Introduction: This article aimed at digging deep into distractors used for mathematics multiple-choice items. The quality of distractors may be more important than their number and the stem in a multiple-choice question. Little attention is given to this aspect of item writing especially, mathematics multiple-choice questions. This article…

Students' ability to apply mathematical knowledge to various situations has been one of the major concerns in mathematics education research. However, little is known about the assessment strategies that have a substantial contribution to the development of mathematical problem-solving skills in kindergarten children through to upper secondary…

After nearly two decades of federal and state accountability requirements relying on conventional standardized assessments, Virginia and several other states are moving to create more balanced approaches to statewide assessment systems that include the use of performance assessments. But Palm (2008) states, "Performance assessment can mean…

Divergent thinking tasks are a popular basis for research on group creative problem solving, or brainstorming. The brainstorming literature has been dominated by research that investigates group performance by measuring the total number of generated ideas using the original rules put forth by Osborn (1953). This review of empirical literature on…

Performance assessments can provide an effective means of measuring abilities that are difficult or impossible to measure with a multiple-choice test, such as ability to communicate, solve problems, and employ critical thinking skills. Performance assessments consist of a task and a set of scoring guidelines, or a rubric. Both performance tasks…

This paper provides an extensive literature review and recommendations for authentic assessment, and then provides recommendations for administrators in order to implement authentic assessment in elementary schools. A lack of comfort, with the way in which standardized tests seems to dictate what teachers teach as part of the curriculum, was a…

Olae is a computer system for assessing student knowledge of physics, and Newtonian mechanics in particular, using performance data collected while students solve complex problems. Although originally designed as a stand-alone system, it has also been used as part of the Andes intelligent tutoring system. Like many other performance assessment…

A panel of 46 experts from philosophy and education defines critical thinking as "purposeful, self-regulatory judgment which results in interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, as well as explanation of the evidential, conceptual, methodological, criteriological, or contextual considerations upon which that judgment is…

In 1992 the Utah State Office of Education initiated a review of recent literature on performance assessment as a step in establishing the foundation of the Utah State Core Curriculum Performance Assessment Program. Profiles Corporation conducted the review of the literature and contacted educators in all 50 states regarding the current state of…