Online assessments of learning, or online exams, have become increasingly widespread with the rise of distance learning. Online exams are preferred by many students and are perceived as a quick and easy tool to measure knowledge. On the contrary, some students are concerned about the possibility of cheating and technological difficulties in online…

In Comparative Judgement (CJ) exercises, examiners are asked to look at a selection of candidate scripts (with marks removed) and order them in terms of which they believe display the best quality. By including scripts from different examination sessions, the results of these exercises can be used to help with maintaining standards. Results from…

Background and Purpose: As a growing number of instructional units have been developed to promote young children's scientific and engineering practices (SEPs), understanding how to evaluate and assess children's SEPs is imperative. However, paper-and-pencil assessments would not be suitable for young children because of their limited reading and…

The framework and tools used for classroom assessment can have significant impacts on teacher practices and student achievement. Getting assessment right is an important component in creating positive learning experiences and academic success. Recent government reports (e.g., United States, Australia) call for the development of systems that use…

Evidence of comparability is generally needed whenever there are variations in the conditions of an assessment administration, including variations introduced by the administration of an assessment on multiple digital devices (e.g., tablet, laptop, desktop). This article is meant to provide a comprehensive examination of issues relevant to the…

Coursebook evaluation helps practitioners decide on the most appropriate coursebook to be exploited. Moreover, evaluation process enables to predict the potential strengths and weaknesses of a given coursebook. Checklist method is probably the most widely adopted way of judging coursebooks and there are plenty of ELT coursebook evaluation…

Since the mid 1970s, a series of international declarations that recognize the critical link between environmental sustainability and higher education have been endorsed and signed by universities around the world. While academic initiatives in sustainability are blossoming, higher education lacks a comprehensive evaluation framework that is…

Dynamic assessment as a complementary approach to traditional static assessment emphasizes the learning process and accounts for the amount and nature of examiner investment. The present qualitative study analyzed interactions for 270 reading test items which were recorded and tape scripted. The reading ability of 9 EFL participants at three…

There has been an increased interest in developing computer-adaptive testing (CAT) and multistage assessments for K-12 accountability assessments. The move to adaptive testing has been met with some resistance by those in the field of special education who express concern about routing of students with divergent profiles (e.g., some students with…

The test-item bias literature is summarized, emphasizing the conceptual basis for bias detection methods and the technical issues involved in choosing among methods. It describes both judgmental and statistical methods for identifying biased items, and discusses the reconciliation of these two types of evidence. (Author/BW)

Reviews information about three major dimensions along which phonics measures vary: (1) group v individual administration, (2) production response (say or write) v recognition response, and (3) the stimuli or materials used to evaluate phonics. (HOD)

A number of recent articles have claimed strong relationships--i.e., very high "proportions of shared variance"--between pairs of teaching and learning questionnaires. These claims have been the subject of debate and it has emerged that the proportion of shared variance is defined as the complement of Wilks' lambda. The present article argues that…

The literature on item bias, i.e., the question of whether some items in tests favor one cultural group over another cultural group due to irrelevant factors, is reviewed and evaluated. All known references through 1981 are described including a large number of unpublished reports. Each method is described and the criticisms that have appeared in…

Educational item banking presents observers with a considerable paradox. The development of test items from scratch is viewed as wasteful, a luxury in times of declining resources. On the other hand, item banking has failed to become a mature technology despite large amounts of money and the efforts of talented professionals. The question of which…

This paper discusses recent developments in language testing. It begins with a review of the traditional criteria that are applied to all measurement and outlines recent emphases that derive from the expanding range of stakeholders. Drawing on Alderson's seminal work, criteria are presented for evaluating communicative language tests. Developments…