University rankings have a growing impact on how people view the academic excellence of higher education. The complicated relationship between rankings and academic excellence is explored in this essay along with how it may affect higher education policy and practice. The importance of rankings and their influence on institutional decision-making…

Three groups of EFL freshman students were concurrently enrolled in a grammar and a writing course. One group was taught the grammar and writing courses by the same instructor; the other two groups were taught grammar and writing by two different instructors using the same textbook but different instructional and assessment techniques. The study…

After decades of disinterest, evaluation of the performance of elementary and secondary teachers in the United States has become an important educational policy issue. As U.S. states and districts have tried to upgrade their evaluation processes, one of the models that has been increasingly used is the Framework for Teaching. This paper summarizes…

This study examined construct validity of three commonly used clerkship performance assessments: preceptors' evaluations, OSCE-type clinical performance measures, and the NBME [National Board of Medical Examiners] medicine subject examination. Six hundred and eighty-six students taking the inpatient medicine clerkship from 2003 to 2007…

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies of emotion, personality, and social cognition have drawn much attention in recent years, with high-profile studies frequently reporting extremely high (e.g., > 8) correlations between behavioral and self-report measures of personality or emotion and measures of brain activation. We show…

The purpose of this study was to describe secondary teachers' formative assessment practices and to examine the relationship of these practices to student motivation. The sample included 3,242 students and 161 grade 6-12 teachers. Teachers and students completed self-report questionnaires that focused on both formative assessment and motivation…

When conducting an exploratory factor analysis, the decision regarding the number of factors to retain following factor extraction is one that the researcher should consider very carefully, as the decision can have a dramatic effect on results. Although there are numerous strategies that can and should be utilized when making this decision,…

Effective assessment of teaching and learning with technology requires a capacity to map learning outcomes. Student attitudes of the use of IT are measured in a structural equation model derived from an instrument based on the principles of undergraduate practice of Chickering and Ehrmann (1996). Institutional and background data are included. By…

Because of the importance of developing highly skilled school leaders, statewide assessments of 784 Texas public school administrators were compared to determine how leadership skills varied by type of campus (urban, suburban and rural) and by campus student achievement ratings. Important findings indicate differences exist by campus type and by…

Drama at primary teaching course is given as a compulsory course to students enrolling department of the primary teaching in college of education in Turkey. In drama, assessment is problematic as the content of the lesson often deviates from the plan because of spontaneous input from the students and on-the-spot changes in direction by the…

The purpose of this research was to utilize web-based training (WBT) to enhance students' knowledge of learning organization (LO) in a context of electrical technology education in Thailand. The sample chosen for this study included 19 fourth year undergraduate students. The WBT was based on the five disciplines according to Senge (1991) as well…

Because of the importance of developing highly skilled urban school leaders, statewide assessments of 248 urban Texas public school administrators were analyzed to determine principal confidence levels in leadership skill domains identified by the National Policy Board of Educational Administration (NPBEA). Important findings indicate differences…

Because of the importance of developing highly skilled rural school leaders, statewide assessments of 259 rural Texas public school administrators were analyzed to determine principal confidence levels in leadership skill domains identified by the National Policy Board of Educational Administration (NPBEA). Important findings indicate differences…

In textbooks, foreign (second) language reading proficiency is often evaluated through comprehension questions. In case, authentic texts are used as reading material, such questions should be prepared by teachers. However, preparing appropriate questions may be a very demanding task for teachers. This paper introduces a method for automatically…

The present study compared item and ability invariance as well as model-data fit between the one-parameter (1PL) and three-parameter (3PL) Item Response Theory (IRT) models utilizing real data across five grades; second through sixth as well as simulated data at second, fourth and sixth grade. At each grade, the 1PL and 3PL IRT models were run…