At the Orange County Public School District in Orlando, Florida, assessing reading skills among the youngest students used to be quite a process. Relying on rudimentary products such as paper and pencils, the strategy hinged on the bubble sheets teachers administered to students once a year. After teachers scored the exams, they sent them to the…

Research on computer-based writing evaluation has only recently focused on the potential for providing formative feedback rather than summative assessment. This study tests the impact of an automated essay scorer (AES) that provides formative feedback on essay drafts written as part of a series of online teacher education case studies. Seventy…

The intent of this study was to investigate how to maximize the chances of success of an educational innovation--specifically one based on the implementation of the educational modeling language called EML. This language is both technically and organizationally demanding. Two different implementation cases were investigated, one situated in an…

An understanding of the hormonal basis of normal growth and development, including the changes occurring at puberty, is important foundation knowledge for contemporary medical practice in most fields of medicine. A quiz, testing the important physiological concepts of growth and puberty, was designed using the format of the well-known television…

The national curriculum in Japan is termed the Course of Study, the revised version of which was implemented in 2000 for kindergarten, or nursery schools, and since 2002 for elementary or primary schools. The Course of Study for Science specifies content only in broad terms, placing the greatest emphasis on process, learning to learn and…

Primary science in Scotland has got the wind in its sails. The Scottish science education initiative, "Improving Science Education" (ISE) 5-14, has invested millions in professional development (CPD) materials and experiences for science teachers, harnessing and developing their enthusiasm for effective learning and teaching in science.…

The goal of the Changing the Culture project at the University of Rhode Island is to develop a multi-institutional, statewide network of disability resource mentors, whereby faculty and administrators encourage their department colleagues to develop policies and teaching practices that are inclusive of students with disabilities. The CTC program…

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has strongly influenced European education policy and the entire global neo-liberally toned discourse that nowadays prevails in the implementation of national education policy and educational reforms. The educational policy governance of the OECD is based on overall and supranational…

There is widespread understanding of the need to evaluate teacher education programs. Unfortunately, the history of teacher education program evaluations is spotty, evolutionary, and limited in scope. Probably the most fundamental reason that program evaluations are limited is that there has not been a clear, consistent, and shared framework for…

A three year research study entitled "Improving the effectiveness of Formative Assessment in Science Teaching", involving Biosciences and Physical Sciences staff and students at two UK Universities, has been examining the potential for improving student learning by making changes to the way formative assessment and feedback are…

Effective writing is a typical goal in undergraduate education, especially in general education program. In a survey recently conducted at the University of South Florida, one faculty member said, "I responded [to this survey] because I strongly believe that writing skills are essential for all college students regardless of their major field…

Given the rich tapestry of tribal cultures in the United States, it is presumptuous to assume that any evaluator, whether an Alaskan Native or a member of an American Indian tribe (or a non-Indian), can understand the culture of every group. Rather than trying to master multiple cultural specificities, the goal of a competent evaluator, especially…

The Bunche-Da Vinci case described in this article presents a situation at Bunche Elementary School that four theorists were asked to address in their evaluation designs (see EJ791771, EJ719772, EJ791773, and EJ792694). The Bunche-Da Vinci Learning Partnership Academy, an elementary school located between an urban port city and a historically…

This study examined the effects of teacher feedback from Reading Curriculum-Based Measurement (R-CBM) progress results for low-performing students in general education classrooms. Participants included 44 second-grade teachers and 184 students in their low reading groups. After 5 weeks of progress monitoring, teachers in the two experimental…

The educational literature shows that formative assessment is highly conducive to learning. The tasks given to students in formative assessment generally require open-ended responses that can be given, for example, in essay-type format and that are assessed by a human marker. An essential component is the formative feedback provided by the marker…