English language learners (ELLs) constitute one of the fastest growing subpopulations of students in the United States. It is important to determine whether the assessments used by states in determining students' proficiencies are valid and fair for ELLs. This study focused on several standards-based assessments in mathematics and science…

Students' perceptions of actual and preferred classroom environment were investigated using the "What is happening in this class? questionnaire" (WIHIC). The WIHIC assesses seven classroom environment dimensions: student cohesiveness, teacher support, involvement, task orientation, investigation, cooperation and equity. A sample of 978…

Preservice special education teacher candidates in higher education training programs are given little or no specific training in the use of basic native language or cultural academic instructional techniques to support the learning needs of students who have not reached a level of English proficiency. Preservice special education students are…

In this technical report, we describe the development and piloting of a series of mathematics progress monitoring measures intended for use with students in grade 1. These measures, available as part of easyCBM [TM], an online progress monitoring assessment system, were developed in 2008 and administered to approximately 2800 students from schools…

This study focused on the impact of oral dialogue journals on Iranian EFL learners' pronunciation. Three classes of intermediate learners, after being reassured of their homogeneity, were randomly assigned to treatment (14 students), control (9 students), and placebo (10 students) groups. Learners in the treatment group had to respond to the…

Educational researchers have suggested that the tension between the learner-centred and teacher-centred pedagogies represents a real classroom issue that influences teaching and learning. This issue may be particularly significant in East-Asian countries such as Taiwan due to some cultural influences. For example, teacher authority is highly…

Advances in assessment technologies are affording teachers and students new ways to efficiently assess and track achievement while also better promoting learning. WriteToLearn is one such technology, a Web-based tool that integrates practice and assessment in reading comprehension with writing about what is learned. Based on the principle of…

The 1992-93 school year was the second year of the implementation of the Vermont assessment program. Evaluation of the 1991-92 year yielded mixed results, with some evidence that the assessment program was having a strong impact on instruction, but other indications that the reliability of the portfolio scoring in both writing and mathematics was…

A study examined how pragmatic form influences evaluation of student essays in university placement testing. Specifically, the study documented how patterns in students' use of information (assumed to be either old, inferable, or new for readers) affected the holistic scores for quality given to the essays. Subjects, 99 randomly selected entering…

The stability of teaching behavior was examined by observing student/teacher interaction over one academic year. One teacher was studied using a time-series analysis. He had 14 years experience and taught physical education in grades K-6 in a single school. Data were collected over one academic year using the Cheffers Adaptation of Flanders…

Based on the premise that composition skills and their evaluation are crucial to the educational process, this paper presents a tentative research program for conducting future English as a second language (ESL) composition evaluation studies. The program developed in the paper covers the following topics as areas which merit further rigorous…

The feasibility of reducing scoring costs for the Test of Spoken English (TSE) by using one rater was investigated. Currently, two raters are used. It was found that, because of the possibility of different standards used by potential raters, it does not appear feasible to use a single rater as the sole determiner of speaking proficiency under the…

The statistical properties of two methods of estimating gain scores for groups in quasi-experiments are compared: (1) gains in scores standardized separately for each group; and (2) analysis of covariance with estimated true pretest scores. The fan spread hypothesis is assumed for groups but not necessarily assumed for members of the groups.…

This review of research on second-language oral testing outlines the nature of early research in interview-format proficiency testing, then reports on new directions in investigation of construct validity of interview-format and other oral skills tests through examination of examinee, interviewer, and rater performance. Research on empirically…

The Department has developed a Race to the Top program review process that not only addresses the Department's responsibilities for fiscal and programmatic oversight, but is designed to identify areas to differentiate support based on individual State needs, as well as certain topics where States can leverage work with each other and with experts…