Over the past 14 years, AEA's Oral History Project Team (Robin Lin Miller, Jean A. King, Valerie Caracelli, and Melvin M. Mark) has conducted interviews with individuals who have made signal contributions to evaluation theory and practice, tracing their professional development and contextualizing their work within the social and political…

In teacher education programmes, text-based portfolios are generally used to assess student-teachers' competence as new teachers. However, striking discrepancies are known to exist between the competencies reflected in a written portfolio and the competencies observed in actual classroom practice. Multiple assessments should be used to provide a…

If narrow, test-based evaluation of teachers is unfair, unreliable, and has negative effects on kids, classrooms, and curricula, what's a better approach? By demonizing teachers and unions, and sharply polarizing the education debate, the corporate reform movement has actually undermined serious efforts to improve teacher quality and evaluation.…

Reliability captures the influence of error on a measurement and, in the classical setting, is defined as one minus the ratio of the error variance to the total variance. Laenen, Alonso, and Molenberghs ("Psychometrika" 73:443-448, 2007) proposed an axiomatic definition of reliability and introduced the R[subscript T] coefficient, a measure of…

The task of evaluating learner activities with new technologies is becoming increasingly complex because traditional evaluation strategies do not adequately consider the unique and often dynamic characteristics of learners and activities carried out. Learner activities are largely driven by motives and relationships that exist in the context in…

During the last few decades, a number of quality improvement methodologies have been used by organizations. This article provides a brief review of the quality improvement literature related to academia and a case study using Six Sigma methodology to analyze students' performance in a standardized examination. We found Six Sigma to be an effective…

Despite its importance as a central goal in environmental education, there appears to be little consensus about how best to document, assess and evaluate understanding of environmental concepts. This illustrative case study describes and demonstrates the use of the concept mapping strategy as an effective tool for assessing environmental…

As prekindergarten becomes a more common feature in elementary school, little is known about how early childhood stakeholders are incorporating their child-centered practices into the standards-based accountability reforms that define elementary school. This article addresses this issue by presenting a case study that examined the implementation…

There is a critical need for research into the use of digital technologies to support the assessment of performance on complex tasks in schools. This paper reports on a component of a pilot study aimed at investigating the use of digital forms of performance assessment, manageable within schools, with high levels of reliability and capable of…

Quality and feasibility factors affect decision making in choice of assessment methods. Quality factors include the psychometric concepts of reliability, validity, and fairness. Feasibility factors include cost, time, complexity, and acceptability. Tradeoffs are illustrated in two case studies that examine single versus multiple purposes, high…

We present a "practitioner's guide" to social skills assessment and intervention with students attending public schools. Important characteristics of assessment instruments are discussed, including psychometric properties and strategies applicable to school settings. We then review several social skills assessment protocols and rating scales that…

This article promotes integrating assessment and evidence-based practice in the treatment of traumatized children through a review of two newly developed trauma assessment tools: (1) the Child Welfare Trauma Referral Tool (CWT), and (2) Assessment-Based Treatment for Traumatized Children: A Trauma Assessment Pathway Model (TAP). These tools use…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) was reauthorized by the U.S. Congress in 2004, yet ongoing regulatory efforts are required to determine its operationalization and implementation. Of particular concern to school psychologists and others involved in the educational process are the guidelines for identification of…

Personality scores were used to construct three databases of global norms. The composition of the three databases varied according to percentage of cases by global region, occupational group, applicant status, and gender of the job candidate. Comparison of personality scores across the three norms databases revealed that the magnitude of the…

The inherent strengths of Black youth are sometimes overlooked by assessment and intervention following perspectives of the dominant culture. This article describes the unique ways in which strengths and difficulties are defined in Black culture. This research is informing more appropriate strategies for building on the strengths of this…