This article addresses the issue of how to detect item preknowledge using item response time data in two computer-based large-scale licensure examinations. Item preknowledge is indicated by an unexpected short response time and a correct response. Two samples were used for detecting item preknowledge for each examination. The first sample was from…

Across the country, education leaders are adding their voices to the call to address the issue of overtesting in schools. To assist districts in ensuring they have a coherent assessment strategy in place and only administer tests that are useful and of high quality, Achieve developed the "Student Assessment Inventory for School…

This guide describes a five-step collaborative process that educators can use with other educators, researchers, and content experts to write or adapt questions and develop surveys for education contexts. This process allows educators to leverage the expertise of individuals within and outside of their organization to ensure a high-quality survey…

The goal of this research is to describe an active learning opportunity that was conducted as a community service offering through our Center for Cybersecurity Education and Applied Research (CCEAR). As a secondary goal, the participants sought to gain real world experience by applying techniques and concepts studied in security classes. A local…

Determining eligibility for the special education category Emotional Disturbance (ED) is a challenging task. The difficulty in identifying students with ED is due, in part, to problematic federal criteria (Olympia et al., 2004; Skiba, Grizzle, & Minke, 1994). Unchanges since 1975, these criteria have created an environment in which…

It is a commonly accepted notion that people take different approaches in learning. Although attention has been given to learning styles as one of the determinants of learning performance, there is are limitations to the inferential approach to understanding the impact of learning styles on learning outcomes. The purpose of this study is to…

Research that focused on Theory of Mind (ToM) development in blind children showed that they were delayed, but not permanently deficient, in various types of false belief tasks. More recent studies reported first evidence of typical ToM development in blind children and suggested that more comprehensive tools to evaluate ToM had to be used. The…

National- and state-level education policies are evolving to address teacher shortages that are pervasive across the United States and are particularly problematic in rural special education. In this article, we describe a policy we call "endorsement by exam" in which teachers certified in one subject area can become certified in other…

This study examined whether computerized dynamic testing by utilizing a robot would lead to different patterns in children's (aged 6-9 years) potential for learning and strategy use when solving series-completion tasks. The robot, in a "Wizard of Oz" setting, provided instructions and prompts during dynamic testing. It was found that a…

Over the past decade, large-scale testing programs have employed technology-enhanced items (TEI) to improve the fidelity with which an item measures a targeted construct. This paper presents findings from a review of released TEIs employed by large-scale testing programs worldwide. Analyses examine the prevalence with which different types of TEIs…

The authors report findings from an evaluation of the reading competence of students in selected elementary schools in Trinidad and Tobago. The work was conducted in eight schools and involved the testing of 450 students in standards (grades) 1 and 5 for competence in comprehension, oral reading, and word recognition. Methods and results relating…

This article investigates the central role of topic in the IELTS Speaking Test (IST). Topic has developed a dual personality in this interactional setting: topic-as-script is the scripted statement of topic on the examiner's cards prior to the interaction, whereas topic-as-action is how topic is developed by the candidate during the course of the…

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of adaptive learner models that seek to predict student correctness. Improvements on earlier models have shown that separate predictors for prior successes, failures, and recent performance further improve fit while remaining interpretable. However, students who engage in "gaming" or other…

In this article, I discuss the International Early Learning and Child Well-being Study (IELS), which is currently being rolled out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. I summarise the development of IELS and the critique that has been voiced by early childhood scholars, professionals and advocates. I then move to an…

This paper presents a novel explanation for the continued absence of a children's rights strategy within high-stakes educational assessment with reference to the competing purposes of high-stakes assessments and group-based constructions of fairness in assessment. We provide an original critique of group-based perspectives on the validity of…