Assessments are a way for stakeholders in education to understand what students know and can do. They can take many forms, including but not limited to paper and pencil or computer-adaptive formats. However, assessments do not have to be tests in the traditional sense at all; rather, they can be carried out through teacher observations of students…

Despite the call for an argument-based approach to validity over 25 years ago, few examples exist in the published literature. One possible explanation for this outcome is that the complexity of the argument-based approach makes implementation difficult. To counter this claim, we propose that the Assessment Triangle can serve as the overarching…

Detecting mental illness in school students may prevent poor school outcomes. Clinicians often use universal behavioral screeners to identify students at risk for mental illness. This study examined the applicability of Kane's interpretation and use argument (IUA) to the Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener--Teacher Rating Scale…

When superintendent Rudy Hernandez first arrived at Cicero School District 99, he knew he had challenges to address across the district. With a near-90 percent poverty level and a student population made up of 50 percent English language learners, he knew he needed to work with teachers to build a data-driven support system to affect change.…

In response to increasingly multilingual and multicultural demographics in U.S. K12 schools, scholars have called for more equity and social justice orientations to teacher leadership. In this dissertation, I argue that this call is especially pertinent for ESOL Teacher Leaders (ELTs) who manage rapidly-growing language support programs for…

Since its implementation in 2004, the Canadian English Language Benchmark Assessment for Nurses (CELBAN) has been accepted as evidence of language ability for licensure of internationally educated nurses (IENs) in Canada. This article focuses on the complexities of sustaining an occupation-specific assessment over time. The authors reference the…

Knowing relevant information about students entering the higher education (HE) system is becoming increasingly important, thus enabling higher education institutions (HEIs) to design effective studentcentred support programmes. Therefore, HEIs should ascertain all relevant information about their students before the commencement of the academic…

We are developing the Equitable Screening to Support Youth (ESSY) Whole Child Screener to address concerns prevalent in existing school-based screenings that impede goals to advance educational equity using universal screeners. Traditional assessment development does not include end users in the early development phases, instead relying on a…

This article explores the question of excessive testing in public schools, its value in the educational process, and the impact that excessive testing may have on the student and the family unit. While assessments are valuable when used properly, excessive testing may lead to problems with unforeseen consequences.

The choice of anchor tests is crucial in applications of the nonequivalent groups with anchor test design of equating. Sinharay and Holland (2006, 2007) suggested "miditests," which are anchor tests that are content-representative and have the same mean item difficulty as the total test but have a smaller spread of item difficulties.…

Fifty years after the first international large-scale assessment (ILSA), participation in these studies continues to grow, with more than 50% of the world's countries participating. Concomitant with growth in ILSAs is an expansion in the diversity of participant countries with respect to languages, cultures, and educational perspectives and goals.…

Testing as an assessment technique has been widely used at all levels of education--from primary to higher school. The main purpose of the paper is to evaluate the effect of context-based testing in teaching and learning of analytical chemistry in a Russian university. The paper formulates the objectives of context-based testing, discusses its…

Drawing on Glenn Fulcher's extensive work in performance-based language assessment of speaking, this paper explores the assessment of L2 speaking ability in local language testing contexts. For that purpose, I review Fulcher's influential work that highlights the relationship between the speaking construct, the task, the performance, and the…

Language testing has witnessed three major trends in the 1990s: theoretical, methodological, and analytical. Theoretically, emphasis has been placed on the further understanding of the construct of language proficiency. Methodologically, there has been an outburst of interest in language performance testing and the promotion of the professional…

The redesigned "TOEIC Bridge"® tests were designed to evaluate test takers' English listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills in the context of everyday adult life. In this paper, we summarize the initial validity argument that supports the use of test scores for the purpose of selection, placement, and evaluation of a test…