This is a multi-method study to develop and validate an instrument to measure teachers' self-efficacy for teaching students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in inclusive early childhood classrooms, "Teacher Self-efficacy for Teaching Students with ASD Inclusive Classrooms Scale": TSE-ASDI. I conducted literature and expert reviews as…

The "Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Operations Plans" ("School Guide") defines school climate as "a range of campus conditions, including safety, relationships and engagement, and the environment, that may influence student learning and well-being" (p. 53). School climate is important because its…

In Winter 2021-2022, the Nebraska Student-Centered Assessment System (NSCAS) assessments are administered in ELA and mathematics in Grades 3-8. In Spring 2021-2022, the NSCAS assessments are administered in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics in Grades 3-8 and in science in Grades 5 and 8. The purposes of the NSCAS assessments are to…

Purpose: This 2-phase study aims to extend research on parent report measures of children's productive vocabulary by investigating the development (n = 38) of the Spanish Vocabulary Extension and validity (n = 194) of the 100-item Spanish and English MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories Toddler Short Forms and Upward Extension…

In recent years, the multistage adaptive test (MST) has gained increasing popularity in the field of educational measurement and operational testing. MST refers to a test in which pre-constructed sets of items are administered adaptively and are scored as a unit (Hendrickson, 2007). As a special case of Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT), a MST…

The purpose of this study was to design, develop, and administer an Objective, Structured Management Exam (OSME) on management skills for pharmacy students. Pharmacy preceptors for the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy participated in focus groups that identified business, management, and human resource skills needed by pharmacy graduates.…

While dichotomous item dominates the application of computerized adaptive testing (CAT), polytomous item and set-based item hold promises for being incorporated in CAT. However, how to assemble a CAT containing mixed item formats is challenging. This study investigated: (1) how the mixed CAT works compared with the dichotomous-item-based CAT; (2)…

In this case study, two members from a team of a tenured professor, an early career professor, and a doctoral student outline their experiences from conducting an online qualitative survey research study. The goal of the study was to seek the opinion of experts in the field of education, statistics, and economics about the use of value-added…

Admission in English-medium universities or institutions of higher education depends on the results obtained by candidates in large-scale proficiency tests including Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) internet-based test (iBT). The structure and administration procedure of the TOEFL iBT speaking test leaves no room for carrying out…

Writing in a foreign language is a particularly difficult skill to develop, especially when young learners are concerned because they are parallelly learning to write in their L1 and do not have strong oral foundations in their L2. The issue becomes even more complex when the ways to assess young learners' writing are considered, given that…

Purpose: Scholars who advocate for equity-oriented educational practices have argued that the accountability era in the USA, now in place for two decades, has failed in its intended goal to improve student performance for traditionally marginalized student populations. This study aims to use a sociocultural lens to trace how a century-old…

Background: Although generic skills development is a concern of educational policy and accreditation bodies, little is known about how engineering students perceive generic skills in relation to their motivation for learning such skills. The development of these skills is often done only through ad hoc approaches, without a well-structured…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present a public university's design and implementation of an assessment approach that measures the change in undergraduate students' environmental stewardship reasoning and knowledge abilities over time. Design/methodology/approach: In support of a university's strategic emphasis on environmental…

Background: Correct identification of misconceptions is an important first step in order to gain an understanding of student learning. More recently, four-tier multiple choice tests have been found to be effective in assessing misconceptions. Purpose: The purposes of this study are (1) to develop and validate a four-tier misconception test to…

Climate change is one of the most critical problems facing citizens today. Chemistry faculty are presented with the problem of making general chemistry content simultaneously relevant and interesting. Using climate science to teach chemistry allows faculty to help students learn chemistry content in a rich context. Concepts related to…