Standardizing accessible test design and development to meet students' individual access needs is a complex task. The following study provides one approach to accessible test design and development using participatory design methods with school community members. Participatory research provides opportunities to empower collaborators by co-creating…

School-wide positive behavior interventions and supports (SWPBIS) relies on the implementation efforts of frontline service providers such as teachers, administrators, and staff. The full version of the positive behavior interventions and supports--action and commitment tool (PBIS-ACT Full) measures the individual implementer variable of…

Rigorous longitudinal research demonstrates that certain Mindsets, Essential Skills, and Habits (MESH) can help students succeed in college, career, and life. Assessing students' MESH competencies can give educators valuable information that helps them understand students' strengths and identify the areas in which students need additional support.…

The Mathematics Fluency and Calculation Tests (MFaCTs) are a series of measures designed to assess for arithmetic calculation skills and calculation fluency in children ages 6 through 18. There are five main purposes of the MFaCTs: (1) identifying students who are behind in basic math fact automaticity; (2) evaluating possible delays in arithmetic…

California is taking a bold new approach to the evaluation of school performance, the provision of data to parents and educators, and the use of accountability to improve student learning. Broadly speaking, the state is stepping away from the consequential accountability that was compelled under No Child Left Behind and toward a system that relies…

Two recent reports contend that the introduction of school choice can promote economic development in economically distressed urban areas. The first report, published by EdChoice, presents a case study of a charter school that has, according to the report, contributed to the economic development of the city of Santa Ana, California. The second…

The West Virginia Department of Education's auto grading initiative dates back to 2004--a time when school districts were making their first forays into automation. The Charleston based WVDE had instituted a statewide writing assessment in 1984 for students in fourth, seventh, and 10th grades and was looking to expand that program without having…

The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) uses the Language and Literacy Assessment Rubric (LALAR) as the secondary measurement required by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act to measure English proficiency of English language learners (ELLs). In this analysis, the Rasch model is used to identify whether the LALAR is a valid measurement…

A brief 15-item version of the California School Climate Scale (Brief-CSCS) is presented to fill a need for a measure that could be used for periodic monitoring of school personnel's general perception of the climate of their school campus. From a sample of 81,261 California school personnel, random subsamples of 2,400 teachers and 2,400…

Value-added models and growth-based accountability aim to evaluate school's performance based on student growth in learning. The current focus is on linking the results from value-added models to the ones from growth-based accountability systems including Adequate Yearly Progress decisions mandated by No Child Left Behind. We present a new…

The Department of Education is moving to change accountability for teacher preparation institutions to include surveys of the graduates and their supervising principal following paid employment. This study describes one of a number of quantitative studies that examine the validity and usefulness of such follow-up surveys. Using multiple years of…

Addressing inconsistencies in student achievement between students of different racial backgrounds has been acknowledged and explored for over fifty years. Policies and programs have been developed and funded to decrease the discrepancies between groups with limited evidence of success. This study will explore the presence of achievement…

Research has shown that formative assessment is a key ingredient in raising student achievement. The goal of formative assessment is not to grade students, but to pinpoint where they are having trouble and then to take appropriate instructional action. In a review of 250 studies, Black and Wiliam found that formative assessments had a more…

After decades of disinterest, evaluation of the performance of elementary and secondary teachers in the United States has become an important educational policy issue. As U.S. states and districts have tried to upgrade their evaluation processes, one of the models that has been increasingly used is the Framework for Teaching. This paper summarizes…

A great deal of developmental research has relied on self-reports solicited using the "some/other" question format (""Some students" think that...but "other students" think that..."). This article reports tests of the assumptions underlying its use: that it conveys to adolescents that socially undesirable…