This resource is part of a series of reports about challenges facing statewide science assessments and innovative solutions states are enacting to meet those challenges. Deciding to implement a system of assessments is a critical step toward ensuring that all students are getting the high-quality science education they need--but it is also…

Schools, districts, and state-level educational organizations are experiencing a great shift in the way they do the business of education. This shift focuses on accountability, specifically through the expectation of the effective utilization of evaluative-focused efforts to guide and support decisions about educational program implementation. In…

Evaluation of professional development (PD) has traditionally been composed of summative and formative feedback, and has focused on assessing the extent to which the PD impacts participating teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and practices. This study establishes an additional purpose for PD evaluation--as "educative opportunities" for…

"Transforming Science Assessment: Systems for Innovation," is a series of resources designed to provide state education leaders with: (1) Information about how states are currently pursuing statewide assessment systems in science; (2) Analyses of what features influence different approaches, with an eye to supporting state leaders as…

Feedback is widely acknowledged as the crux of a learning process. Multiplicities of research studies have been advanced to address the common "cri de coeur" of teachers and students for a constructive and effective feedback mechanism in the current higher educational settings. Nevertheless, existing pedagogical approaches in feedback…

The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards calls upon social studies teachers to enhance the rigor of civics, economics, geography, history and the other social studies disciplines while building the critical thinking, problem solving, and participatory skills of students to help them become actively…

As teachers in Georgia utilize formative assessments to ensure successful performance on the state mandated Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT), it is essential that the data they receive from these assessments are accurate. This study examined the correlation between the computer-assisted instructional program, Classworks, and student…

SEAs, LEAs, and schools need to develop a "Unified and Comprehensive System of Learning Supports" in order to enhance equity of opportunity for all students to succeed at school and beyond. Such a system directly addresses barriers to learning and teaching and re-engages disconnected students. Developing the system requires transforming…

Purpose: New teacher evaluation systems have expanded the role of principals as instructional leaders, but little is known about principals' ability to promote teacher development through the evaluation process. We conducted a case study of principals' perspectives on evaluation and their experiences implementing observation and feedback cycles to…

We examine edTPA (a teacher performance assessment) implementation at one private university during the first year that our state required this exam for initial teaching certification. Using data from semi-structured interviews with 19 teacher educators from 12 programs as well as public information on edTPA pass rates, we explore whether the…

In order to meet the South Dakota Board of Regents requirements for an upper level writing course with global perspective for all graduates, the administration at the University of South Dakota established an interdisciplinary course to be taken by all majors. Two faculty members from different disciplines were assigned to teach each section with…

The purpose of this quantitative research study was to evaluate to what degree Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education influenced mathematics and science achievement of seventh grade students in one Middle Tennessee school district. This research used an independent samples t test at the a = 0.05 level to evaluate…

With increasing demands on student achievement as set forth by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (2001), teachers are the catalyst for improving their students' performance (Marzano, 2000). Existing studies on the use of formative assessment as a process by which teachers elicit information of their students' progress and use that information to…

Education is a major catalyst in the development of the country. School Based Assessment (SBA) is a new transformation in Malaysian education that required subject teachers to conduct formative assessment during teaching and learning process according to the procedures by Malaysian Examination Syndicate (MES). Thus, teachers play an important role…

Since the implementation of the ePortfolio Program in 2006, Clemson University has incorporated peer review for the formative feedback process. One of the challenges with this large-scale implementation has been ensuring that all work is reviewed and constructive feedback is provided in a timely manner. In this article, I discuss the strategies…