Assessment and institutional research offices have too much data and too little time. Standard reporting often crowds out opportunities for innovative research. Fortunately, advancements in data science now offer a clear solution. It is equal parts technique and philosophy. The first and easiest step is to modernize data work. This column…

The ability to draw visual representations such as diagrams and graphs is considered fundamental to science learning. Science exams therefore often include questions which require students to draw a visual representation, or to augment a partially provided one. The design features of such questions (e.g., layout of diagrams, amount of answer…

Gaining knowledge of statistics is important in most (under)graduate programs within the social and behavioral sciences and requires repeated study by students, highlighting the need for good practice materials. We describe the development of an open item bank of statistics exercises by a community of instructors from Dutch universities: the…

This paper aims to map and understand tactics and practices of resistance to standardised testing in England by focusing on the "More Than a Score" (MTAS) campaign. More specifically, this paper examines the role of professional organisations affiliated to the MTAS campaign in the production and mobilisation of expert knowledge as a tool…

The real-time availability of information and the intelligence of information systems have changed the way we deal with information. Current research is primarily concerned with the interplay between internal and external memory, i.e., how much and which forms of cognitively demanding processes we handle internally and when we use external storage…

Due to the use of online learning platforms and learning management systems, students are now working unsupervised on quiz-taking platforms. These unsupervised online forms of assessment are replacing traditional supervised quizzes in conventional classrooms. It is unclear whether the quiz-taking behaviors of students in these settings align with…

Exam anxiety has been well-documented to reduce student performance in undergraduate biology courses, especially for students from marginalized groups, which can contribute to achievement gaps. Our exploratory study surveyed 61 undergraduate biology students to better understand how exams affect their anxiety levels, focusing on the impact of exam…

The "2021-2022 WIDA Assessment Guidance" provides information on the following 14 topics: (1) English Language Proficiency Requirements; (2) Participation Requirements; (3) WIDA Assessments in Grades K-12; (4) WIDA ACCESS Annual Assessments Test Window; (5) Indiana English Learner Entrance and Exit Criteria; (6) Scheduling and Timing…

To ensure that student academic growth in a subject area is accurately captured, it is imperative that the underlying scale remains stable over time. As item parameter stability constitutes one of the factors that affects scale stability, NWEA® periodically conducts studies to check for the stability of the item parameter estimates for MAP®…

Mathematical modeling describes how events, concepts, and systems of interest behave in the world using mathematical concepts. This research approach can be applied to theory construction and testing by using empirical data to evaluate whether the specific theory can explain the empirical data or whether the theory fits the data available.…

In the late 1960s, when federal officials and eminent psychologists were first designing the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), they probably never contemplated testing students younger than nine. The technology for mass testing at the time--bubble sheets and No. 2 pencils--only worked if students could read the instructions and…

For ease of instruction in the classroom, the one-way analysis of variance F statistic is rewritten in terms of pairwise differences in individual sample means instead of differences of individual sample means from the overall sample mean. Likewise, the Kruskal-Wallis statistic may be rewritten in terms of pairwise differences in individual…

The testing effect occurs when a person's memory performance is enhanced by previous tests. The current studies examined the performance effects of a classroom testing procedure on high and low performing students and their transfer of learning. Hypotheses: We predicted testing in the classroom would lead to a testing effect and transfer of…

In recent years, online learning has received more attention than ever before. One of the most challenging aspects of online education is the students' assessment since academic integrity could be violated due to various cheating behaviors in online examinations. Although a considerable number of literature reviews exist about online learning,…

Subtle instructional changes that direct attentional focus can lead to changes in performance, potentially hindering a fitness assessment. An external attentional focus has been found to improve motor performance, however less is known about instructional effects on performance and the physiological response during an isometric endurance test. To…