This report is the first in a series by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) that examines the current status of states' teacher policies. Updated on a two-year cycle, each will cover a specific area of teacher policy. This report focuses on state teacher policies governing what states require in evaluations of both teachers and…

American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) is developing guidance on a range of topics in support of institutions of higher education need to adjust, review and consider many of their practices in light of the impact of COVID-19 on normal operations. To help develop this guidance and the members understanding of…

Serbia's education system performs well compared to other countries in the Western Balkans. There have been improvements in access to education and Serbia has undertaken major institutional reforms in recent years, such as the introduction of achievement standards at the end of compulsory education, teacher standards and a school evaluation…

Maryland's demanding new Kindergarten Readiness Assessment was administered statewide for the first time. Its results are revealing and sobering. Many states do not even check in any systematic way on their children's readiness for kindergarten, and in previous years, Maryland used metrics based on modest expectations, outdated standards, and…

This survey report contains the results of the 2009-10, 2010-11, and 2011-12 Teacher and Principal Surveys conducted by Stanford's Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA). The surveys were administered to teachers and principals in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). This report appears in two parts, each highlighting some of…

Data from the ALEKS-based placement program at the University of Illinois is presented visually in several ways. The placement exam (an ALEKS assessment) contains precise item-specific information and the data show many interesting properties of the student populations of the placement courses, which include Precalculus, Calculus, and Business…

Recently, the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) completed a study to connect the scale of the North Carolina State End of Grade (EOG) Testing Program used for North Carolina's mathematics and reading assessments with NWEA's Rausch Interval Unit (RIT) scale. Information from the state assessments was used in a study to establish…

In 2010-11, Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI), and SMART Technologies began a two-year collaboration to promote the use of formative assessment in mathematics classrooms at three Wake County public schools: Millbrook Elementary, East Millbrook Middle, and Millbrook High school. The…

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has expended considerable effort to ensure high quality in data collection by developing standardized materials and survey operation procedures and using well-trained professional administrators. However, schools are allowed to minimize the disruption associated with pulling students out of…

Evaluation is the process of collecting and using information for decision-making. A hallmark of School-wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) is a commitment to formal evaluation. The purpose of this SWPBS Evaluation Blueprint is to provide those involved in developing Evaluation Plans and Evaluation Reports with a framework for (a) addressing…

Effective teaching and teachers are key to producing high-performing students worldwide. So how can countries prepare teachers to face the diverse challenges in today's schools? The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) helps answer this question. TALIS asks teachers and schools about their working conditions and the learning…

The Student Outcomes Survey is an annual national survey of vocational education and training (VET) students. Since 1995, participants have been asked to rate their satisfaction with different aspects of their training, grouped under three main themes: teaching, assessment, and generic skills and learning experiences. While the composition of the…

The most critical feature of a common-item nonequivalent groups equating design is that the average score difference between the new and old groups can be accurately decomposed into a group ability difference and a form difficulty difference. Two widely used observed-score linear equating methods, the Tucker and the Levine observed-score methods,…

Reports such as this typically begin with a statistic designed to highlight a problem. The girls and boys to whom this edition of "The State of the World's Children" is dedicated are not problems. Rather, each is a sister, brother or friend who has a favourite dish, song or game; a daughter or son with dreams and the desire to fulfil…

The OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) constitute two of the largest ongoing international student and teacher surveys presently underway. Data generated from these surveys offer researchers and policy-makers opportunities to identify particular educational…