Research indicates that the most profound barriers to implementing portfolio assessments are time requirements and grading difficulties. Principals can help teachers by allowing released time for organizing meetings, developing curriculum, networking, and grading portfolios. Teachers also need recognition and storage/documentation materials and…

Investigated whether students report professors are excellent teachers if little studying is required to receive high grades. Evaluations from 1,939 students in 75 first-year classes found that when grades varied markedly across sections of the same course, professors assigning the highest grades for the least studying received the highest…

Provides guidelines to make grades a better assessment of learning. Argues that, for any assessment task to be fair, its content, context, and performance expectations should (1) reflect knowledge appropriate to all students; (2) tap knowledge that all students have had time to acquire in the class; and (3) and be as free as possible of cultural,…

Explains that a portfolio is a collection of student work that reflects the course content and is assembled by the student in a folder or binder over a specified period of time. Discusses how to use portfolios, the benefits of using portfolios as assessment tools, and potential concerns teachers need to address. (CMK)

Surveys 117 English teachers to determine their current essay grading practices and their preferences for receiving and using computer ratings. Almost all of the teachers reported that they would use computer ratings to provide feedback to students. However, many reported that they would do less marking on student essays that are rated by computer…

Making report cards more understandable and valuable to users is a top priority for educators revising them. Administrators should tie report cards to new standards and exams; be open-minded; involve parents, teachers, and schools; check with technology people; and strive for clarity. A Maryland district's experience is profiled. (MLH)

In their widely read article "Inside the Black Box," the authors demonstrated that improving formative assessment raises student achievement. Now in this article, they and their colleagues report on a follow-up project that has helped teachers change their practice and students change their behavior so that everyone shares responsibility…

When the instructor violates the norms of teaching, there is an impact on student learning.

High school teacher and instructional coach Tony Winger laments how traditional classroom grading practices lead to grades becoming a distraction from learning--a commodity students feel they work the system to attain--rather than a clear message to students and parents. Teachers' passion for their subjects is too often met with students'…

Assigning students to different classes on the basis of their achievement levels (tracking, streaming, or ability grouping) is an extensively used strategy with widely debated consequences. The authors developed a model of the effects of tracking on self-concept and interest that integrates the opposing predictions of "assimilation" and…

At the end of a lecturing period examinations are used to take a snapshot of the level of knowledge of a student. It is essential that this snapshot be taken at the right moment. Particularly when a student fails, it is important to make sure that it is because his level of knowledge is not adequate, not because, for example, he had a severe…

Standards-based reform has been America's premier education strategy for more than a decade. Its many backers seek stronger school and student performance and more equal opportunities for children, especially disadvantaged youngsters. Education is attracting more high-level attention and political energy than ever before. Yet standards-based…

The higher education sector is increasingly reliant upon casual ("sessional") staff for teaching and marking purposes. While this practice has been little examined in the past, over the last few years increasing attention has been paid to the quality of marking, mainly because students and academic staff alike are becoming increasingly…

Technology has made a significant impact on assessment, including its use to automate assignment submission. On-line assignment submission, marking, and return were introduced into a fourth-year engineering management unit for the first time, and a formal evaluation was undertaken to assess student perceptions of this new development. Nearly all…

The validity of the Norwegian university grading standard has been called into serious question. The implicit standards used for assessing exams and the reliability of that understanding among examiners and psychology students were investigated in three studies. Studies 1 and 2 investigated the implicit standards that examiners used when assessing…