Evaluation of professional learning illuminates the interactions that occur in the implementation of planned learning experiences and the necessary supports designed to improve professional practice and its effects on students. It investigates how a set of actions designed to achieve defined short- and long-term outcomes occur over time and how…

Sustainable Development Goals call on Members States to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all" and sets a number of targets related to technical and vocational education and training (TVET). In order to collect input from the global TVET community, UNESCO-UNEVOC organized a…

In "Using Learning Progressions to Design Vertical Scales that Support Coherent Inferences about Student Growth" (hereafter ULR), Briggs and Peck suggest that learning progressions could be used as the basis of vertical scales with naturally benchmarked descriptions of student proficiency. They propose and provide a single example of a…

Public school critics often point to rising expenditures and relatively flat test scores to justify their school reform agendas. The claims are flawed because their analyses fail to account for the difference in data types between dollars (ratio) and test scores (interval). A cost-benefit analysis using dollars as a common metric for both costs…

Evaluation occurs within a specific context and is influenced by the economic, political, historical, and social forces that shape that context. The culture of evaluation is thus very much embedded in the culture of accountability that currently prevails in public sector institutions, policies, and program. As such, our understanding of the…

The measurement of student learning is becoming increasingly important in U.S. higher education. One way to measure learning is through longitudinal testing, but this becomes especially difficult when applied to cumulative learning within programs in situations of low persistence. In particular, many Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) find…

Using computers to evaluate teachers based on student test scores is more difficult than it seems. Value-added modeling is a genuinely serious attempt to grapple with the difficulties. Value-added modeling carries the promise of measuring teacher quality automatically and objectively, and improving school systems at minimal cost. The essence of…

Evidence suggests that it is possible to substantially reduce the number of children classified as learning disabled in literacy. The 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act opens opportunities to do so through Response to Intervention (RTI). This article argues that institutional histories, structures, and…

Internationalization is possible, but the objectives need careful consideration. It is noted that the majority of countries do not have any form of test quality procedure and that only a small number have reviews, registration, certification, or some combination of these approaches. Internationalization could provide benefits at the least by…

Good evaluation requires that evaluation efforts themselves be evaluated. Many things can and often do go wrong in evaluation work. Accordingly, it is necessary to check evaluations for problems such as bias, technical error, administrative difficulties, and misuse. Such checks are needed both to improve ongoing evaluation activities and to assess…

In the last two and half decades, much has been learned about conceptualizing and developing measures for use by practitioners designed to inform their intervention decision making, such as when a child would benefit from receiving additional instructional support (universal screening) and whether the child is responding positively to the…

Effective principals are those who boost academic achievement for all students, increase the effectiveness of their teaching staffs, and consistently take leadership actions shown to improve outcomes for students. Therefore principal evaluation systems should place 70% of their weight on the ability of principals to increase student achievement…

This paper is a polemical discussion of assessment in teacher education. Working from the proposition that assessment serves a number of important purposes for a range of stakeholders (students, employers, quality assurance agencies, government), it argues that there is considerable potential for conflict between the different purposes. In an age…

Ways to improve the validity of assessment of college students are discussed. Validity problems often have occurred because the purpose of assessment was not clear. Traditionally, college students have been tested for admission and placement. However, the results of these tests have been used for other purposes, such as comparing institutions.…

Accrediting associations assess colleges in order to find out what has been accomplished, and to find out how it might be better accomplished. Assessment of educational outcomes can be a useful way to demonstrate the success of alternative means. However, accrediting agencies do not rely exclusively on outcome measures, since they only assess what…