uncontroversial subject, is now riven by a diversity of views. The most crucial division is between those who continue to believe in the effectiveness of objective assessment techniques and those who favour alternative methods. This book presents an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses and rationales for both.

Current economic difficulties and the challenge of competing in the world market have necessitated a rethinking of American approaches to the utilization of people in organizations. Management now recognizes a need to have workers take on more responsibility at the points of production, of sale, and of service rendered if the United States is to compete in rapidly changing world markets. This development means that much more is expected of even entry-level members of the American workforce. Thus, even more is expected of our high schools and colleges to provide this type of workforce.
The need of American management for workers with greater skills and who can take on greater responsibility has spawned many commissions, task forces, and studies. All of them have contributed to the vast evidence documenting the need for a more highly skilled workforce. These studies are summarized and synthesized in this book. However, what remains largely undone is the development of methods to assess the necessary skills that have been identified. A major portion of this book deals with assessment issues.
"Workforce Readiness: Competencies and Assessment" explores the state-of-the-art in the specification of competencies (skills) and their assessment for students entering the world of work from both high school and college. Both individual and team competencies are examined via data that has been reported and collected in various settings--schools, laboratories, and industrial facilities.

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.

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

Several key developments challenge the field of educational measurement today: demands for tests at larger scales with higher stakes, an improved understanding of how people develop capabilities, and new technologies for interactive digital assessments. Sociocognitive Foundations of Educational Measurement integrates new developments in educational measurement and educational psychology in order to provide researchers, testing professionals, and students with an innovative sociocognitive perspective on assessment. This comprehensive volume begins with a broad explanation of the sociocognitive perspective and the foundations of assessment, then provides a series of focused applications to major topics such as assessment arguments, validity, fairness, interactive assessment, and a conception of "measurement" in educational assessment. Classical test theory, item response theory, categorical models, mixture models, cognitive diagnosis models, and Bayesian networks are explored from the resulting perspective. Ideal for specialists in these areas, graduate students, developers, and scholars in both educational measurement and fields that contribute to a sociocognitive perspective, this book consolidates nearly a decade of research into a fresh perspective on educational measurement.

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.

Since the end of the 1990s, the Chinese higher education system has seen a dramatic expansion of enrolment. China currently has the largest higher education system in the world, however, the rapid growth resulted in concerns being raised about the quality of the system. In response, an array of external quality assessment schemes of higher education has been established, based on suggested policy designs and reforms. The establishment of an effective quality assurance mechanism is a major challenge for universities around the world, therefore, what experience and lessons can be learned from the Chinese practice? This book analyses the external quality assurance system of higher education in China. It brings together scholarship on this topic by renowned Chinese experts, reporting and discussing recent policy developments and research. It presents and analyses various quality evaluation schemes, covering undergraduate, postgraduate, and vocational levels of higher education. The theoretical roots and value orientation of Chinese higher education quality assurance are also reflected on. This volume was originally published as a special issue of Chinese Education and Society.

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.