This ethnographic study examines kindergarten teachers' perceptions and practices of "school readiness" in kindergartens in low-SES settings in northern Israel, with the aim of illuminating the ways in which global educational ideas are appropriated by teachers in their daily work. Data collection included participant observation,…

This paper discusses the evolution of assessment for learning (AfL) across the globe with particular attention given to Western educational jurisdictions. Scholars from Australia, Canada, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, and the United States discuss prominent assessment reforms within their respective countries over the last decade.…

This paper aims to survey the current landscape of education policy evaluation across OECD countries and economies by examining recent trends and contextual factors that can promote more robust education policy evaluation, as well as identifying key challenges. It takes a view of policy evaluation as an activity that takes place throughout the…

Calls for increased monitoring and evaluation of education policies and practices have not, so far, included widespread and consistent assessments of the inclusiveness of education settings. Measuring inclusion in education has proven to be a challenging exercise, due not only to the complexity and different uses of the concept, but also to its…

Notwithstanding the introduction of education multilingual policies worldwide, testing and assessment procedures still rely almost exclusively on the monolingual construct. This paper describes a study, part of a larger project fostering a new multilingual education policy in Israeli schools, exploring bi/multilingual assessment. It included two…

Education is the infrastructure of future state competitiveness and cohesiveness. Educational Evaluation Programs (EEPs) have an ongoing effect on educational outcomes. Thus, EEPs are affecting the future state competitive ability and social cohesiveness. This paper develops a conceptual framework for the evaluation of educational improvement. We…

This paper focuses on a Web-log based tool for evaluating pedagogical processes occurring in Web-supported academic instruction and students' attitudes. The tool consists of computational measures which demonstrate what instructors and policy makers can learn about Web-supported instruction through Web-usage mining. The tool can provide different…

This article reports findings obtained from a large-scale national study (299 schools; 2761 students) that examined academic achievements of immigrants in Israeli schools. It focused on two distinct groups of immigrant students--those from the former USSR and from Ethiopia, in two subject areas--mathematics and academic language (Hebrew), and in…

This paper represents the initial stage of a project established to describe and understand the rationale and processes of certain educational systems in Israel and other countries, and to spread the acquired knowledge as a useful practical contribution. The problem in the study is to understand the conditions prevailing and the methods to be used…

This paper has two aims, each bearing on recent developments in evaluation policy. The first is to summarize a report presented in 1980 to the United States Congress and Department of Education, concerning evaluation policy and practices at the national, state, and local levels of government. The second aim is to link some of the United States…

This publication is intended to provide readers with a broad perspective on education in Israel, based on the findings of participants in a two-week study mission to Israel. Part 1 consists of 17 short reports on various topics related to Israeli education. The majority of these reports deal with educational planning, policy, evaluation, and…

This book contains a series of papers presented at an Israel-American seminar on Educational Evaluation. Sol Kugelmass describes strategies employed to increase the utilization of evaluation results in the process of formulating educational policy. Nachum Blass illustrates the relationship between evaluation and policymaking by discussing an…