Fairness in assessment has become increasingly topical and controversial in recent years. Assessment theoreticians are writing more about fairness and assessment practitioners have developed processes and good practice to minimise unfairness. There is also increased scrutiny by students, parents and the wider public--not only of the fairness of…

Universities administer assessments for accountability and program improvement. Student effort is low during assessments due to minimal perceived consequences. The effects of low effort are compounded by assessment context. This project investigates validity concerns caused by minimal effort and exacerbated by contextual factors. Systematic…

Technical documentation for educational tests focuses primarily on properties of individual scores at single points in time. Reliability, standard errors of measurement, item parameter estimates, fit statistics, and linking constants are standard technical features that external stakeholders use to evaluate items and individual scale scores.…

Was the approach proposed for calculating exam grades in summer 2020 fair? Were the grades eventually awarded (after policy changes) fair? What is a fair arrangement for 2021? These questions have been at the heart of debate in the UK in the light of COVID-19. After schools were closed in the spring of 2020 and the decision was made not to proceed…

In today's digital age, tests are increasingly being delivered on computers. Many of these computer-based tests (CBTs) have been adapted from paper-based tests (PBTs). However, this change in mode of test administration has the potential to introduce construct-irrelevant variance, affecting the validity of score interpretations. Because of this,…

This article describes the results of Action Research conducted in an ESP classroom of Dhofar University located in Oman. Following the call of Oman Vision 2040 to emphasize educational practices that promote the development of higher-order cognitive processes, this study raises the following question: Can an online multiple choice question (MCQ)…

School closures induced by COVID-19 placed heightened emphasis on alternative ways to measure student learning besides in-person exams. We leverage the administration of phone-based assessments (PBAs) measuring numeracy and literacy for primary school children in Kenya, along with in-person standardized tests administered to the same students…

One tool that many families own, across the globe, is a basic mobile phone. The use of low-cost basic mobile phones for educational purposes in humanitarian settings is critical where access to connectivity and higher cost devices is limited. The portability of mobile phones, combined with their communication features, offers multiple uses to…

This article describes the development and administration of a survey to identify early childhood educators' successes and barriers when delivering remote instruction (e.g., online whole or small group instruction) during the COVID-19 pandemic to children 2-5 years old. The survey was developed using procedures outlined by the commonly accepted…