Through our national thematic reports HM Inspectors of Education share their professional view on particular aspects of education. This report focuses on sharing the key features which, when taken together, make the greatest difference to using assessment effectively to improve learning and teaching and in turn, outcomes for children and young…

Since 2007 the Oregon DATA Project has been investing resources to provide educators on-the-job training around effective data use to improve student achievement. New evidence shows that their efforts are paying off. A 2011 Oregon DATA Project report detailed the impact of their investment in the state's educators, finding the following: (1)…

Since its founding in 1947, ETS has conducted a significant and wide-ranging research program that has focused on, among other things, psychometric and statistical methodology; educational evaluation; performance assessment and scoring; large-scale assessment and evaluation; cognitive, developmental, personality, and social psychology; and…

How did Washington create a clear organizational structure that assigns responsibility for each aspect of transfer policy to the group that is best suited to manage it (Kisker, Wagoner, and Cohen, 2011)? In this chapter, the authors will introduce the agencies, organizations, and entities that have played a key role in gathering information,…

Schools today are more data rich than ever, requiring staff members to develop their data literacy--that is, their knowledge of how to use assessment data with other types of data to identify areas of effectiveness and to target instructional improvement efforts. Administrators and teachers are expected to use combinations of data (diagnostic and…

This article discusses the increasing number of schools that met all of their 2004 annual achievement targets under U.S. federal law. Over half the states released at least preliminary lists of the number of schools that had made adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act, based on 2003-04 test data. In general, the percentage of…

This paper details the challenges encountered by authors summarizing evidence from a primary study to describe a treatment's effectiveness using an effect size (ES) estimate. Dilemmas that are encountered, including how to calculate and interpret the pertinent standardized mean difference ES for results from studies of various research designs,…

Accreditation, budget, and accountability pressures at the institution and program levels lead to the involvement of faculty in assessment-based activities. Increasingly, programs are being expected to document student learning beyond traditional course grades. The use of outcomes as a tool to improve learning relies heavily on the active…

This study highlights the value of leveraging department resources in principal preparation program resources to achieve multiple teaching and program review goals. In this study, masters degree candidates participated in all aspects of the evaluation of the Department of Educational Administration and Counseling. As consumers they already had a…

This paper examines issues in gathering data for purposes of making accountability decisions for students with disabilities. The first section describes five alternative methods being used: (1) administration of norm-referenced tests; (2) focus on results or outcomes; (3) Individualized Education Program aggregation; (4) secondary analysis of…