Teacher and school accountability systems based on high-stakes tests are ubiquitous throughout the United States and appear to be growing as a catalyst for reform. As a result, educators have increased the proportion of instructional time devoted to test preparation. Although guidelines for what constitutes appropriate and inappropriate test…

Understanding and working with the complexity of second language learning and use in an intercultural orientation necessitates a re-examination of the different theories of learning that inform the different schools of second language acquisition (SLA). This re-examination takes place in a context where explicitly conceptualizing the nature of…

The Czech education system is characterised by early tracking and high educational inequalities. The most controversial element of the system is the academic track, which is attended by students after the completion of primary school. The paper focuses on fifth graders' application process and their success in entrance examinations. The process is…

Black middle school students in the United States continue to perform poorly on standardized reading achievement tests in comparison to other racial and ethnic groups. The purpose of this research study was to examine the effectiveness of a vocabulary-focused test preparation program for Black middle school students. The theoretical framework…

The present study identifies reading instructional practices used in upper elementary classrooms during the age of high-stakes test accountability and compares reading practices among schools of varying accreditation status and socio-economic status (SES). The current study partially replicates and extends a study conducted by Baumann, Hoffman,…

Although end of course exams remain a key mode of assessment in higher education, little research has focused on international students' experiences of exams. There seems to be a tacit assumption in most literature that exam preparation and strategies are universal, although differences in other areas of learning exist. As an exemplar, this…

As states across the country continue their implementation of the Teacher Performance Assessment Portfolio (edTPA), a complex and high-stakes certification requirement for teacher certification, there are important lessons for educators and education advocates to learn from New York State's implementation. As Linda Darling-Hammond, developer and…

This article describes how a language minority student developed through flexible online learning assistance for the entrance examination of a Japanese public high school. The simple camera function of a digital tablet helped the isolated Thai student attain success in developing academic skills and self-esteem. The case also shows the insight…

The article summarizes the study of Reading Comprehension Tasks utilized in preparation for Unified (Russian) State Exam. The corpus of reading tasks was analyzed with the use of the classification algorithm developed by Weir and Urquhart (1998), and aimed at determining the level of engagement (local or global) and type of engagement (literal or…

Kulick and Wright concluded, based on theoretical mathematical simulations of hypothetical student exam scores, that assigning exam grades to students based on the relative position of their exam performance scores within a normal curve may be unfair, given the role that randomness plays in any given student's performance on any given exam.…

Tests of English language mark significantly high thresholds for all college-bound students in the People's Republic of China. Many Chinese students hope to seek their fortunes at universities in the United States, or other English speaking countries. These students spend long hours, year after year, in test-preparation centres in order to develop…

This brief technical note describes how to construct item vector plots for dichotomously scored items fitting the multidimensional three-parameter logistic model (M3PLM). As multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) shows promise of being a very useful framework in the test development life cycle, graphical tools that facilitate understanding…

The extant literature indicates that parental engagement is positively related with student achievement (Celenk, 2003; Epstein, 1995, 2009, 2011; Gul, 2007; Henderson, Daviess, Johnson & Mapp, 2007; Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Kotoman, 2008; Jeynes, 2012; Sad, 2012; Sheldon & Epstein, 2005; Sui-Chu & Willms, 1996). Despite its promise…

This ethnographic study reports on one elementary literacy coach's response to high-stakes testing and her approach to support third- through fifth-grade teachers in a Title I school in Texas. Sources of data included field notes and observations of classes and meetings, audio/video recordings, and transcribed interviews. The findings illustrate…

This study comes at an opportune moment for Japanese and U.S. educators, policymakers, and researchers given the trends of global policy and equity-based reform. Discussions of academic achievement in both societies allow us to examine accessibility in mathematics education in order to best prepare teachers to serve the needs of students.…