Programme evaluation has developed tremendously over the past 50 years, with a proliferation of evaluation research, an increase in the institutionalization of evaluation, and growth in the professionalization of evaluation. However, existing research and developments are still largely in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, with…

The focal paper by Baird et al. in this special issue argues that there are few issues more important in education than the relationship between assessment and learning. On the one hand, learning is the ultimate goal of all educational interventions; on the other, assessment has become a leviathan that constrains and shapes virtually all of that…

In this commentary, Mary James highlights two problems she deemed critical during her work exploring the relationships between assessment and learning in theory and practice. First, efforts to improve assessment for learning were not always successful either in improving performance or in other ways. Second, and this may be a reason for the first…

This chapter introduces theory that undergirds the role of testing adaptations in assessment, provides examples of item modifications and testing accommodations, reviews research relevant to each, and introduces a new paradigm that incorporates opportunity to learn (OTL), academic enablers, testing adaptations, and inferences that can be made from…

This paper provides the basis for understanding score equating through item response theory (IRT). Theoretical justifications and practical advantages of IRT true-score test procedures are discussed. Three steps in the equating process are specified, and a self-test is included. (SLD)

An expanded framework for validating tests is needed to include the perspectives of teachers and students as well as of test makers and scientists. The development of educational assessments must take place within an understanding of how tests are used in context. (SLD)

The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale: Fourth Edition is a conceptually new version of this traditional intelligence scale. The new scale has a solid basis in theory, but there is little evidence that the Binet matches its intended theory. This study was designed to determine whether the Binet corresponds to the theory that guided its…

Explores the relationship between measurement theory and practice, considering five broad categories of: (1) models, assumptions, and terminology; (2) reliability; (3) validity; (4) scaling; and (5) setting performance standards. It must be recognized that measurement is not an end in itself. (SLD)