Aguirre-Urreta, Rönkkö, and Marakas' (2016) paper in "Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives" (hereafter referred to as ARM2016) is an important and timely piece of scholarship, in that it provides strong analytic support to the growing theoretical literature that questions the underlying ideas behind causal and…

In this article, the authors extend the results of Aguirre-Urreta, Rönkkö, and Marakas (2016) concerning the omission of a relevant causal indicator by testing the validity of the assumption that causal indicators are entirely superfluous to the measurement model and discuss the implications for measurement theory. Contrary to common wisdom…

Black, Wilson, and Yao (this issue) commendably attempt to put descriptive theory at the center of pedagogy, assessment, and curriculum. The thrust of their article is that only through theories of learning will student progression be properly understood. Casting a critical eye over the faddish distinction between "formative" and "summative"…

CBAL (Cognitively Based Assessment of, for, and as Learning) is a research initiative intended to create a model for an innovative K-12 assessment system that documents what students have achieved ("of learning"); helps identify how to plan instruction ("for learning"); and is considered by students and teachers to be a worthwhile educational…

The overall aim of this article is to analyze the relationships between the roles of assessment in pedagogy, the interactions between curriculum assessment and pedagogy, and the study of pupils' progression in learning. It is argued that well-grounded evidence of pupils' progressions in learning is crucial to the work of teachers, so that a method…