Is assessment a top-down bureaucratic mandate, an undertaking that seems to have little to do with improving practice, an inauthentic activity that frustrates and disempowers, an afterthought? Or is it a process embraced and enacted together by all stakeholders as a means to learn and grow and enact change in the world? The authors of the…

This symposium enacts a debate over a high-stakes question for writing studies: How does standardization within and across writing programs enable or constrain our democratic aspirations? It includes: (1) "Everything-but-the-Kitchen-Sink Assessment " (Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein); (2) "Assessment, Coherence, and…

Evaluation has been expanding as an important discipline in Latin America, yet there are significant challenges regarding capacity development through educational and training initiatives in the region. This paper first analyzes the evolution and state of the field in terms of the teaching of, and training in evaluation in Latin America, with a…

This timely book examines how fascist ideology has taken hold among certain segments of American society and how this can be addressed in curriculum and instruction. Vavrus presents middle, secondary, and college educators and their students with a conceptual framework for enacting a critical multicultural pedagogy by analyzing discriminatory…

Digital technology and its use within democratic pedagogy has been an under-researched area in physical education (PE) and higher education (HE). Furthermore, we know little about how democratic assessment methods are experienced by students in HE. As such, this article explores student perceptions and experiences of democratic assessment…

This edited volume explores and deconstructs the possibilities of higher education beyond its initial purpose. The book contextualizes and argues for a more robust interrogation of persistent patterns of campus inequality driven by rapid demographic change, reduced public spending in higher education, and an increasingly polarized political…

What is one value that grounds you in your civic engagement work? How are you walking the talk of that value in your assessment work? Or, how might you? And, what both helps and gets in the way of your doing that? These questions were posed to service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) faculty and staff gathered for an assessment institute…

This paper reports on an action research project into the development of a "democratic feedback model" with students on an education studies programme at a post-1992 university in the UK. Building on work that has explored the dialogic dimensions of assessment and feedback, the research explored the potential for more…

In our work as educators, we all aspire to be effective. We also aspire to be wise. If teachers are to represent and advocate for education, we must become the stewards of a discourse that nurtures education's possibilities. This book explores how teacher dispositions are defined, developed, cultivated, and assessed. The authors in the volume…

Today's ever-changing learning environment is characterized by the fast pace of technology that drives our society to move forward, and causes our knowledge to increase at an exponential rate. The need for in-depth research that is bound to generate new knowledge about curriculum and program development is becoming ever more relevant.…

A foundational mission of our public schools is dedicated to preserving a democratic republic dependent on a literate and actively engaged citizenry. Civic literacy is essential to supporting the rights and responsibilities of all citizens in a democratic society. Civic knowledge is the foundation of our citizens' civic literacy. National…

This article describes a simulation that fulfills many of the goals of a scholar/apprentice model--one that requires a sustained period of time during which an apprentice practices a set of discipline-specific skills under the guidance of his or her mentor. Such an extended simulation differs from shorter exercises in several ways, such as the…

This essay responds to Jane Danielewicz's and Peter Elbow's recent piece on contract grading in "College Composition and Communication" (December 2009). I discuss the similarities of their approach to my own contract process, finding that we share a quantitative/performative method for grading. I also explore our differences. While they guarantee…

The article addresses the concept of quality assurance (QA) and its relation to quality in higher education which itself is a component of total quality management. It then examines the regulatory policies for higher education followed by the meaning of the concept of democracy in the South African Constitution and its impact and implications on…

To promote student engagement, professors must actively seek to create the conditions that foster engagement. Chickering and Gamson (1987) suggest that good practices in undergraduate education are ones that: encourage student-faculty contact, develop reciprocity and cooperation among students, encourage active learning, provide students with…