This study reports on student teachers' views of portfolios as a learning tool when they are combined with a weekly test conducted at the end of each lesson to help student teachers self-evaluate. Student teachers' written reflections during the process provided data for the study. Analysis of the data showed that a majority of student teachers…

The commentary and overview explored how curriculum and assessment reforms are being used by a small university and small country to improve the quality of education and gain international recognition. Although the reforms are potentially beneficial to the students, university, and country, there are dilemmatic factors that may either enhance or…

Late and limited organisational differentiation is a characteristic which has, until now, distinguished the structure of education -- including teacher education - in the Nordic countries from that of the rest of Europe. However, this tradition is now challenged by utilitarian ideologies, supported by international comparison tests such as PISA…

Officials at the New York City-based College Board last week rolled out their newest product: ReadiStep. No, it is not a new piece of exercise equipment or a whipped dessert topping--it is a test for 8th graders that some critics are calling a pre-PSAT, referring to the Preliminary SAT assessment taken by 9th and 10th graders and owned by the…

Classification testing has been widely used to make categorical decisions by determining whether an examinee has a certain degree of ability required by established standards. As computer technologies have developed, classification testing has become more computerized. Several approaches have been proposed and investigated in the context of…

This research project focuses on a freshman class in a suburban high school where incoming ninth graders were identified as being at-risk or not at-risk; students' scores on eighth grade standardized tests were critical in determining a student's placement in one of the two categories. The researcher established the predictive value of this…

This study examined whether students who graded and corrected their own test papers improved their learning and standardized test scores on the North Carolina end-of-course test in United States History. Four preexisting, intact classrooms of 11th grade United States History students in two different high schools formed the basis of this…

This dissertation research examined the changes in item RIT calibration that occurred when adding audio to a set of currently calibrated RIT items and then placing these new items as field test items in the modified assessments on the NWEA MAP test platform. The researcher used test results from over 600 students in the Poway School District in…

This paper presents the highlights of the 2008 Test Equity Summit held in Bloomfield, Colorado last August 6-8, 2008. The 2008 Test Equity Summit convened by the Postsecondary Education Programs Network (PEPNet) identified and examined problems, challenges, and issues that academic and psychoeducational tests pose for individuals who are deaf or…

The vertical scales of large-scale achievement tests created by using item response theory (IRT) models are mostly based on cluster (or correlated) educational data in which students usually are clustered in certain groups or settings (classrooms or schools). While such application directly violated assumption of independent sample of person in…

The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) supports the development and implementation of learning and assessment systems to radically reshape the education enterprise in participating States in order to improve student outcomes. SBAC believes that the current "drop from the sky" approaches to educational testing are ineffective…

David Foster is the founder of Kryterion, an Internet test administration company, and currently serves there as chief scientist and executive vice president. He is the author of numerous articles for industry trade journals and textbooks and sits on the Council for the International Test Commission. In this interview, Foster talks about his…

The purpose of this paper is to trace the evolution of school assessment in Bhutan, briefly, as a background to considering the present and future school assessment issues especially as they relate to quality concerns and educational improvement in Bhutan. A benchmark for Bhutan, the National Educational Assessment (NEA) programme in Bhutan was…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) brought high-stakes testing to the forefront of American public education. With its call for teachers and schools to be accountable for academic performance, NCLB has focused the spotlight on yearly progress, as measured by students' test scores. Issues associated with this charge include the…

"Uneducated Guesses" challenges everything our policymakers thought they knew about education and education reform, from how to close the achievement gap in public schools to admission standards for top universities. In this explosive book, Howard Wainer uses statistical evidence to show why some of the most widely held beliefs in…