While it is frequently argued that assessment sits at the heart of the learning process, in practice assessment often remains narrowly focused on qualifications and reporting achievements, driven by institutional and societal aspirations and tensions such as accountability and economic well being. Yet, the need for assessment to account for the…

While research suggests that formative assessment can be a powerful tool to support teaching and learning, efforts to jump on the formative assessment bandwagon have been more widespread than those to assure the technical quality of the assessments. This report covers initial analyses of data bearing on the quality of formative assessments in…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002) has had a great impact on states' policies in assessing English language learner (ELL) students. The legislation requires states to develop or adopt sound assessments in order to validly measure the ELL students' English language proficiency, as well as content knowledge and skills. While states…

Dealing with flexibility--or its converse, the extent of standardization--is fundamental to alignment, assessment design, and interpretation of results in fully inclusive assessment systems. Highly standardized tests make it easier to compare (performances, students, and schools) across time and to common standards because certain conditions are…

The goal of scaling up of educational innovation is to produce robust, effective, replicable outcomes. This report addresses requirements to support scale-up of scientifically vetted innovation (or new ideas that are built on the findings of quality research and development). In this report, a number of issues are considered: the context of…

For formative assessment to raise academic standards in Scotland, three advances are required: investment in research and development to exploit new possibilities for developing pupils' learning potential; development work with teachers to change understandings and roles; and public and political action to establish system contexts and…

The increasing use of criteria-based approaches to assessment and grading in higher education is a consequence of its sound theoretical rationale and its educational effectiveness. This article is based on a review of the most common grading policies that purport to be criteria-based. The analysis shows that there is no common understanding of…

The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) is carrying out a nine year evaluation of citizenship education in England on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES). The Citizenship Education Longitudinal Study (hereafter, the Study) began in 2001 and is tracking a cohort of young people from age 11 to 18, who entered…

Several developments growing out of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are reviewed, with a discussion of their extension and application to other projects. These developments include: (1) complex matrix item sampling designs; (2) performance-based items in large-scale assessments; (3) vertical scaling; and (4) innovative…

The research evidence supporting current beliefs in testing is summarized, and critical qualities that good assessment should exemplify and the current state of the research knowledge on how to produce good assessment are reviewed. Research has demonstrated the difficulties of achieving meaningful improvement in schools and the shortcomings of…

The report of the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education followed 13 hearings and meetings throughout the nation on ways to strengthen the education of students with disabilities. An executive summary summarizes nine findings and the resulting three major recommendations: first, focus on results, not process; second, embrace a…

This paper reports on two comprehensive multi-institutional collaborative efforts for school improvement. The two studies demonstrate that collaborative efforts involving multiple agencies and multiple agendas can be successful even when separated by considerable geographical distance. The school systems were concerned with implementing a locally…