Local assessment systems are being marketed as formative, benchmark, predictive, and a host of other terms. Many so-called formative assessments are not at all similar to the types of assessments and strategies studied by Black and Wiliam (1998) but instead are interim assessments. In this article, we clarify the definition and uses of interim…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze critically the most important methods that are used in the evaluation of human resource development (HRD). Design/methodology/approach: The approach is to ask two questions: What are the methods available to define the impact of HRD in the economy? How can we evaluate the evaluations that have been…

Direct Behavior Rating (DBR) is a method of social--emotional and behavior assessment that combines the immediacy of systematic direct observation and the efficiency of behavior rating scales. The purpose of this article is to discuss the defensibility and usability of DBR. This article provides a brief summary of (a) the past, present, and future…

The paper offers a retrospective evaluation of recent evaluative studies of bilingual programs in the Australian state of Victoria, in an attempt to determine how successfully the evaluation process met the dual criteria of external accountability and development. The programs in question were located in primary or secondary government schools and…

Criteria-referenced self-assessment is a process during which students collect information about their own performance or progress; compare it to explicitly stated criteria, goals, or standards; and revise accordingly. The authors argue that self-assessment must be a formative type of assessment, done on drafts of works in progress: It should not…

We outline how research into predictors of literacy underpins the development of increasingly accurate and informative assessments. We report three studies that emphasize the crucial role of speech and auditory skills on literacy development throughout primary and secondary school. Our first study addresses the effects of early childhood middle…

It is important that counsellors provide evidence regarding the efficacy of their services. Although there has been an increased focus on generic outcome measurement of counselling programs and services, little attention has been paid to accountability issues for meeting the needs of diverse populations. This article highlights the increasing…

Recent legislative and school reform efforts require schools to evaluate and improve educational practices for students with severe disabilities. The authors developed the "Program Quality Measurement Tool" (PQMT) to enable administrators and educators to evaluate the educational programming provided to students with severe disabilities against…

This study investigated the effectiveness of assessing young children's meta-cognition in different contexts (i.e., individual learning (IL), peer assisted learning (PAL) and self-reports). Additionally, the contributions of declarative and procedural meta-cognition in IL and PAL, TOM and language ability on children's cognitive performance…

A natural language based system has been used to author and mark short-answer free-text assessment tasks. Students attempt the questions online and are given tailored and relatively detailed feedback on incorrect and incomplete responses, and have the opportunity to repeat the task immediately so as to learn from the feedback provided. The answer…

D'Eon et al. concluded that change in performance self-assessment means from before to after a workshop can detect workshop success in their and other situations. In this commentary, their recommendation is refuted by showing that (a) self-assessments with balanced over- and underestimations are still biased and should not be used to evaluate…

The purpose of this study was to develop and provide an initial examination of a self-report measure of intervention usage called the Usage Rating Profile-Intervention (URP-I). From an initial pool of 55 items, results of exploratory factor analysis and reliability estimates supported a measure containing 35 items and four factors as relevant…

Media literacy has the potential to alter outcomes in various fields, including education, communication, and public health. However, measurement of media literacy remains a critical challenge in advancing this field of inquiry. In this manuscript, we describe the development and testing of a pilot measure of media literacy. Items were formed…

Structured risk assessment should guide clinical risk management, but it is uncertain which instrument has the highest predictive accuracy among men and women. In the present study, the authors compared the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R; R. D. Hare, 1991, 2003); the Historical, Clinical, Risk Management-20 (HCR-20; C. D. Webster, K. S.…

One of the most important goals the author has for students in his introductory-level physical geology course is to give them the conceptual skills for solving geologic problems on their own. He wants students to leave his course as individuals who can use their knowledge of geologic processes and logic to figure out the extended geologic history…