Even as the Internet and i-devices have changed so many parts of people's lives, educational testing has not changed substantially in decades. Though researchers and educators have for years raised ample concerns about existing tests, assessments have barely evolved. Further, despite years of expanded testing and greater school accountability,…

This mixed-methods case study focuses on the third through fifth grade classrooms at a public elementary school in a Midwestern urban school district where the Northwest Evaluation Association's (NWEA) Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment is being implemented. According to the school district, the goals of these tests are: to show…

The Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project (MDTP) offers course-specific assessments that provide teachers with timely feedback on their students' strengths and weaknesses in mathematics, often returning feedback to teachers on individual students and the entire class within a week of testing. In this way, teachers can quickly act on what they…

The state's Race to the Top (RTT) application requires changes to the state's evaluation/accountability system. It requires a teacher effectiveness measure, district effectiveness measure, leader effectiveness measure. Regarding the teacher effectiveness measure, RTT requires linking the data of individual students to individual teachers as part…

The purpose of this study was to describe my experiences as a campus principal in facilitating the use of participatory formative assessment (PFA) in an environment of accountability and high-stakes testing. The methodology I employed was autoethnography (Chang, 2008; Ellis, 2004; Reed-Danahay, 1997; Stinson, 2009). I kept journals over a period…

We use a regression discontinuity strategy to produce causal estimates for the effect of remediation under Florida's test-based promotion policy on multiple outcomes for up to five years after the intervention. Students subjected to the policy were retained in the third grade, were required to be assigned to a high-quality teacher during the…

Prior to the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the public was expressing discontent about the declining of students' test scores and the quality of public schooling. The federal government eventually began discussing and debating for education reform and the No Child Left Behind of 2001 was finally passed and signed by President…

Since the late 1980s, state court judges in over twenty states, deriving their authority from the education clauses of their respective state constitutions, have struck down school finance systems as not "adequate." Pointing to evidence of unacceptable student achievement outcomes, especially among poor and disadvantaged students,…

The developmental education process, as it is typically implemented in colleges across the country, seems straightforward: underprepared students are assessed and placed into an appropriate developmental course sequence designed to prepare them for college-level work; once finished with the sequence, these students presumably then move on to…

The purpose of this mixed-methods explanatory case study was to determine the impact of a reduced school calendar on student achievement for students in grades 9 through 12 in two rural school districts in Virginia and to explore meanings associated with this change. The study focused on two research questions: how does student performance during…

In the summer of 2011, the Tennessee Department of Education contracted with the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) to provide a four-day training for all evaluators across the state. NIET trained more than 5,000 evaluators intensively in the state model (districts using alternative instruments delivered their own training).…

K12 Inc. enrolls more public school students than any other private education management organization in the U.S. Much has been written about K12 Inc. (referred to in this report simply as "K12") by financial analysts and investigative journalists because it is a large, publicly traded company and is the dominant player in the operation…

The Early Assessment Program (EAP) has emerged as a national model for states seeking to design policies that increase the number of students who leave high school ready for college and careers. In addition, the two national consortia designing new assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards have recognized the EAP as a model for the…

This article examines major trends in testing and accountability reform in the United States over the past decade. The review covers the apex and decline of the national experimentation with a range of alternative assessments and the rise of test-based accountability as a central policy initiative. These trends signify that testing has become a…

Background: Validity is a central concern in any assessment, though this has often not been made explicit in the UK assessment context. This article applies current validity theorising, largely derived from American formulations, to national curriculum assessments in England. Purpose: The aim is to consider validity arguments in relation to the…