1:1 laptop schools have increased over the past decade, yet minimal research exists that focuses on classroom observational practices within such schools. This study examines how teachers and school administrators from three 1:1 laptop Title 1 schools perceived standardized teacher evaluation systems and classroom observation practices. Findings…

It is necessary to foster teachers' ability to design and implement instructions that encourage students to construct evidence and engage in argumentative discourse. The argument of this paper is that the continuous reflection and discussion as well as regular practice on instructional designs will promote pre-service science teachers' (PSSTs')…

The academic section of the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT-Ac) and the Academic Vocabulary Test (AVT) both assess meaning-recognition knowledge of written receptive academic vocabulary, deemed central for engagement in academic activities. Depending on the purpose and context of the testing, either of the tests can be appropriate, but for research…

Studies on automatic scoring systems in writing assessments have also evaluated the relationship between human and machine scores for the reliability of automated essay scoring systems. This study investigated the magnitudes of indices for inter-rater agreement and discrepancy, especially regarding human and machine scoring, in writing assessment.…

PISA presents a new image for academic achievement, which has prompted Japanese education reforms over the past decade to innovate teaching and learning for 'PISA-style literacy'. Supported by theoretical foundations, particularly with regard to the concept of 'PISA literacy' and 'authentic assessment', these reforms have accomplished progress in…

Due to myriad applications of the nominal group technique (NGT), a highly flexible iterative focus group method, researchers know little about its optimal scoring procedures. Exploring benefits and biases that such procedures might present, we aim to clarify how NGT scoring systems can privilege consensus or prioritization. In conducting the first…

Individuals trained in the use of cognitive tests should be able to complete an assessment without making administrative, scoring, or recording errors. However, an examination of 295 Wechsler protocols completed by graduate students and practicing school psychologists revealed that errors are the norm, not the exception. The most common errors…

Factor loadings and item discrimination parameters play a key role in scale construction. A multitude of heuristics regarding their interpretation are hardwired into practice--for example, neglecting low loadings and assigning items to exactly one scale. We challenge the common sense interpretation of these parameters by providing counterexamples…

Many large-scale assessments are designed to yield two or more scores for an individual by administering multiple sections measuring different but related skills. Multidimensional tests, or more specifically, simple structured tests, such as these rely on multiple multiple-choice and/or constructed responses sections of items to generate multiple…

An understanding of how science is enacted and how scientific knowledge is generated, or the nature of science (NOS), is a major goal of science education. NOS views have almost exclusively been assessed using the Views of Nature of Science (VNOS) suite of instruments, which consists of open-ended questions. The purpose of this study was to…

Examinations are regarded as vital instruments not only to determine the progress and success of learners, but also the quality of an education system. Owing to these high stakes, South Africa places enormous emphasis on the National Senior Certificate examination. Although quality should be ensured by an effective, accurate and a high standard in…

Scoring of teachers' noticing responses is typically burdened with rater bias and reliance upon interrater consensus. The authors sought to make the scoring process more objective, equitable, and generalizable. The development process began with a description of response characteristics for each professional noticing component disconnected from…

This brief report describes the conception, development, and use of a rubric in evaluating the feasibility of a new program. The evaluators searched for a meta-analytic tool to help organize ideas about what data to collect, and why, in order to create a detailed story of feasibility of implementation for the client. The main advantage of using…

Intelligence Tutoring Systems (ITSs) focus on promoting knowledge acquisition, while providing relevant feedback during students' practice. Self-explanation practice is an effective method used to help students understand complex texts by leveraging comprehension. Our aim is to introduce a deep learning neural model for automatically scoring…

Effective engagement and monitoring of students' online self-learning capacity and application of their acquired knowledge in the final year project is a challenging task for the educators worldwide. The author builds an evaluation framework to assess the stage-wise performance of students in this undertaken project. The primary objective of this…