The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Iowa State University administration to impose face coverings and other safety regulations across the university campus. To comply with these safety measures, several changes to the English Placement Test of Oral Communication (EPT OC) had to be made. This paper discusses how the EPT OC was adapted to comply with…

The application of knowledge to new contexts (i.e., transfer) is a central aim of learning processes and has become a new focus of testing effect research. In a quasi-experimental design, we investigated the transfer of retrieval practice effects on English vocabulary learning on eighth-grade students (N = 182) by applying a typical testing effect…

This article describes the synthesis of the research on mastery grading, growth mindsets, and testing for learning to produce a new grading system -- Second Chance Grading. The system and the research it is based on are described in detail. Reflections of the system's effectiveness, impact, and reception are also discussed. Finally, the appendix…

In this article, we explore how values in education are negotiated and partly redefined by teachers, school leaders and local administrators with data use and accountability. Two dilemmas are prominent for the teachers: 1) Testing and data use are perceived as important to meet the needs of the students and to create transparency and initiating…

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. last spring, schools nationwide shut their doors and states cancelled annual standardized tests. Now federal and state policymakers are debating whether to cancel testing again in 2021. One factor they should consider is whether a two-year gap in testing will make it impossible to measure student-level…

State standardized exams help parents, educators, and policymakers understand which students are on track -- and who is falling behind -- so that the adults can intervene to meet the needs of all students. This information is more crucial than ever given that COVID-19 upended traditional schooling. This report's recommendations for federal and…

Formally describing and assessing the difficulty of learning and teaching material is important for quality assurance in university teaching, for aligning teaching and learning activities, and for easing communications among stakeholders such as teachers and students. This paper proposes a novel taxonomy to describe and quantify the difficulty…

School vouchers are state-funded programs--often called scholarship programs--that allow students to use public monies to attend a private school. The state provides a set amount of money, typically based on the state's per-pupil amount, for private school tuition. There are currently 27 voucher programs in 16 states and the District of Columbia.…

Retrieval practice relative to restudy of learned material typically attenuates time-dependent forgetting. A recent study examining this testing effect across 12-h delays filled with nocturnal sleep versus daytime wakefulness, however, showed that sleep directly following encoding benefited recall of restudied but not of retrieval practiced items,…

This article describes and reviews the "Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, Second Edition" (BRIEF2; Gioia, Isquith, Guy, & Kenworthy, 2015). Published by PARInc., it is an updated individually administered rating scale of executive function (EF) for children and youth, aged 5 to 18 years. Primarily used in clinical,…

Previous research has repeatedly shown that anxiety can impair academic as well as sports-related performance. Most research in this field has been conducted under artificial laboratory conditions, which is why the aim of the present study was to test the assumption that higher levels of anxiety would impair subsequent sports performance in a real…

Background: Returning to learn following a concussion is the process of managing a student's recovery during the school day by implementation of academic supports with varying intensity. Due to a lack of consensus or even guidance on Return to Learn, this paper set out to establish cross discipline consensus on some essential elements of Return to…

This paper gives a blueprint for reacting to the various issues that an instructor will face in their day-to-day life as the manager of a Mastery-Based Testing (MBT) classroom. For example, I created a rubric to compare traditional testing with MBT, adapted my office hours to accommodate more retake opportunities, and required effort between…

Since its modern inception in the late nineteenth century, research on word associations has developed into a large and diverse area of study, including work with both applied linguistic and psycholinguistic orientations. However, despite significant recent interest in the use of word association to investigate second language (L2) vocabulary…

Tests and examinations are widely used internationally. Despite their pervasiveness, they tend to measure lower order thinking skills in a decontextualized manner at a time when the literature frequently argues for the benefits of a richer, authentic approach to assessment. The focus of this paper is to improve authenticity in test assessment…