Recent meta-analyses confirm that social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions are effective in increasing academic, social, and emotional outcomes via direct skills instruction. With skill development serving as a primary mechanism of change in SEL interventions, we argue for the accurate measurement of skills as an important component of SEL…

Rapid assessments are useful methods for engaging stakeholders, standardizing monitoring activities and supporting later planning stages. This article proposes to extend rapid assessment methods into 'rapid environmental planning' and to use it for the education of planning professionals. For the assessment stage, the pressure-state-response model…

Individuals should "strategically" shift decision criteria when there are disproportionate likelihoods or consequences for falsely identifying versus missing target items. Despite being explicitly aware of the advantages for criterion shifting, people on "average" do not shift extremely, leading many theories to conclude that…

The aim of the present research was to explore the use of concept maps as an assessment tool. The research question posed was: can concept maps be used to quantitatively assess the learning of a physics topic in an engineering course? This paper describes a new approach to quantifying concept maps. The research was preceded by a pilot project that…

When contemplating the introduction of mastery grading into the classroom, a fear of student resistance can prevent the implementation entirely. However, by taking a proactive stance against student resistance, instructors can give mastery grading the best chance of being successful. This paper focuses on the ways in which the instructor can…

The learning analytics (LA) field seeks to analyze data about students' interactions, and it has been applied in the development of tools for supporting both learning and teaching processes. Recent research has paid attention on how LA may benefit teachers in the creation of educational resources. However, most of the research on LA solutions is…

One of the most widely used communication tools in evaluation is the logic model. Despite its extensive use, there has been little research into the visualization aspect of the logic model. To assess the impact that design modifications would have on its effectiveness, we applied established visualization principles to revise a program model.…

Purpose: This paper evaluates the implementation of a school-based physical activity intervention and discusses how the intervention outcomes can be influenced by the implementation. Design/methodology/approach: In four of the nine lower secondary schools in which the intervention was conducted, the authors examined implementation fidelity,…

Scholars have lamented that current methods of assessing student performance do not align with contemporary views of learning as situated within students, contexts, and time. Here, we introduce and describe one theoretical--psychometric paradigm--termed "dynamic measurement"--designed to provide a valid representation of the way students…

The way quality of assessment has been perceived and assured has changed considerably in the recent 5 decades. Originally, assessment was mainly seen as a measurement problem with the aim to tell people apart, the competent from the not competent. Logically, reproducibility or reliability and construct validity were seen as necessary and…

Research-practice-partnerships (RPPs) have arisen as a potentially powerful mechanism for school improvement; however, there is little work how to evaluate RPPs. This study investigates how four RPPs are addressing impact by (a) document analysis of metrics (N = 123) being used to assess partnerships, and (b) interviews exploring how network leads…

Background: Phelan-McDermid Syndrome (PHMDS)/22q13.3 deletion syndrome is a rare genetic disorder linked to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Intellectual Disability (ID). There are reports of PHMDS co-occurring with psychiatric disorders, but little is known about the assessment of such disorders in PHMDS. Method: A case study focusing on a…

Treatment fidelity assessment is critical to evaluating the extent to which interventions, such as the Good Behavior Game, are implemented as intended and impact student outcomes. The assessment methods by which treatment fidelity data are collected vary, with direct observation being the most popular and widely recommended. The current study…

Exciting developments in the field of Green Chemistry spur the continuous innovation of experiments in the teaching laboratory. Beyond learning practical techniques, students can critically assess experiments using relevant metrics to propose further improvements and identify the most important interconnected impacts of these alternative products…

In this study, researchers compared the concordance of teacher-level effectiveness ratings derived via six common generalized value-added model (VAM) approaches including a (1) student growth percentile (SGP) model, (2) value-added linear regression model (VALRM), (3) value-added hierarchical linear model (VAHLM), (4) simple difference (gain)…