The Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT) is a tool for evaluating students' critical thinking skills in various educational institutions within and outside the United States. While institutions regard the CAT as a high-stakes assessment, students may perceive it as a low-stakes test due to its lack of personal or academic repercussions. This…

The study established the validity and reliability of a weighted individual performance-based assessment tool within the utility scope of middle school orchestral strings. The following research questions guided this study: 1. What specific string-playing behaviors and corresponding criteria validate a weighted individual performance-based…

This quantitative action research explored the impact of instructional coaching on students' performance on middle school reading assessments. Students' performance was measured in this study by examining students' percentiles scores on pre and post-tests on standardized reading assessments. The study included a treatment group that consisted of…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how preschool teachers describe their learning needs, understanding, and practice of social and emotional child assessments in the northeast United States. This research emerged from the problem space of recent literature--theory: Bandura's Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and…

The Performance Assessment and Evaluation System (PAES) is used by all major universities in the state of Utah to measure the effective teaching skills of preservice candidates as they progress through their teaching preparation program. The resulting ratings are used to make high-stakes decisions relating to course completion as well as…

Teachers in American schools have substantial autonomy in grading students in their courses. Music teachers have historically used a plethora of grading criteria that include non-academic and non-achievement data such as participation, attendance, and behavior. This study aims to show how music teachers in the state of Missouri are calculating…

Competency-based education that uses direct assessment in lieu of credit or clock hours as the measure of student learning is a relatively recent innovation in American higher education. Common features of these innovative programs include competency-based curriculum, authentic assessment, mastery learning, student self-pacing, federal financial…

The problem this research study investigated was the readiness of the selected district's administrators, instructional coaches, and teachers in implementing a standards-based grading (SBG) initiative. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine the district's elementary administration, instructional coaches, and teachers' perceptions…

Pilot training and certification have largely remained the same since the Practical Test Standards (PTS) were issued more than twenty years ago by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Within the last several years, the general aviation training sector has acquired the capability to collect and analyze digital data from certain training…

School systems across the United States increasingly use performance-based assessments (PBAs) as alternatives to traditional standardized tests, like the SAT, to make post-secondary and workforce readiness (PWR) determinations. However, very little research has been conducted to validate such alternative assessments as valid indicators of a…

Traditional, standardized instruction and assessment practices are insufficient to promote the development of skills such as critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication, which have been deemed necessary for post-secondary success (Darling-Hammond & Adamson, 2013; Milner, 2018; Rickles et al., 2019). They also serve to…

To address the problem presented in this research, the purpose of this embedded mixed methods case study was to explore accounting students' perceptions about the efficacy of using authentic assessment to determine how and to what extent experiential learning in the curriculum contributes to their preparation for certification and work in the…

The central purpose of this dissertation was to examine the difference in achievement levels between one- and two-way feedback between the student and teacher and the impact it has on achievement levels in a northeastern Texas school district. Effective feedback from the teacher had shown to improve student outcomes in mathematics on a regular…

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the impact of writing prompts and graphic organizers on Mona school's 7th and 8th grade students' mathematical academic achievement and their attitudes towards the authentic application of mathematics. Two research questions guided the study: (1) How and to what extent, do writing prompts and…

This action research study describes the effects of implementing performance-based assessments in a second grade mathematics classroom. The focus of this study is on reducing traditional testing methods and moving toward more authentic assessments within mathematics, specifically in the form of performance assessments. The study was grounded in a…