Background: This paper develops a new method to estimate quasi-experimental evaluation models when it is necessary to control for measurement error in predictors and individual assignment to the treatment group is based on these same fallible variables. A major methodological finding of the study is that standard methods of estimating models that…

Monitoring applications (MAs) use digital and online tools to collect and track data on student behavior, and they have become increasingly popular among schools. Empirical research on these complex surveillance platforms is scant, and little is known about the efficacy or impact that they have on students. This study used a multi-method…

This document is written primarily for policy makers and state department of education staff who are considering through-year assessments, as well as consultants and contractors state departments rely on. The document identifies essential things to consider when designing or evaluating a through-year assessment program. The paper is organized into…

The move toward assessments that measure student growth, rather than just proficiency, has been perceived as an improvement in state accountability systems. However, Michael Watson explains that, for many students, these measures present an incomplete picture. Because they are based on grade-level assessments, any growth achieved by students who…

Standards 3 and 5 for the SHAPE America National Standards for K-12 Physical Education address the importance of maintaining a health-enhancing level of physical activity and valuing physical activity. A number of helpful tools, including Godin-Shephard Leisure-Time Physical Activity Questionnaire and The Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES)…

The Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching initiative, which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was a multiyear effort to improve student outcomes--particularly high school graduation and college attendance among low-income minority students--by increasing student access to effective teaching. The RAND Corporation worked…

Assessment is primarily a matter of judgement rather than measurement, yet for too long the nation has been pretending that pupils' attainment and measurement can be measured in increasingly fine detail (one APS "point" being one sixth of an original National Curriculum level). The lack of validity and reliability of this approach…

In 2002, the Monroe County, Georgia, school system was, according to its then-superintendent Scott Cowart, "underperforming." Test scores were low, and several schools faced interventions under the new No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). One decade later, the 4,000-student school district in central Georgia is one of the highest-performing…

Accessibility is a hot topic in online education these days. Despite the increased focus on accessibility, most discussions of creating "accessible" online courses and elearning simply focus on adding alternative text to images and captions to video. In this article, we argue that online educators and workplace learning professionals…

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) is one of the world's leading educational research centres. ACER's mission is to create and promote research-based knowledge, products and services that can be used to improve learning across the life span. This annual report describes ACER's milestones and accomplishments for the 2014-2015…

Competency education is student-centric, personalizing student progress so that every child has adequate time and support to reach proficiency every step of the way. Competency education fundamentally changes the way the educational enterprise is organized around student needs, and thus must have a dynamic IT system to support it. Following an…

Alternatives to vertical scales are compared for measuring longitudinal academic growth and for producing school-level growth measures. The alternatives examined were empirical cross-grade regression, ordinary least squares and logistic regression, and multilevel models. The student data used for the comparisons were Arabic Grades 4 to 10 in…