In 2008, Winston et al. published "An Instrument to Measure the Impact of Hope in Strategic Plan Implementation." Snyder (2000) suggested that hope is the only factor that influences positive outcomes related to employee expectations. Other theories, such as expectancy theory, value chain theory, and faith, were thought to influence…

In this paper the authors examine the uses of teaching performance assessments (TPAs) as resources for learning, program evaluation, and improvement in teacher education. The authors begin by outlining their conceptual framing and related research questions about the uses of TPAs as resources for program evaluation and improvement. They describe…

Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE) provides a commentary on the manuscripts in this special issue, responding to criticisms of edTPA as an assessment that narrows the curriculum, heavily relies on students' academic writing skills, and creates additional burdens for teacher candidates. The commentary highlights how edTPA…

Many universities issue mathematical diagnostic tests to incoming first-year students, covering a range of the basic concepts with which they should be comfortable from secondary school. As far as many lecturers are concerned, the purpose of this test is to determine the students' mathematical knowledge on entry. It should also provide an early…

Technology can change higher education by empowering students to make an impact on the world as undergraduates. Done systematically, this would allow institutions to close the credibility gap with an increasingly dubious public. Authentic student achievements that are addressed to a "real world" audience can lead to richly detailed…

Implementation fidelity assessment provides a means of measuring the alignment between the planned program and the implemented program. Unfortunately, the implemented program can differ from the planned program, resulting in ambiguous inferences about the planned program's effectiveness (i.e., it is uncertain if poor results are due to an…

The Australian Professional Teaching Standards require pre-service teachers to complete a minimum number of days of professional experience in order to graduate. Problems can arise, however, when the evaluation of their professional experience against the Standards shifts from the providers of teacher education programmes to school-based…

This paper reviews the literature about peer and self-assessment in university courses from the point of view of their use, and the suitability of their use, in the first year of university study. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part argues that although first-year students are involved in many of the studies that report on the…

Problem Statement: Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is a sophisticated and efficient way of delivering examinations. In CAT, items for each examinee are selected from an item bank based on the examinee's responses to the items. In this way, the difficulty level of the test is adjusted based on the examinee's ability level. Instead of…

According to a study conducted by the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (2002), approximately 90% of universities and colleges of education use portfolios regarding student assessment. Forty percent of universities use electronic portfolios in teacher certification programs for licensing. Because of the popular use of…

In June 2007, the Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) was awarded a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop the College Ready School Diagnostic, a web-based diagnostic instrument. The purpose of this tool is to provide individual school profiles and customized recommendations, enabling each institution to make…