This self-paced online course provides educators with detailed information on creating and using performance assessments. Through five 30-minute modules, practitioners, instructional leaders, and administrators will learn the foundational concepts of assessment literacy and how to develop, score, and use performance assessments. They will also…

Inquiry-oriented teaching is a specific form of active learning gaining popularity in teaching communities. The goal of inquiry-oriented classes is to help students in gaining a conceptual understanding of the material. My research focus is to gauge students' performance and conceptual understanding in inquiry-oriented linear algebra classes. This…

There is a growing interest in conceptualizing, defining, and assessing what are often called 21st century skills or deeper learning competencies. The purpose of this literature review is to explore the conceptualizations, definitions, and understandings in the research literature related to critical thinking. Key initial questions include: What…

This report discusses frameworks and assessment development approaches to consider fairness, opportunity to learn, and consequences of test use in the design and use of assessments administered to diverse populations. Examples include the integrated design and appraisal framework and the sociocognitively based evidence-centered design approach.…

Great teachers recognize great assessments. As policy and education leaders work to make sure state tests are measuring the problem-solving, writing, and critical-thinking skills students need for success, they should convene and rely on teachers to review test quality and help answer the question: Do the questions on our state test reflect…

The Maine Legislature requested the Maine Education Policy Research Institute (MEPRI) to conduct an assessment of standardized testing in Maine schools to understand the amount, cost, and usefulness of it. This report summarizes the resulting effort, which included a literature scan, document analysis, and surveys of two groups of school…

The use of validated conceptual assessments alongside conventional course exams to measure student learning in introductory courses has become standard practice in many physics departments. These assessments provide a more standard measure of certain learning goals, allowing for comparisons of student learning across instructors, semesters,…

States increasingly are incorporating Kindergarten Entry Assessments (KEAs) into their comprehensive assessment systems with the goal of helping educators identify gaps in children's competencies, target instruction to children's individual needs, engage parents to better support their child's learning, and identify needs for expanding and…

States increasingly are incorporating Kindergarten Entry Assessments (KEAs) into their comprehensive assessment systems with the goal of helping educators identify gaps in children's competencies, target instruction to children's individual needs, engage parents to better support their child's learning, and identify needs for expanding and…

These guidelines describe considerations relevant to the assessment of test takers in or across countries or regions that are linguistically or culturally diverse. The guidelines were developed by a committee of experts to help inform test developers, psychometricians, test users, and test administrators about fairness issues in support of the…

Developed jointly by the American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education, "Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing" (Revised 2014) addresses professional and technical issues of test development and use in education, psychology, and…

The article "Thinking About Linking" by Newton (2010) presents a novel philosophical perspective on the way that educational assessments should be linked. Newton starts by describing the linking framework as it was characterized in various publications and identifies a cross-cultural dimension in the definitions and uses of test…

Assessments labeled as formative have been offered as a means to improve student achievement. But labels can be a powerful way to miscommunicate. For an assessment use to be appropriately labeled "formative," both empirical evidence and reasoned arguments must be offered to support the claim that improvements in student achievement can be linked…

This report describes the purposes of benchmark assessments and provides recommendations for selecting and using benchmark assessments--addressing validity, alignment, reliability, fairness and bias and accessibility, instructional sensitivity, utility, and reporting issues. We also present recommendations on building capacity to support schools'…

This collection of essays by measurement specialists addresses a variety of important issues in educational and psychological testing. Although not all of the "rules" are new, many topics of contemporary interest are discussed, some in detail that exceeds what the psychologist and educator really need to know. (SLD)