Determining what students know and understand, as well as what misconceptions they have, is essential to planning and providing targeted intervention and support. In this article, a teacher uses formative assessment interviews to uncover evidence of students' understandings and to plan targeted instruction in a mathematics intervention class. The…

We describe here lessons learned in designing an early algebra curriculum to measure early algebra's impact on children's algebra readiness for middle grades. The curriculum was developed to supplement regular mathematics instruction in Grades K-5. Lessons learned centered around the importance of several key factors, including using conceptual…

How should colleges determine whether students are placed into developmental or college-level courses? Each year, colleges place millions of students into developmental math and English courses upon enrollment. To do so, colleges most often use a high-stakes placement test, which numerous research studies have shown to be highly inaccurate in…

This action research study presents the findings of using a formative assessment strategy in an online mathematic course during the world-wide outbreak of COVID-19 at the University of Passau, Germany. The main goals of this study were: (1) to enhance students' self-regulated learning by shifting the direction of assessment from instructors to the…

Qualifications provide evidence of students' achievements against subject content in a specification, giving students the confidence that the skills, knowledge and understanding that they will have acquired during the course of their study provides a strong foundation for further academic and vocational study, and for employment. United Kingdom…

This paper describes a system for research on the behaviour of students taking online drills. The system is accessible and free to use for anyone with web access. Based on open source software, the teaching material is licensed under a Creative Commons License. The system has been used for computer-assisted education in statistics, mathematics and…

Portfolios have been regarded as a means of personal self-expression. This study reports on student real-life experiences with portfolio assessment. The focus group comprised 150 freshmen (100 females) from a small campus of a tertiary educational institution. For two semesters (approximately 30 weeks), students engaged in numerous activities…

This study examined the effects of professional development on teachers' assessment literacy between two groups of teachers: (1) teachers who were involved in ongoing and sustained professional development in designing authentic classroom assessment and rubrics; and (2) teachers who were given only short-term, one-shot professional development…

Teacher education based on "reflective practice" consists of observing, analysing and reflecting on teacher performance in order to improve professional practice. This article presents the results of an evaluation of a programme on mathematics teaching carried out using reflective practice. It was targeted at 284 teachers in various…

The body of research on the design, implementation, and effects of performance-based compensation systems has influenced the design and evaluation of the 2010 Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grants. In the sections presented here, the authors describe the key components of 2010 TIF grants and the conceptual framework for the evaluation. The remainder…

Response to intervention (RTI) has been discussed as a new model of assessment. Although the basic process by which RTI works has received frequent attention in the literature, the available research leaves several important questions unanswered (Kavale et al. in Learn Disabil Q 28(1): 2-16, 2005). One concept within RTI that has received little…

The purpose of this study was to explore a cognitive approach to analyzing students' written responses to mathematics performance assessments to inform learning, instruction, and assessment design and development. The existing data used in this study were seventh grade students' written responses to, and item scores on, four released mathematics…

There is a lack of implementation of instructional strategies to assist middle school teachers in improving mathematics education for their students. Coaching is one solution to this problem, but its impact on student achievement is unclear. This case study evaluated the relationship between coaching and teacher efficacy and the impact of these…

A primary purpose of early childhood education and interventions is to promote children's acquisition of knowledge and skills linked to later social competence and academic success. In this report, special attention is given to summarizing what has been learned about early childhood classrooms as contexts for development and learning, the kinds of…

The use of educational technology in K-12 classrooms has been gaining tremendous momentum across the country since the 1990s. Many school districts have been investing heavily in various types of technology, such as computers, mobile devices, internet access, and interactive whiteboards. Almost all public schools have access to the internet and…