The American school system is funded, operated, and evaluated based on student academic achievement data that is generated by various assessment tools and grading practices. The most traditional grading practice, norm-referenced grading, assesses student academic achievement on a 100-point scale that is further broken into categorical levels (A-F)…

The objective structured practical examination (OSPE) is a reliable assessment of practical skills in anatomy teaching. It is often administered as low-stake assessments to track progress at multiple time points in anatomy curricula. Standard-setting OSPEs to derive a pass mark and to ensure assessment quality and rigor is a complex task. This…

Integrative learning is an important outcome for graduates of higher education. Therefore, it should be well-defined and assessed reliably. The American Association of Colleges & Universities has developed a rubric to define and assess integrative learning, but it has low reliability. This pilot study examines whether this rubric's reliability…

Group projects are an established but debated pedagogical technique in higher education. The purpose of this study was to assess the appropriateness of combining individual and group marks in assessment. A mixed method design involving correlational and comparative elements was used. The sample included one cohort of students who completed a group…

Assessing a high school's effectiveness is not straightforward. Comparing a school's standardized test scores to those of other schools is one approach to measuring effectiveness, but a major objection to this method is that students' test scores tend to be related to students' "socioeconomic" status--family household income, for…

The current study will examine possible contextual effects relative to differences in reading comprehension performance in the state of Florida. While the Reading First (RF) Impact study examined such difference using a regression discontinuity design, the authors are primarily interested in other analytic methods that might answer different…

The article discusses issues relating to the international use of personality inventories, especially those in which organizations make comparisons between people from differing cultures or countries or those with different languages. The focus is on the issue of norming and the use of national versus multinational norms. It is noted that…

The case for criterion-referenced measurement is discussed versus the conventional norm-referenced grading methods. (Author/BP)

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…

A review of evaluation forms designed to measure the effectiveness of teacher inservice workshops reveals the absence of a standardized, norm-referenced measurement instrument. The State of Texas Education Service Center (Region 20) has developed an instrument to meet the necessary research criteria. Applicability, ease of administration, and…

Because of misconceptions regarding appropriate measurement strategies, it is necessary to draw distinctions between two major measurement methodologies, norm-referenced and criterion-referenced measurement, as they relate to determining basic academic capabilities. Norm-referenced measures are used to ascertain an individual's performance in…

With the growth of globalization, organizations are facing an increased challenge to manage talent, improve employee engagement, develop effective teams, create succession pipelines, and increase organizational effectiveness in multinational settings. Given the need to evaluate and compare individuals from more than one country using standardized…

A major challenge that decisions makers face in multi-national organizations is how to compare managers from different parts of the globe. This challenge is both psychometric and practical. We draw on the cross-cultural psychology literature to propose a three-step framework to compare personality data from different countries. The first step…

In the 1992-93 school year, in response to a request from the Board of Trustees of the Austin Independent School District (Texas) (AISD), the district's Office of Research and Evaluation conducted a retrospective examination of the 1991-92 AISD programs to determine cost-effectiveness when possible. This report describes the review process.…

This report quantitatively shows the progress of students in the area of general education development at College of DuPage (Illinois). The aims of general education are to promote students' understanding and appreciation of their culture and environment; to develop a system of personal values based on accepted ethics that lead to civic and social…