The number of articles showing dissatisfaction with the null hypothesis statistical testing (NHST) framework has been progressively increasing over the years. Alternatives to NHST have been proposed and the Bayesian approach seems to have achieved the highest amount of visibility. In this last part of the special issue, a few alternative…

Direct Behavior Ratings (DBRs) are behavioral assessment methods that combine the benefits of systematic direct observation and behavior rating scales. That is, DBRs involve the observation of operationally defined target behaviors during a prespecified observation period and the evaluation of those behaviors via brief ratings. In this way, DBR is…

This commentary will take an historical perspective on the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement (KTEA) error analysis, discussing where it started, where it is today, and where it may be headed in the future. In addition, the commentary will compare and contrast the KTEA error analysis procedures that are rooted in psychometric methodology and…

Classical statistical tests are used in many disciplines such as education and psychology. Such tests are based on certain assumptions (e.g., normality and homoscedasticity) that are must to be met in order to produce accurate results. Violation of such assumptions is a common problem researchers encounter, particularly when analyzing real data.…

The purpose of this study was to explore teachers' perceptions of the evaluation system currently used in their district. This study was guided by the following research question: How do teachers perceive the teacher evaluation process in a Midwestern Teacher and student Advancement Program (TAP) school? The theoretical foundations used in this…

Recent literature places more emphasis on assessment comments rather than relying solely on scores. Both are variable, however, emanating from assessment judgements. One established source of variability is "contrast effects": scores are shifted away from the depicted level of competence in a preceding encounter. The shift could arise…

One of the leading frameworks in engineering education specifically associated with design based competencies is the CDIO framework. This has been incorporated internationally into many institutions offering engineering education courses. Characterized by four unique stages, the CDIO framework affords an ideal scenario to incorporate a continuous…

Clinical guidance documents play an important role in ensuring access to high-quality autism spectrum disorder diagnostic assessment practices. The objective was to perform a systematic review of professional association and government clinical guidance documents for autism spectrum disorder diagnostic assessment, analyzing their quality and…

Range restrictions, or raters' tendency to limit their ratings to a subset of available rating scale categories, are well documented in large-scale teacher evaluation systems based on principal observations. When these restrictions occur, the ratings observed during operational teacher evaluations are limited to a subset of the available…

In this commentary, I consider the three empirical studies in this special issue based on two main aspects: (a) the nature of the learning progressions and (b) what formative assessment practice(s) were investigated. Specifically, I describe differences among the learning progressions in terms of scope and grain size. I also identify three…

The purpose of this study was to develop a concise composite measure of mindset and intellectual development in order to inform pedagogical strategies to support students' intellectual growth. A development sample of undergraduate students (n = 295) completed the 37-item pilot Mindset and Intellectual Development Scale (MINDS). The dataset was…

This study examined a holistic admissions review process at one institution to determine whether variance occurred and, if so, possible explanations for it. The study analyzed reader reviews for approximately 15,000 individual undergraduate admission reviews over three years. The primary method was focused on the variance and inter-rater…

In its purest form, the purpose of assessment is to use evidence to give an account of and improve student learning, but assessment is rarely practiced in its purest form. For many staff and faculty in higher education, assessment is something they are asked or, more likely, required to do. The reason is because some external entity has required…

With the upcoming review of the National Certificates of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and the removal of National Standards, it is time to reconsider how we approach assessment. In this edition of Assessment News I argue that it is time to put assessment for learning (AfL) and the assessment-capable teacher and student "front and…

Metrics including Cohen's kappa, precision, recall, and F[subscript 1] are common measures of performance for models of discrete student states, such as a student's affect or behaviour. This study examined discrete model metrics for previously published student model examples to identify situations where metrics provided differing perspectives on…