Criterion-referenced assessments have become more common around the world, with performance standards being set to differentiate different levels of student performance. However, use of standard setting methods developed in the United States may be complicated by factors related to the political and educational contexts within another country. In…

This article provides an introduction to the kind of computer software that is used to score student writing in some high stakes testing programs, and that is being promoted as a teaching and learning tool to schools. It sketches the state of play with machines for the scoring of writing, and describes how these machines work and what they do.…

The foundation of successful choral music education begins with the selection of repertoire that is of artistic and pedagogical merit and appropriately fitted to the needs of the ensemble. The limited resources presently available to beginning teachers and the relatively indiscriminate methods traditionally utilized by new conductors reduces their…

In this paper, the author discusses the development of an appraisal instrument designed for evaluating submissions to "The Qualitative Report"--the TQR Rubric. Following a description of the context of TQR, she explains what led to the development of the TQR Rubric and describes its components. She concludes by presenting the plan of…

The effects of switching focusing strategies on complex motor skill learning were investigated using a dart-throwing task. Participants were screened for reinvestment of conscious processing by completing the Reinvestment Scale (RS) of Masters, Polman, and Hammond (1993). After an initial baseline phase, two focusing strategies were described. Low…

School accountability decisions based on standardized tests hinge on the degree of alignment of the test with the state's standards documents. Yet, there exist no established criteria for judging strength of alignment. Previous measures of alignment among tests, standards, and teachers' instruction have yielded mixed results that are difficult to…

This article presents a review of the "KeyMath-3 Diagnostic Assessment" (KeyMath-3 DA), a norm-referenced individually administered diagnostic test. This review focuses only on the KeyMath-3 DA Form-A starter kit, which includes a manual, two easels, and record forms. The KeyMath-3 DA is an updated mathematics diagnostic test with the content…

This narrative synthesis reviews the psychometric properties of commercially and publicly available retell instruments used to assess the reading comprehension of students in grades K-12. Eleven instruments met selection criteria and were systematically coded for data related to the administration procedures, scoring procedures, and technical…

Divergent thinking (DT) tests are among the most popular techniques for measuring creativity. However, the validity evidence for DT tests, as applied in educational settings, is inconsistent partly due to different scoring methods. This study explored the reliability and validity issues of various techniques for administering and scoring two DT…

Research has begun to articulate actions of social justice leaders, but as a field we still know little about how a broad range of leaders view and enact equitable practice. In this study, we use a set of "leadership for equity" rubrics to examine how 114 school and district leaders rated and provided evidence of equitable or inequitable…

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of progressive sentence development activities on 5th graders' description skills. The study was conducted based on the pretest-posttest quasi-experimental model with a control group. A total of 58 students participated in the study; 29 in the control group, and 29 in the experimental group. The…

This article provides an overview of the research on targeted violence, including campus violence, and the implications for policy and practice at institutions of higher education. Unique challenges of threat assessment in the community college setting are explored, and an overview of an effective threat assessment policy and team at William…

The success of the Quality Matters (QM)™ program, especially acceptance of the QM Rubric™ in the United States, has attracted increasing international attention. Plans to translate and disseminate the Rubric in the non-English-speaking world, however, should consider whether the U.S. version is equally relevant in different cultural settings. The…

This article focuses on the development of assessment tools to enhance the acquisition of the grade-level outcomes developed in the K-12 curriculum. Physical education is one of the few educational programs that does not have a multitude of available state and national tests to measure student progress. This distinction has been both a strength…

The absence of universally accepted definitions for direct and indirect assessment motivates the purpose of this article: to offer definitions that are literature-based and theoretically driven, meeting K. Lewin's (1945) dictum that, "There is nothing so practical as a good theory" (p. 129). The authors synthesize the literature to…