In the research reported here, we propose a new method for scale alignment and test scoring in the context of supporting students with disabilities. In educational assessment, students from these special populations take modified tests because of a demonstrated disability that requires more assistance than standard testing accommodation. Updated…

Automated scoring of free drawings or images as responses has yet to be used in large-scale assessments of student achievement. In this study, we propose artificial neural networks to classify these types of graphical responses from a TIMSS 2019 item. We are comparing classification accuracy of convolutional and feed-forward approaches. Our…

The purpose of this paper is to provide a model for educational leadership faculty who aspire to walk the talk of effective feedback by embedding standards-based grading (SBG) in their courses. Rather than focusing on learning, points are the currency of K-12 classrooms across the country. Over 100 years of grading research suggests typical…

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has been a leader in the field of social and emotional learning (SEL) for over two decades. CASEL collaborates with thought leaders to equip educators, policymakers, and researchers with the knowledge and resources to make evidence-based SEL an integral part of equitable…

After passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, states assumed greater responsibility for designing their own accountability and assessment systems. ESSA requires states to measure "higher order thinking skills and understanding" and encourages the use of open-ended performance assessments, which are essential for…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) opened up new possibilities for how student and school success are defined and supported in American public education. States have greater responsibility for designing and building their assessment and accountability systems. These new opportunities to develop performance assessments are critically important…

Collaboration is increasingly identified as an important educational outcome, and most models of twenty-first-century skills include collaboration as a key skill (e.g., Griffin, McGaw, & Care, 2012; Pellegrino & Hilton, 2012; OECD PISA Collaborative Problem Solving Expert Working Group, 2013; Trilling & Fadel, 2009). Such widespread…

Ratings are present in many areas of assessment including peer review of research proposals and journal articles, teacher observations, university admissions and selection of new hires. One feature present in any rating process with multiple raters is that different raters often assign different scores to the same assessee, with the potential for…

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) and the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education are deeply committed to ensuring that every student in the state has access to a high-quality education, and they have combined this commitment with an openness to innovation. After just one year of School…

The goal of this research is to make sensitivity analysis accessible not only to empirical researchers but also to the various stakeholders for whom educational evaluations are conducted. To do this it derives anchors for the omitted variable (OV)-program participation association intrinsically, using the Love plot to present a wide range of…

Committed to being a charter school with a professional learning community that empowers teachers, New Mexico's South Valley Academy (SVA) staff transformed its state evaluation process into a practitioner action research process (Anderson, Herr, & Nihlen, 2007). While teachers self-diagnose growth needs and play active roles in improving…

Nationally, there are dozens of established indicators of school performance and thousands of possible combinations of those indicators to create an accountability framework. How do policy makers decide which variables are most important? This relates to measurement modeling -- that is, how to incorporate all pieces of the puzzle into a…

Over the past decade, educational policy trends have shifted to a focus on examining students' growth from kindergarten through twelfth grade (K-12). One way states can track students' growth is with a vertical scale. Presently, every state that uses a vertical scale bases the scale on a unidimensional IRT model. These models make a…

The 13th iteration of the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2020) was originally arranged to take place in Ifrane, Morocco. Due to the SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) epidemic, EDM 2020, as well as most other academic conferences in 2020, had to be changed to a purely online format. To facilitate efficient transmission of…

The renewed attention to assessments that attempt to capture complex aspects of educational attainments of students is explored. The definition and impetus for attention of the measurement community to higher order thinking skills are examined. Through a detailed description, a model assessment development process is presented. The process relies…