In the spring of 2015, many states began administering new state assessments designed to measure students' mastery of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in mathematics and English language arts (ELA). This was the first wide-scale assessment of student mastery of the Common Core. For some states, it was also the first time that state math and…

The Bloomington Project School (BPS) is a charter school that has successfully adopted and implemented several learner-centered educational strategies. This case study offers a glimpse into its student-centered, collaborative, and interdisciplinary learning and teaching processes; its mastery-based assessment process; and its successful technology…

The aim of this study was to examine log linear modelling (LLM) compared with logistic regression (LR) and Mantel-Haenszel (MH) test for detecting Differential Item Functioning (DIF) in a mastery test. The three methods were chosen because they have similar components. The results showed fairly high matching percentages together with high…

In sequential mastery testing (SMT), assessment via computer is used to classify examinees into one of two mutually exclusive categories. Unlike paper-and-pencil tests, SMT has the capability to use variable-length stopping rules. One approach to shortening variable-length tests is stochastic curtailment, which halts examination if the probability…

We used collaborative testing in a veterinary physiology course (65 students) to answer the following questions: 1) do students with individual correct responses or students with individual incorrect responses change their answers during group testing? and 2) do high-performing students make the decisions, that is, are low-performing students…

Leaders in government, business, and higher education are calling for today's students to show a mastery of broader and more sophisticated skills like evaluating and analyzing information and thinking creatively about how to solve real-world problems. Standing in the way of incorporating such skills into teaching and learning are widespread…

Business schools often attain accreditation to demonstrate program efficacy. J. A. Marts, J. D. Baker, and J. M. Garris (1988) hypothesized that candidates from Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB)-accredited accounting programs perform better on the CPA exam than do candidates from non-AACSB-accredited…

This study evaluated the ability of the kindergarten and first grade Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), measures of early literacy development, to discriminate among low average, average, and above average students considered at risk emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) on the Total Reading cluster of the Woodcock…

Background: Childhood obesity is a major public health threat. Increased fitness may have a positive influence on cognitive performance in both adults and children. Purpose: To examine which aspects of children's fitness assessment are associated with their performance on four different academic areas. Methods: FITNESSGRAM measures aerobic…

A new direct and short proof is offered for the monotone likelihood ratio for the sum of independent Bernoulli random variables through use of an inequality by Marcus and Lopes (1957) on elementary symmetric functions. (SLD)

Consider test data, a specified set of dichotomous skills measured by the test, and an IRT cognitive diagnosis model (ICDM). Statistical estimation of the data set using the ICDM can provide examinee estimates of mastery for these skills, referred to generally as attributes. With such detailed information about each examinee, future instruction…

Many mastery decisions are made based on assessment devices that are known to be less than perfectly reliable. A significant portion of examinees who have scores near the cutting score risk misclassification, even for instruments with relatively high retest reliability. Suggestions for minimizing this risk are offered. (Author/MT)

An evaluation of a test developed by Richard W. Woodcock in 1973 to measure the reading mastery of students in kindergarten through grade 12. (DD)

The purpose of this study was to compare the isolated effects of cover-copy-compare (CCC) with the combined effects of CCC and two types of performance feedback (i.e., digits correct and incorrect per minute) on sixth grade students' mathematics fluency and accuracy. An alternating treatments design was employed to compare treatments across 16…

A version of sequential mastery testing is studied in which response behavior is modeled by an item response theory (IRT) model. First, a general theoretical framework is sketched that is based on a combination of Bayesian sequential decision theory and item response theory. A discussion follows on how IRT based sequential mastery testing can be…