Chan's book explores the challenges in assessing experiential learning, deepens our understanding, and inspires readers to think critically about the purpose of assessment in experiential learning. Experiential learning has been studied and proven to be effective for student learning, particularly for the development of holistic competencies (i.e.…

Policymakers have expressed increased interest in program-level higher education accountability measures as a supplement to, or in place of, institution-level metrics. But it is unclear what these measures should look like. In this report, we assess the ways program-level data could be developed to facilitate federal accountability. Evidence shows…

State summative assessments play an important role in measuring student learning and guiding educational improvement efforts, despite their limitations. But there is growing momentum in individual states and nationally to rethink these assessments with an eye toward reducing time spent on testing and increasing the tests' instructional relevance.…

In the United States, where social mobility has been considered a birthright, community colleges are essential to that promise. But America's 1,000 community colleges, which educate 9 million students, are routinely under-resourced and often fall short of their promise. Part of the responsibility lies with K-12 institutions, which do not…

Key competences are important for personal development, employment, integration into society and lifelong learning. They are transversal and form the basis for all other competences. Acquiring key competences is possible through various learning pathways, including vocational education and training (VET). However, little is known at the European…

In educational contexts where many domains subject to improvement are interdependent and causal evidence is frequently lacking it is difficult, if not impossible, for policymakers and educational practitioners to decide which domain should be invested in. This paper proposes a new method that uses Conditional Mean Independent Correlations (CMIC)…

The Department of Education (Education) provided more than $125 billion in federal student aid funds in fiscal year 2016 to help students pay for higher education. To participate in federal student aid programs, postsecondary schools must be accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by Education. This report examines: (1) the strengths and…

Educational technology products offer potentially effective means of supporting teaching and learning in K-12 classrooms. But for any given instructional need, there are likely to be numerous product options available for purchasing. What can school districts do to help ensure that good selections are made? In a recent, comprehensive study of…

Defining and measuring college quality is a contentious issue, and the debate about how to do so is far from settled. What is quality when institutions produce outputs ranging from student learning and labor-market success to research? How is student learning measured when students specialize in a major field? How are quality metrics tied to…

This important new book provides the first in-depth, authoritative and balanced examination of the critical issues pervading Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). The book highlights strengths and flaws in SEL theory and research, and sets the agenda for the next generation of inquiry. The book investigates key topics such as: (1) definitions and…

Groundbreaking new findings from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project hold the potential to answer crucial questions about how to assess teachers' performance. For the past two years, MET researchers have conducted a research project of unprecedented scope, involving 3,000 teachers in six school…

This paper reviews current proposals concerning the definition of dyslexia and contrasts it with reading comprehension impairment. We then discuss methods for early identification and review evidence that teacher assessments and ratings may be valid screening tools. Finally, we argue that interventions should be theoretically motivated and…

There is a widespread consensus among practitioners, researchers, and policy makers that current teacher evaluation systems in most school districts do little to help teachers improve or to support personnel decision making. For this reason, new approaches to teacher evaluation are being developed and tested. There is also a growing consensus that…

During the past few years, more than 30 states have enacted legislation to change the way teachers are evaluated. The new laws require the annual evaluation of teachers; typically, multiple evaluations during the school year are required for new teachers. They also require the use of multiple measures to determine a teacher's effectiveness and tie…

Better teacher evaluation should lead to better instruction and improved outcomes for students, but more accurate classification of teachers requires better information than is now available. Because existing measures of performance are incomplete and imperfect, measured performance does not always reflect true performance. Teachers who are truly…