This qualitative research study adopted an ethnographic approach with a realistic design to conduct this inquiry. This method was used because the inquiry focused on the documentation and interpretation of students' beliefs and experiences with the SBA within a school culture. The inquiry also entailed exploring whether their self-efficacy was in…

In early childhood classrooms, there is a lack of consistency in training and support in the implementation of ePortfolios, which may lead to frustration, lack of implementation, and improper use of portfolios as an assessment tool. There is a significant amount of research about teachers using ePortfolios from Grade 3 through higher education,…

Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) is a term for various methods by which universities accredit student experiential learning. One such method is the academic portfolio, a written reflective process in which students demonstrate that their personal or professional learning fulfills university outcomes. Proponents of academic portfolios claim that…

This practitioner inquiry dissertation is situated within the context of U.S. education policy that persists in defining literacy as print-based and privileges standardized literacy assessments as the singular measure of what students "know". Decades of literacy research have shown that such orientations to education policy and resulting…

This study researched the effective practices that should be utilized when evaluating faculty. In addition to how faculty are evaluated, the study looked at how faculty evaluations are connected to faculty development for improvement opportunities. This study focused on the 15 Iowa community colleges. Each community college was asked to provide…

Many states are in the process of adopting rigorous, standards-based teacher evaluation systems in order to address and increase teacher accountability for student achievement. In the newly adopted Educator Effectiveness evaluation system, Pennsylvania classroom teachers were evaluated through one of two evaluation protocols, both aligned to…

Information technology (IT) investment decision makers are required to process large volumes of complex data. An existing body of knowledge relevant to IT portfolio management (PfM), decision analysis, visual comprehension of large volumes of information, and IT investment decision making suggest Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) and…

The objective of my dissertation is to create a general approach to evaluating IS/IT projects using Real Option Analysis (ROA). This is an important problem because an IT Project Portfolio (ITPP) can represent hundreds of projects, millions of dollars of investment and hundreds of thousands of employee hours. Therefore, any advance in the…

Historically, students have been viewed as empty vessels and passive participants in the learning process but students actually are active forming their own conceptions. One way student learning is impacted is through assessment. Alternative assessment, which contrasts traditional assessment methods, takes into account how students learn by…

This single case study examined how one inner city high school math teacher used e-portfolio assessment in an inclusive classroom setting. Specifically, it describes the teacher's perceptions and use of e-portfolio assessment, and its relationships to curricular content, as well as how the relationships among e-portfolio assessment,…

Higher education institutions concerned with authenticity and accountability have begun to take part in a movement towards implementing e-portfolios, also known as electronic and digital portfolios, to assess student-writing skills in various courses. As a result, writing instructors are increasingly being required to learn the technology of…

Administrators at post-secondary institutions have found that national or regional accreditation is necessary to remain competitive in the higher education market with evidence of assessment considered a positive measure for accreditation. This quantitative study examined the correlation between the ranked levels of knowledge management within…

In 1999, the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) began the Outcome Project which re-focused program accreditation decisions. Six competency areas detailed new standards, calling for programs to measure and provide evidence of learner's acquisition of the knowledge and skills for independent practice in a specific specialty.…

Elementary general music teachers typically teach hundreds of students every week. Each child has individual learning needs due to a variety of factors, such as prior experiences with music, music aptitude, learning style, and personality. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore ways that experienced teachers used assessments to…