This paper gathers descriptions on the use of the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) and essential skills cross Canada. IALS was developed as a population measure to lay out the distribution of skills and their relationship to other social and economic attributes. The information was taken from federal, provincial, and territorial…

College completion rates in the U.S. are stubbornly low despite the large and rising returns to a college degree. Efforts to increase student success in college have largely ignored a potentially key factor: the instruction that students receive in the sequence of courses that add up to a college education. Improving the quality of instruction may…

This dissertation offers a case study of the YMCA of the USA's pilot Higher Education Service Project (YHESP) with 61 local YMCAs on how the collaborative evaluation approach functioned to facilitate an organizational culture around evaluation and reinvention strategies of YMCAs as college access service providers. Multiple data collection sources…

The preceding articles in this issue describe a diverse range of projects which had in common the aim of implementing or improving the practice of formative assessment, and thereby to secure some of the benefits attributed to it. This article attempts to set up a framework within which each of the different studies may be located and…

In this study, we examined relationships between the use of test results and US students' math, reading, and science performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009. Based on a literature review, we hypothesized that the 16 items in the PISA school questionnaire, which are related to the use of test results, can be…

In the accountability era, educators are pressed to use evidence-based practice. In this comparative case study, we examine the learning opportunities afforded by teachers' data use conversations. Using situated discourse analysis, we compare two middle school mathematics teacher workgroups interpreting data from the same district assessment.…

Assessing individuals' social and emotional (SE) knowledge, attitudes, and skills is a complex task. It requires careful consideration of the assessment purpose, rigor, practicality, burden, and ethics. Once you have considered these factors and have determined that you are, in fact, "Ready to Assess," you are ready to act and choose an…

The question of generalizability or the usefulness of qualitative research results beyond the confines of the primary site, sample, and study has been hotly debated by qualitative researchers for decades. When examining this question of generalization the first surprising finding is there appears to be no general consensus about the definition,…

This paper describes and examines the nature and evolution of school accountability in the Singapore Education System. In particular, the different facets of school accountability are examined through a theoretical framework comprising four relatively distinct concepts of accountability as performance reporting; as a technical process; as a…

In music education, current attention to student-centered approaches for learning affects our understanding of student assessment. This view to curriculum reform requires new perspectives for assessment. There is a need to move beyond the summative use of assessment to assign grades to examining the roles of assessment in supporting and enhancing…

In this article, we discuss the Informal Reading-"Thinking" Inventory (IR-TI), an informal reading inventory built on an easily recognized legacy model that also branches out into new realms. The IR-TI provides tools for assessing reading the lines, reading between the lines, and reading beyond the lines. This is a 21st-century…

This paper addresses perceptions and applications of teacher evaluation by Arab elementary school principals. Analysis of semi-structured interviews with fourteen Arab principals showed that most of the principals identified teacher evaluation as a strategy to improve teaching and learning levels and consequently to improve students' achievements.…

Understanding the influence of multisite evaluation requires careful consideration of cultural context. The author illustrates dimensions of influence and culture with excerpts from four National Science Foundation evaluation case studies and summarizes what influence teaches everyone about culture and what culture teaches everyone about…

Forty-two states and the District of Columbia have recently received waivers to the school accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). As the prospects for reauthorizing the Act in the near term are dim, these new accountability systems will be law for at least several years. Drawing on a four-part framework from the…

The role of data analysis in the jobs of instructional leaders has become as commonplace as teachers creating lesson plans and taking roll in the classroom. Teachers and building leaders routinely use interim assessment data to develop thoughtful and robust instructional plans that address identified areas of student need. The link between the…