There is much discussion about and many policies to address achievement gaps in education among groups of students. The focus here is on a different gap and it is argued that it also should be of concern. Speed gaps are differences in how quickly different groups of students answer the questions on academic assessments. To investigate some speed…

I draw upon Eileen Schell's notions of "maternal pedagogy" and an "ethic of care" to analyze archival material from the National Education Association and Educational Testing Service pilot "lay reader" programs of the 1950s and 1960s. I argue that there are striking similarities between the material and social circumstances of these postwar lay…

This article reviews research on changes in teachers' workplace relations in a policy context that increasingly emphasizes accountability. The findings indicate that a greater focus on testing and student performance often leads to less attention to the caring and relational aspects of teachers' work. Prevailing and enduring ideas about teachers'…

As the brain sciences make advances in our understanding of how the human brain functions, many educators are looking to findings from the neurosciences to inform classroom teaching methodologies. This paper takes the view that the neurosciences are an excellent source of knowledge regarding learning processes, but also provides a warning…

Validation research for educational achievement tests is often limited to an examination of intended test score interpretations. This article calls for an expansion of validation research in three dimensions. First, validation must attend to actual test use and its consequences, not just score meaning. Second, validation must attend to unintended…

This study reports on student teachers' views of portfolios as a learning tool when they are combined with a weekly test conducted at the end of each lesson to help student teachers self-evaluate. Student teachers' written reflections during the process provided data for the study. Analysis of the data showed that a majority of student teachers…

The aim of this study was to examine the contribution of dynamic testing in the measuring of children's need for instruction and to explore responses of special education teachers to dynamic testing results. Thirty-six 10-12-year-old children with a moderate to mild intellectual disability and their teachers participated. Children in the…

Educational achievement is a very important issue for parents, teachers, and the government. An accurate measurement plays a very important role in evaluating achievement fairly, and, therefore, analysis methods have been developed considerably in recent years. Education based on long-time learning processes forms a fruitful base for item tests,…

Reliability and validity are two characteristics that must be considered whenever information about student achievement is collected. However, those characteristics--and the methods for evaluating them--differ in large-scale testing and classroom testing contexts. This article presents the distinctions between reliability and validity in the two…

Based on the results of a generalizability study of measures of teacher knowledge for teaching mathematics developed at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing at the University of California, Los Angeles, this article provides evidence that teachers are better at drawing reasonable inferences about student…

In spring 2009, the Center on Education Policy (CEP) continued its research on the impact of test-based federal and state accountability policies by conducting case studies of six high schools in six different districts within Washington State. The purpose was to learn more about the curricular and instructional changes that administrators and…

This work compares the results of three assessment systems used in two Spanish universities (the "Universidad Politecnica de Madrid" and the "Universidad Catolica de Avila"): the traditional system based on final examinations, continuous assessment with periodic tests and a proposed system (specially designed for heterogeneous…

This digest discusses the integration of teaching and testing. The use of tests as instructional tools and administrative tools is discussed as well as teacher and administrator attitudes toward testing and teacher competency in interpreting test results. The term "tests" covers standardized tests of achievement and aptitude, less formal…

Patriot High School (PHS) adopted a remediation strategy to help its 10th-grade students at risk of failing the Math portion of MCAS, the state's end of year competency exam. The centerpiece of that strategy was a computer-based instructional (CBI) course. PHS used a commercially available CBI product to align the course content with the…

I have examined how frequency of assessment impacts learning in an undergraduate biology course employing a student-centered, active-learning pedagogy. Frequent assessment was associated with better student performance and greater retention of course concepts. Improvement of higher-order thinking skills may require more classroom practice.…