This dissertation contributes to the discussion of what contributes to school district rankings in the state of Ohio. It uses Latent Profile Analysis to explore different variables at the contextual and district level as they correspond to Ohio's Performance Index academic measure and Value-Added academic measure. Results show that contextual…

This paper explores how the charter school sector evaluates the success of specialized education programs in order that the Nature School can learn from these best practices and develop its own framework. The researcher conducted in-depth interviews with five evaluation experts and eight diverse charter school authorizers overseeing a significant…

Local education agencies (LEAs) continue to use value-added models (VAMs) for teacher evaluation policies and purposes, often with consequences attached. Although the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides more flexibility to LEAs, few have discontinued VAM use, suggesting they interpret VAMs as a valid measure of teacher effectiveness. In…

The integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools into education has been a game-changer for teaching and assessment practices, bringing new opportunities, but also novel challenges which need to be dealt with. This paper presents the Comprehensive AI Assessment Framework (CAIAF), an evolved version of the AI Assessment Scale…

School value-added models are widely applied to study, monitor, and hold schools to account for school differences in student learning. The traditional model is a mixed-effects linear regression of student current achievement on student prior achievement, background characteristics, and a school random intercept effect. The latter is referred to…

This article explores the development and evaluation of the Building Leadership Team Assessment Tool (BLT-AT), designed to measure Professional Learning Communities' (PLCs') use of effective school improvement practices. The BLT-AT is grounded in Ohio's inclusive instructional leadership model, which emphasizes the improvement of teaching and…

The aim of this study was to identify the components of fair classroom assessment and formulate a conceptual framework for it by following the steps proposed by Okoli and Schabram for a systematic review. For this purpose, three databases including ERIC, Elsevier, and Springer were systematically searched. As a result of this research, 39…

In 2016, the federal government proposed and adopted the Every Student Succeeds Act, which retracted the federal government's prior control over states' teacher evaluation systems, permitting more local control. Kevin Close, Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, and Clarin Collins collected information from states to determine the degree to which states were…

This study explores the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in K-12 student assessment practices, focusing on educators' use of AI tools. Through content analysis of active Facebook groups dedicated to AI in education, the authors examined how educators integrate AI into assessment across various grade levels and subjects. Using the Technology…

Evaluation practices are continuing to evolve, particularly in those areas related to formative, participatory, and improvement approaches. Improvement science is one of the evaluative practices. Its strength is that it seeks to embrace stakeholders' and frontline workers' knowledge and experience, who are often tasked with leading improvement…

School climate is critical to school effectiveness, but there is limited large-scale data available to examine the magnitude and nature of the relationship between school climate and school improvement. Drawing on statewide administrative data linked with unique teacher survey data in Michigan, we examine whether school climate appeared to play a…

This quantitative correlational study dives into the heart of understanding the significance of model fidelity for implementing school threat assessment teams. The target population was instructional staff and threat assessment team members from schools in Dutchess, Putnam, and Westchester Counties in New York State that use the Comprehensive…

We study a California policy that loosened constraints on some local governments by lowering the share of votes required to pass school capital improvement bond referendums. We show that the policy change yielded larger tax proposals that received less support from voters, yet led to a doubling of approved spending. We show that this effect is…

State summative assessments play an important role in measuring student learning and guiding educational improvement efforts, despite their limitations. But there is growing momentum in individual states and nationally to rethink these assessments with an eye toward reducing time spent on testing and increasing the tests' instructional relevance.…

This Research Brief describes a model developed as an alternative method for making ESOL exit decisions in 2019-2020. Given the cancellation of the 2019-2020 Statewide student assessment, FSA ELA results which are used as one of the two major components for making ESOL exit decisions will not be available, and an alternative method is needed. This…