New technology-enabled assessments offer the potential to understand more than just whether a student answered a test question right or wrong. Using multiple forms of media that enable both visual and graphical representations, these assessments present complex, multistep problems for students to solve and collect detailed information about an…

Most educators agree that the primary criterion of school success is the ongoing growth and achievement of every student even in the midst of constant debate about the state of the US education and conflicting opinions regarding the value of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Standardized tests have their place, but computerized adaptive testing aimed…

With a computer's assistance, a Missouri school is assessing its fifth graders' reading progress by recording their voices as they read aloud, then saving the students' self-evaluations along with the recordings in a computer portfolio. Program aims to involve students in self-evaluation and critical thinking, promote student ownership of reading…

To help principals and department heads in their mentoring role, the Singapore Ministry of Education developed a computer system for classroom observation named SOCRATES. The system requires no coding, continuously records entire lessons, compiles data useful for sequential analysis, and allows teachers and principals to identify strengths and…

When an Idaho school district initiated computerized adaptive testing, it discovered that all the growth occurring in the district was limited to the lowest-achieving students. The more proficient students, which included both gifted and above-average learners, showed little or no growth. The assessment data showed a weak curriculum that tended to…