Social-emotional learning (SEL) has become an important trend in education; however, it is frequently overlooked at the high school level. Arguably, SEL is even more important at this level than other grade levels for the purposes of effective college and career readiness preparation. The inclusion of SEL into school accountability systems and…

This paper reports on findings from an ongoing research project exploring Chinese EFL teachers' conceptions of assessment and their classroom assessment practices, as well as to examine the relationship between these two. The sample for the study consisted of 107 EFL teachers from 18 secondary schools who completed a Chinese version of the…

Citizen-led assessments were developed in the mid-2000s to gather evidence on children's learning outcomes following the rapid increase in primary student enrolment in the developing world. Integral to their philosophy is social accountability and community engagement. While most large-scale assessments focus on test-based accountability to…

The overriding objective of this study was to investigate secondary and university teachers' assessment conceptions in an EFL context using a four-factor ("Student Accountability", "School Accountability", "Improvement" and "Irrelevance") teachers' conceptions of assessment (TCoA) inventory (Brown, 2006).…

The current interest in evaluating teachers and teacher education programs provides an opportunity to consider the education of diverse learners in K-12 schools in the United States. We address teaching English language learners (ELLs), a rapidly growing population. Challenges lie in holding content teachers of ELLs accountable as they are not…

English language learners (ELLs) face a challenging academic future in learning a new language while simultaneously mastering content in the language they may be struggling to learn. Assessment plays an extremely important role in the academic careers of ELL students, perhaps more so than for native speakers of English. Major changes and…

Drawing from a social constructionist perspective to written scholarly communication, this paper argues that training in academic writing for students in higher education especially in second language contexts should go beyond emphasis on grammatical correctness and paragraphing strategies, and also focus on the rhetorical character of academic…

Despite numerous quantitative studies on teachers' conceptions and practices of assessment, little research exists regarding the unique assessment environment of Indonesia. This study uses both quantitative and qualitative data to examine how Indonesian junior high school teachers understand assessment and how their conceptions of assessment…

Teachers are now experiencing the age of quantitative test-driven assessment, in which there is little weight accorded to teacher-based judgement about student progress. In the Australian context, the NAPLaN test has become a driving force in school and teacher accountability. The language of NAPLaN is one of bands and numerical scores and…

Schools struggle to accurately assess nonnative speakers of English using accountability systems that somehow do not capture the complexity of the issues at hand. This article discusses topics surrounding the assessment of English language learners and how these issues have been oversimplified by such processes as the No Child Left Behind…

This important book expands the notion of inclusion well beyond special education to include English language learners, students with refugee status, LGBTQ children, poor children, and other underrepresented populations. Employing real-world vignettes and up-to-date research findings, this hands-on resource provides strategies that school leaders…

The No Child Left Behind Act has made a great impact on states' policies in assessing English language learner (ELL) students. The legislation requires states to develop or adopt sound assessments to validly measure the ELL students' English language proficiency (ELP). Although states have moved rapidly to meet these requirements, they face…

The importance of student assessment, particularly for summative purposes, has increased greatly over the past thirty years. At the same time, emphasis on including all students in assessment programs has also increased. Assessment programs, whether they are large-scale, district-based, or teacher developed, have traditionally attempted to assess…

The federal government has had a long-standing commitment to ensuring access of English Learner (EL) students to a meaningful education. As early as 1968, the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" ("ESEA") contained provisions for supporting the education of EL students and in its 1974 landmark decision, "Lau v.…

This report summarizes the twelfth survey of states by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) at the University of Minnesota. Results are presented for all 50 states and 8 of the 11 unique states. The purpose of this report is to provide a snapshot of the new initiatives, trends, accomplishments, and emerging issues during this…