In early 2020, the COVID-19 virus hit many places, including New York City, with such a force that nobody could have foreseen the events following its spread. The education system was pushed to transition itself to meet with 21st century technology. This study explores this disruption in the education system and how middle school teachers in…

High-Stakes exams, such as the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), have significant consequences for students and educators, which affects how teachers communicate to students about these exams. This study aimed to explore communications about exams, in the classroom. Observations were conducted within 30 lessons in a secondary…

Following a sustained increase in the number of inclusive educational experiences in K-12 settings (U.S. Department of Education, 2019), higher education institutions (HEIs) are offering opportunities for students with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) to engage in inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE; Think College, 2019). Some…

A vast research literature documents racial bias in teachers' evaluations of students. Theory suggests bias may be larger on grading scales with vague or overly general criteria versus scales with clearly specified criteria, raising the possibility that well-designed grading policies may mitigate bias. This study offers relevant evidence through a…

This study sought to determine if the implementation of standards-based learning in high schools affects students' transition to learning in university courses. Surveys and interviews with 13 students who had graduated from high schools implementing standards-based learning and who had completed their first academic semester at a midsize, private,…

This paper explores the attitudes of undergraduate language learners and their lecturers towards the introduction of an attendance policy in an Irish Higher Education Institution. It also analyses the relationship between the introduction of this policy and student performance (average grade) and progression (pass rates). The policy was introduced…

As the world reeled from the realization that a pandemic of a magnitude not seen in a century was upon us, and that physical distancing to reduce the speed of transmission was going to necessitate suspension of regular classes, university faculty members scrambled to convert their planned lectures from in-person to online formats. This article…

This brief summarizes our findings from a review of COVID-19 response plans of 477 school districts across the country. Key findings include: (1) 1 in 3 school districts have been communicating an expectation that teachers will provide instruction while schools remain closed; (2) Urban and suburban districts have been significantly more likely…

Peer-grading is widely believed to be an inexpensive and scalable way to assess students in large classroom settings. In this paper, we propose "calibrated self-grading" as a more efficient alternative to peer grading. For self-grading, students assign themselves a grade that they think they deserve via an incentive-compatible mechanism…

Background/purpose: ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence program released in November 2022, but even now, many studies have expressed excitement or concern about its introduction into academia and education. While there are many questions to be asked, the current study reviews the literature in order to reveal the potential effects of ChatGPT on…

Practical classes are an important and essential part of undergraduate programs in Chemical Engineering, as each experiment provides an opportunity to reinforce the theory of discrete unit operations that are taught elsewhere in the course. While an expensive pedagogical method, when practical sessions are delivered well, they can be one of the…

Grading is one of teachers' greatest challenges and most important professional responsibilities. Educators are unclear on whether standards-based grades or traditional-based grades do a better job of accurately reflecting what students have learned, so the purpose of this study was to understand the relationship between classroom grades and…

Many undergraduate research capstones require research papers that include a literature review. This study assessed whether modifications made to teaching of a literature review resulted in significant changes to quantified measures of assessment. Literature reviews in the final economics capstone research papers of 212 students from the 2005-2016…

Standards-based grading, an alternative form of grading in which a student's achievement is based on their performance on a clearly defined set of standards rather than on their performance on tests and assignments, is commonplace in K-12 education but has been slow to catch on in higher education. This article presents an example of how…

The authors posit that the traditional grading system involving points and percentages is not the best way to prepare students to be the self-directed, independent learners they need to be. A better system would produce grades that are FAST (fair, accurate, specific, timely). To bring about these changes, school leaders need not create full…