Dynamic measurement modeling (DMM) has been shown to improve the consequential validity of longitudinal mathematics assessment in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K) database. Here, the authors demonstrate the capability of DMM to similarly improve the consequential validity of ECLS-K reading assessment through the…

Forty-two states and the District of Columbia have recently received waivers to the school accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). As the prospects for reauthorizing the Act in the near term are dim, these new accountability systems will be law for at least several years. Drawing on a four-part framework from the…

Lissitz and Samuelsen (2007) have proposed a framework that seemingly deems construct validity evidence irrelevant to supporting educational test meaning. The author of this article agrees with Lissitz and Samuelsen that internal evidence establishes test meaning, but she argues that construct validity need not be removed from the validity sphere.…

In response to Lissitz and Samuelsen (2007), the author reconstructs the historical arguments for the more comprehensive unitary concept of validity and the principles of scientific inquiry underlying it. Her response is organized in terms of four questions: (a) How did validity in educational measurement come to be conceptualized as unitary, and…

The authors argue that the criticisms of their earlier article on teacher logs ("Educational Researcher," March 2009) by Smagorinsky and Willis do not address, much less undermine, the evidence they presented as part of their validation argument about the teacher logs. Moreover, they argue that their method for studying classrooms is not nearly as…

The use of eligibility for a free lunch as a measure of a student's socioeconomic status continues to be a fixture of quantitative education research. Despite its popularity, it is unclear that education researchers are familiar with what student eligibility for a free lunch does (and does not) represent. The authors examine the National School…

Value-added models help to evaluate the knowledge that school districts, schools, and teachers add to student learning as students progress through school. In this article, the well-known Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS) is examined. The author presents a practical investigation of the methodological issues associated with the…

Although important progress has been made in educational evaluation during the past decade new problems believed to be more serious threaten the progress that has been made. These problems are said to be a mixture of logistics and politics and are in large part an outgrowth of the increasing pluralism of American society. (Author/AM)

Random samples of 50 articles each from the education and health-sciences literature are used to compare uses of quantitative evidence. Study designs and approaches in these fields are similar; thus no support is provided for the idea that educational research is less rigorous than that of the health sciences. (SLD)

Questions the claims by advocates of educational assessment reform, highlighting the work of Wiggins, who introduced authentic assessment. Discusses the origins of authentic tests, authenticity and validity, and assessment and educational philosophy, concluding that promotion of authentic assessment is flawed because "authentic" is misleading, and…

Describes the creation and objectives of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and reviews the findings of an evaluation of the NAEP, published in "Measuring the Quality of Education," by Wirtz and Lapointe. Focuses on the role that the NAEP can play in establishing uniform, national educational standards. (GC)

Authentic and direct assessment of performance and products are examined in light of contrasting functions and purposes with implications for validation, especially those of specialized validity criteria for performance assessment. The roles of positive and negative consequences of validation are underscored, along with the need for evidence of…

Presents the American Educational Research Association's position on high-stakes educational testing, which stresses conditions essential to sound implementation of such testing, including: protection against high-stakes decisions based on single tests; adequate resources and opportunity to learn; validation for each intended use; alignment…

Dismissing research that is not theory driven, hypothesis testing, or generalization producing does injustice to the variety of contributions that qualitative research can make. Studies conducted through qualitative approaches are reviewed to summarize the desirable outcomes that can result. No research model has a monopoly on quality. (SLD)

The assumption that reliability is a necessary but insufficient condition for validity in assessment is challenged by exploring a dialectic between psychometric and hermeneutic approaches to drawing and warranting interpretations of human products of performance. Hermeneutic alternatives for epistemological and ethical purposes expand the range of…