In this technical report, we present the results of a reliability study of the fifth-grade multiple choice reading comprehension measures available on the easyCBM learning system conducted in the spring of 2011. Analyses include split-half reliability, alternate form reliability, person and item reliability as derived from Rasch analysis,…

This study investigated the attitudes of primary school students towards computer based testing and assessment in terms of different variables. The sample for this research is primary school students attending a computer based testing and assessment application via CITO-OIS. The "Scale on Attitudes towards Computer Based Testing and…

Items on test score scales located at and below the Proficient cut score define the content area knowledge and skills required to achieve proficiency. Alternately, examinees who perform at the Proficient level on a test can be expected to be able to demonstrate that they have mastered most of the knowledge and skills represented by the items at…

Recently, educational researchers and practitioners have turned to value-added models to evaluate teacher performance. Although value-added estimates depend on the assessment used to measure student achievement, the importance of outcome selection has received scant attention in the literature. Using data from a large, urban school district, I…

This paper reports on an analysis of large-scale assessments of Grades 5-8 students' writing across 10 provinces and 2 territories in Canada. Theory, classroom practice, and the contributions and constraints of large-scale writing assessment are brought together with a focus on Grades 5-8 writing in order to provide both a broad view of…

In 2005, the Ontario Ministry of Education introduced Responsiveness to Intervention (RTI) to the Ontario school system. RTI is a tiered approach involving increasing levels of support for students who are at risk for later learning difficulties. However, the introduction of this different support structure was not accompanied by a substantial…

This study investigates the benefits of no-stakes educational testing during students' summer vacation as a strategy to mitigate summer learning loss. Fifty-one students in Grades 3-8 from the Every Child Valued (ECV) and Lawrence Community Center (LCC) summer programs in Lawrenceville, NJ, took short, online assessments throughout the summer,…

Recently, federal legislation has been implemented requiring that public school students meet a specified performance level of academic proficiency by the 2013/2014 school year. This reform movement, known as "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB), was passed by Congress and incorporates many of President Bush's educational reform proposals…

Test-based accountability as well as value-added asessments and much experimental and quasi-experimental research in education rely on achievement tests to measure student skills and knowledge. Yet, we know little regarding fundamental properties of these tests, an important example being the extent of measurement error and its implications for…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of high-stakes testing under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act on school culture. Individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with first grade through sixth grade teachers and principals from two of Nebo School District's schools located in Utah. Their responses were categorized…

Large data sets from a state reading assessment for third and fifth graders were analyzed to examine differential item functioning (DIF), differential distractor functioning (DDF), and differential omission frequency (DOF) between students with particular categories of disabilities (speech/language impairments, learning disabilities, and emotional…

In recent decades, much attention has been focused on student achievement in the United States. Many policy initiatives have been attempted in an effort to bolster achievement, including increasing school revenue, decreasing class size, expanding early childhood programs, and introducing vouchers and charter schools, to name a few, but not all of…

How to incorporate mobile students, who enter schools/classrooms after the start of the school year, into educational performance evaluations remains to be a challenge. As mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), all states currently require that a school is accountable only if the student has been enrolled in the school for a full…

Historically, researchers have identified that reading outcomes for students in upper grades who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing (d/Dhh) have typically rested around the late 3rd to early 4th grade. In recent years, wide-scale state-level testing has called into question these prognostications. The authors conducted a descriptive, multiunit,…

Economic theory commonly models unobserved worker quality as a given parameter that is fixed over time, but empirical evidence supporting this assumption is sparse. In this paper we report on work estimating the stability of value-added estimates of teacher effects, an important area of investigation given that new workforce policies implicitly…