This article presents a critical review of the Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS), a large scale standardized English language proficiency (ELP) assessment developed by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and administered since 2004. TELPAS is used as an annual summative assessment for all English Learners (ELs) in grades…

The identification of students' mental models is crucial in understanding their knowledge of scientific concepts. This research aimed to develop a Mental Models Representation Instrument on Newton's Laws (MeMoRI-NL). The ADDIE (Analyzing, Designing, Developing, Implementing and Evaluating) model was used as a research method. The sample consisted…

Universal screening for behavioral and emotional risk is an important part of implementing multi-tiered behavioral supports in schools. The current study adds to our understanding of universal screening by examining teacher and student reports of behavioral and emotional risk. Participants included 73 fourth-grade students and 4 teachers in an…

In this study, we examined the relationship of special education teachers' performance on the RESET Explicit Instruction observation protocol with student growth on academic measures. Special education teachers provided video recorded observations of three instructional lessons along with data from standardized, curriculum-based academic measures…

We have developed assessment tasks aligned to NGSS that require students to use practices along with disciplinary core ideas to make sense of energy-related phenomena. In this paper, we present an analysis of field test data and feedback from expert reviewers on the validity and reliability of a set of elementary school tasks. These tasks focused…

Over the past several years, content experts, psychometricians, and researchers have been hard at work developing, refining, and studying the digital SAT. The work is grounded in foundational best practices and advances in measurement and assessment design, with fairness for students informing all of the work done. This paper shares learnings from…

This article aims to give a comprehensive guide to planning and designing vocabulary tests which include Identifying the skills to be covered by the test; outlining the course content covered; preparing a table of specifications that shows the skill, content topics and number of questions allocated to each; and preparing the test instructions. The…

Several concepts have been developed to implement research-oriented teaching in higher education in the last 15 years. The definition of research competences, however, has received minor attention so far. Some approaches to modeling research competences describe these competences along the research process but either focus on a specific academic…

University entrance language tests are often administered under the assumption that even if language proficiency does not determine academic success, a certain proficiency level is still required. Nevertheless, little research has focused on how well L2 students cope with the linguistic demands of their studies in the first months after passing an…

This article reviews four interrelated approaches to reducing an inequitable gap in cognitive and educational test scores between individuals of a dominant culture and individuals of other cultures or subcultures. These approaches include (a) use of broader measures, (b) performance- and project-based assessments, (c) direct measurement of…

This study introduces the topics of reward addiction and sensitivity to punishment in academic contexts to the literature. This study was designed firstly to develop reliable and valid measurement tools that can measure high school students' reward addiction and sensitivity to punishment in academic contexts, and secondly to test the structural…

In this case study, we examine the consequential validity of using edTPA in a social justice-oriented, urban teacher preparation program. According to the developers of edTPA, a primary purpose is to support teacher candidate learning, yet our analysis suggests that edTPA does not support learning when used during student teaching. Our 16…

Studies examining processes in youth group psychotherapy are scarce. This article reports on the development and psychometric properties of the Psychoeducational Group Alliance Scale for Children (PGAS-c). This scale was designed to assess the therapeutic alliance that develops between the members and the facilitator in a psychoeducational group…

Prior studies have shown a correlation between the grades students receive and how they rate their teacher in the classroom. In this study, the authors probe this association on clinical rotations and explore potential mechanisms. All In-Training Evaluation Reports (ITERs) for students on mandatory clerkship rotations from April 1, 2013 to January…

Assessment in mathematics is assumed to provide credible and important information about what students know and can do. In this paper we focus on large scale tests and question whether mathematics assessment is essentially gender neutral. We consider aspects of test validity and discuss issues of terminology related to gender and mathematics. In…