Research indicates that teacher voices are not well represented in educational policy and change. Education has changed dramatically in a short time, and it continues to change at a fast pace. Classrooms are increasingly diverse. External standards are placed on teachers. A chorus of stakeholder voices is levied at educators, and these voices…

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has been frequently discussed as a framework that guides the design of inclusive learning environments for all students with and without disabilities. This policy brief reports on findings of a content analysis of how UDL was referenced in three major U.S. federal education laws. Results indicate that UDL was…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) cemented a standardized testing assessment culture in the United States but research has highlighted the inequities (Au, 2020; Dixon, 1978; Grodsky et al., 2008; Khan, 2020; Moses & Nanna, 2007), unreliability (Hunt et al., 2010; Pizmony-Levy & Green Saraisky, 2016) and negative impacts (Berryhill et al., 2009;…

"Theories Bridging Ethnography and Evaluation" is the first of two volumes examining the connections between ethnography and evaluation in educational spaces. These volumes wrestle with pressing justice issues in today's societies while elucidating three themes--transformative, intersectional, and comparative--for guiding contemporary…

Fitness education is becoming an integrated component for many physical education programs. As such, many physical educators conduct health-related fitness tests on a regular basis. Some states even mandate certain types of physical fitness tests to be administered and reported annually or by semester. Yet, inappropriate practices have been…

Much scholarly and pedagogical attention has been devoted to positive and negative feedback in language and other classrooms. This article looks at feedback in teacher education classrooms. In particular, it examines the nature and effect of positive assessments in whole class interaction. Based on examples from a teacher education classroom, it…

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) offers a bottom-up, locally situated and contextualized approach to enhancing educational practice. It has been championed for several years, yet remains curiously undervalued within the academy, despite clear benefits for curricular development and staff engagement. This paper reflects upon the…

Current motivation theory and research face serious theoretical, methodological, and practical challenges. One central challenge is the fact that research has focused mainly on motivation for traditional achievement tasks such as graded assignments and normative educational trajectories. Arguably, current motivation theory and research may be…

Education professionals are morally compelled to ensure that all students feel accepted, safe, and are represented in their classes. Physical education is no different; however, specific practitioner-orientated strategies to embark in more socially just practices are scarce in physical education literature. This article provides the first part of…

This article reports from Stanford University's Innovative Assessments Institute on the development of performance assessment at scale, along with implementation recommendations. An accountability system built on the implementation of performance assessments has the potential to foster deeper and more authentic learning for students and more…

What is Goal Attainment Scaling? In this article, Lee Ann Jung defines it as a way to measure a student's progress toward an individualized goal. Instead of measuring a skill at a set time (for instance, on a test or other assignment), Goal Attainment Scaling tracks the steps a student takes over the course of a year in a targeted skill. Together,…

The maker education movement is growing in the United States. In order for this movement to gain widespread acceptance it is critical that students' learning goals and progress towards those goals are clearly visible to all stakeholders. Given that traditional assessment methods may not be best suited for measuring some of the higher order skills…

Stanley Park High School, Carshalton, was designated a Building Schools for the Future "One School Pathfinder" in 2006 and charged with being innovative in all aspects of schooling. At a time of increasing compliance in schools, with an unwillingness to deviate from centrally controlled orthodoxy for fear of falling foul of…

Student ratings are not leaving today or anytime soon. However, as the title of this article indicates, student ratings are not the only option to provide evidence in the evaluation of teaching. There is a broad range of alternatives to consider beyond student ratings in the delicate decision-making processes to improve teaching and determine the…

Knowing assessment practices of teachers and improving in this direction is important in increasing students' learning and demonstrating their performance. In this research, the aim was to identify the classroom assessment practices used by primary, secondary and high school teachers. Survey and observation form were used to collect the data for…