This paper reports on a grounded theory analysis of prospective teachers' online reflections in an ePortfolio system as part of a university-based teacher preparation program requirement. Results indicate that prospective teachers tend to showcase or "sunshine" their teaching and learning experiences rather than reflect on them analytically and…

Education policymakers and leaders often say that the opinions and observations of teachers are among the most important information to help explain and understand what is happening in schools. Teachers' voices can inject a sense of classroom and school-level realism into those discussions and add clarity and credibility to issues that are often…

People are generally overconfident in their self-assessments and this overconfidence effect is greatest for people of poorer abilities. For example, poor students predict that they will perform much better on exams than they do. One explanation for this result is that poor performers in general are doubly cursed: They lack knowledge of the…

Purpose: Employability is a major educational goal, but employability programmes emphasise skill development, while employers value performance. Education acts as a model for employment, so educational performance assessment should be aligned with employment models. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between…

Cognitive readiness (CR) and performance for operational time-critical environments are continuing points of focus for military and academic communities. In response to this need, we designed an open source interactive CR assessment application as a highly adaptive and efficient open source testing administration and analysis tool. It is capable…

Since 1995, the population of English language learners (ELLs) in the United States has increased by an astonishing 57% (Maxwell 2009). Though ELLs come from many different backgrounds, they share the common challenge of learning English while responding to academic content demands. Part I of this two-part article provides key strategies every…

The educational technologies of the past quarter century--from teaching machines to minimal competency testing--all share the general purpose of helping educators make better, or more uniform, decisions. The currently favored technique for shaping local decisions is criterion-referenced testing. Some criterion-referenced testers first find out how…

This research compares a student-centered, proficiency-based assessment and reassessment of learning outcomes (PARLO) system to traditional assessment in a college-level introductory statistics class. The PARLO class was assessed on learning outcomes using a three-tiered proficiency scale and given the opportunity to resubmit assignments to…

One of the central functions of teaching is formal assessment. However, formal assessment in school physical education often consists of attributing final grades to students at the conclusion of a unit (i.e., summative assessment). Moreover, grades have often been based on effort, attendance, and dress. Practical and authentic assessment…

The requirement that universities prepare students in practical competences, and assess the extent to which pre-established objectives are achieved, is generally accepted to be of growing importance. As a result, on one hand, there is an increasing volume of research related to task performance in assessment. On the other hand, there are…

In the 1990s, most US states adopted new forms of performance-based accountability, e.g., performance-based budgeting, funding, or reporting. This study analyzed changes in institutional performance following the adoption of these new accountability standards. We measured institutional performance by representative education and research…

Purpose: During the evaluation of language abilities, the needs of the child are best served when multiple types and sources of data are included in the evaluation process. Current educational policies and practice guidelines further dictate the use of authentic assessment data to inform diagnosis and treatment planning. Language sampling and…

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the process used to examine the inter-rater reliability of the Teacher Work Sample (TWS) Scoring Rubric involved with the senior culminating experience for teacher candidates used at a large comprehensive university. The study compared holistic and analytic scores reported by Student Teacher…

This article provides an analysis of the rise of 'scientific management' and 'social efficiency' theories in the early 1900s, traces their impact on the structure and administration of education systems, and critically analyses their contribution to the emergence of a new orthodoxy--outcomes-based education (OBE) approaches to school curriculum…

Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) member states regard assessments as tools for enhancing teaching and learning, and are committed to providing all students, including but not limited to, students with disabilities, English learners, English learners with disabilities, and underserved populations with…