For one reason or another, various sources of information, namely, ancillary variables and correlational structure of the latent abilities, which are usually available in most testing situations, are ignored in ability estimation. A general model that incorporates these sources of information is proposed in this article. The model has a general…

One attempt to revitalise undergraduate education has been by shifting the dominant pedagogy to a learner-centred focus and supporting an emphasis on the scholarship of teaching and learning. The discussion regarding efforts to refocus undergraduate education to be more intentional by moving towards a learner-centred paradigm is encouraging, yet…

Persistent gaps between optimistic state and pessimistic national academic performance assessment results are increasingly leading to calls for unified national standards in the US. Critics argue that these gaps reveal vast differences in how proficiency is conceptualized; however, little is known about how conceptualizations compare among…

Recent policy initiatives instituted by major accrediting bodies require the implementation of specific assessment tools to provide evidence of student achievement in a number of areas, including applied music study. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of a multidimensional assessment rubric, which was administered to…

The aim of this study is to standardize Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) scores within a large sample to approximate an autism severity metric. Using a dataset of 1,415 individuals aged 2-16 years with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or nonspectrum diagnoses, a subset of 1,807 assessments from 1,118 individuals with ASD were divided…

This paper describes how the development of critical reflection in student teachers has been made an explicit part of a teacher education programme. Using a rubric presented by Ward and McCotter, (2004) and supported by an online discussion forum, the rubric was used in a meta-analysis activity where students identified the quality of critical…

The discussion will describe how rubrics can help to provide effective assessment criteria for evaluating written assignments in college undergraduate classes. A student-centered theory focus will highlight how valuable teacher/student communication can help lead to improving student writing. Rubrics can be a practical way to improve feedback,…

This study tries to shed some light on the Iranian EFL students' writing strategies at the revision stage of the process of writing in relation to students' interpersonal or intrapersonal intelligences. A total of 73 students majoring in English participated in this investigation. The results indicated that there was a significant relationship…

Higher education experts tout learning outcomes assessment as a vehicle for program improvement. To this end the authors share a rubric designed explicitly to evaluate the quality of assessment and how it leads to program improvement. The rubric contains six general assessment areas, which are further broken down into 14 elements. Embedded within…

This qualitative research focuses on 15 teachers' sensemaking and implementation of standards-based mathematics curricular reform in Chicago Public Schools. Data for this study include interviews, focus groups, and observations of teacher during the course of their implementation of one of four standard-based mathematics curriculum adopted by the…

The College Pathways series grew out of the findings in "Beating the Odds," a study of thirteen high-performing New York City high schools by Carol Ascher and Cindy Maguire for the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Each of the schools admitted ninth-graders with high poverty rates and far-below-average reading and math scores but produced…

In February 2009, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) commissioned RAND Europe to review approaches to evaluating the impact of research as part of their wider work programme to develop new arrangements for the assessment and funding of research--referred to as the Research Excellence Framework (REF). The objectives were 1) to…

In an effort to decrease the suicide rate in adolescents, many interventions have focused on school-based suicide prevention programs. Alternatively, depression education in schools might be effective in decreasing the morbidity, mortality, and stigma associated with adolescent depression. The Adolescent Depression Awareness Program (ADAP)…

Research Findings: This study examined the validity and reliability of the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS; R. C. Pianta, K. M. La Paro, & B. K. Hamre, 2008) in Finnish kindergartens. A pair of trained observers used the CLASS to observe 49 kindergarten teachers (47 female, 2 male) on two different days. Questionnaires measuring…

Review of cost-effectiveness studies suggests that rapid assessment is more cost effective with regard to student achievement than comprehensive school reform (CSR), cross-age tutoring, computer-assisted instruction, a longer school day, increases in teacher education, teacher experience or teacher salaries, summer school, more rigorous math…