For the past decade, the accountability model associated with No Child Left Behind (NCLB) emphasized proficiency on end of year tests; with Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) the emphasis on proficiency within statewide testing programs, though now integrated with other measures of student learning, nevertheless remains a primary metric for…

Nationally, there are dozens of established indicators of school performance and thousands of possible combinations of those indicators to create an accountability framework. How do policy makers decide which variables are most important? This relates to measurement modeling -- that is, how to incorporate all pieces of the puzzle into a…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation spawned a plethora of standardized testing services for all the high stakes testing required by the law. We argue that one-size-fits all assessments disadvantage students who are English Language Learners, in the USA, as well as students with limited economic resources, special needs, and not reading on…

Using historical test data from the standardized testing program (LEAP, iLEAP) in the state of Louisiana, this sequential mixed methods study utilized hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) and a logistic regression method to test alternate measures of school performance (student achievement model, growth model, and transition to 9th grade) applied to…

Recently growth-based approaches to accountability have received considerable attention because they have the potential to reward schools and teachers for improving student performance over time by measuring the progress of students at all levels of the performance spectrum (including those who have not yet reached proficiency on state…

Recommendations for educational change are not focused just on curriculum. Recently a great deal of attention has been focused on reforming the evaluation and assessment of students' mathematical knowledge. Since standardized tests determine what topics will be taught in schools, it seems sensible to refine assessment prior to instituting major…

Discusses national standardized testing versus testing reform and provides an overview of the alternative assessment movement and its relationship to the school library media specialist. Highlights include criticisms of standardized testing; theoretical assumptions for alternative assessment; research and practice related to specific alternative…

This book provides information on the assessment of students with disabilities. It is divided into six major parts. Part 1, "Introduction to Assessment: Issues and Concerns," discusses the historical, philosophical, and legal foundations of assessment, introduces psychological assessments, and proposes an assessment model. Part 2, "Informal…