We introduce a novel type of assessment that allows for efficient grading of higher order thinking skills. In this assessment, a student reviews and corrects a technical memo that has errors in its formulation or process. To overcome the grading challenges imposed by essay-type responses in large undergraduate courses, we provide a Visual Basic…

This booklet is a conceptual introduction to item response theory (IRT), which many large-scale testing programs use for constructing and scoring their tests. Although IRT is essentially mathematical, the approach here is nonmathematical, in order to serve as an introduction on the topic for people who want to understand why IRT is used and what…

Small institutions are in a unique and perhaps necessary position to innovate as the field changes, resources falter, and the needs of the next generation of students and families become apparent and quite different from those supported by our historical structures and service modalities. This article examines the literature surrounding historical…

Education is crucial for the cultivation of successful individuals, healthy communities, robust societies, strong economies, and a healing planet. Yet, while most available education measures show impressive improvement in access in low- and middle-income countries over recent decades, there remains a heartbreaking gap in educational outcomes…

The "Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education" posits that the practice of asking questions in order to deepen inquiry and understanding is a key element of information literacy. While the "Research as Inquiry" frame is teachable in library instruction, it can be difficult to scale. Popular instructional design…

In 2015, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) announced the AACC Pathways Project, a national initiative designed to support a cohort of community colleges to implement and scale whole-college guided pathways reforms. Thirty community colleges from 17 states were selected for the project and embraced the challenge of redesigning…

This "AERA Open" special topic takes stock of the current knowledge about scaled-up early childhood education (ECE) programs. Rapidly rising ECE participation rates in recent decades have coincided with wide variability in the types of programming available for young children. This expansion makes understanding heterogeneity in effects…

In 2018 the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at Brookings launched a series of Real-time Scaling Labs (RTSL) to generate more evidence and provide practical recommendations on how to expand, deepen, and sustain the impact of education initiatives leading to transformative change in education systems, especially for the most disadvantaged…

The idea of learning analytics has become popularized within higher education, yet many educators are uncertain about what is entailed when implementing these technologies into practice. The following article serves as an overview to the field of learning analytics for faculty, educators for whom the expectations to use these technologies…

Across the globe, neoliberal reforms have produced effects in the higher education sector that are multiple, convergent and embodied or performed. In this context, a growing number of activist-scholars, from a range of disciplines, have explored the role of critical pedagogy within the space of the classroom. Yet, persistent critiques and…

Quantitative text analysis tools have become increasingly popular methods for the operationalization of various types of discourse analysis. However, their application usually remains fairly simple and superficial, and fails to exploit the resources which the digital era holds for discourse analysis to their full extent. This paper discusses the…

This article describes the development and validation of an Innovation Attitude Survey (IAS) composed of 16 Likert-type items selected to measure middle school students' attitudes toward innovation and leadership in the advancement of new ideas. The goal of developing the IAS was to identify desirable dispositions that may be related to future…

Traditional efforts to increase teacher quality through professional development (PD) have been largely ineffective. A growing body of research on teacher coaching provides strong evidence of its effectiveness as a PD tool, although it also raises difficult questions about whether and how to implement coaching programs at scale. Key considerations…

In an examination of the conditions required for the successful implementation of performance assessment, the authors draw on a range of personal experience and other insights to guide practitioners and policymakers. Building on the authentic assessment work of the Boston Pilot Schools (CCE 2004), in 2008 the Center for Collaborative Education…

Policies aimed at both reducing the costs associated with schooling (particularly through fee-free education) and decentralising responsibility for education delivery have become a central part of international education doctrine. This article draws on the 'politics of scale' literature to highlight how these education reforms are contested at…