In contrast to traditional courses, in which students are accountable only to the instructor, effective implementation of any group-based instructional format, including team-based learning (TBL), requires that students be accountable to both the instructor and their peers. Unfortunately, some instructors resist using groups because of concerns…

Differential performance results occur when a specific population subgroup achieves a passing rate which is significantly lower than that of the normative reference group. African Americans do less well, in general, on all types of assessments, including constructed-response tests. The present study examined the writing styles of African American…

Psychometricians continue to introduce new approaches to setting cut scores for educational assessments in an attempt to improve on current methods. In this paper we describe the Item-Descriptor (ID) Matching method, a method based on IRT item mapping. In ID Matching, test content area experts match items (i.e., their judgments about the knowledge…

This study examines the evidence for the effectiveness of professional development using a sample of ten elementary school teachers. These teachers were part of a larger intervention study that investigated the impact of a teaching model, Dynamic Pedagogy on student mathematics achievement. Positive results were obtained from the analysis of three…

There is no shortage of online learning platforms available today. Whether it is Blackboard (www.blackboard.com), Desire2Learn (www.desire2learn.com), Sakai (www.sakaiproject.org), Moodle (www.moodle.org), Angel Learning (www.angellearning.com), Datatel (projected to be a CMS player in Q4 2008; www.datatel.com, or another product, chances are that…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires all states to assess the English proficiency of English language learners each school year. Under Title I and Title III of No Child Left Behind, states are required to measure the annual growth of students' English language development in reading, listening, writing, and speaking and in comprehension…

Teacher evaluation systems have tremendous potential in helping teachers grow in their profession. A standards-based teacher evaluation system with a rubric and multiple sources of data has the potential to create a collaborative environment that focuses on the continuous improvement of each teacher in the district. This ultimately leads to an…

This article is based on the perceptions of California State University administrators and provides a comparative study of the challenges and benefits resulting from the implementation of the teaching performance assessment requirement of SB 2042 standards 19-21 on the California State University (CSU) campuses. With 23 campuses and almost 450,000…

The authors explored the credibility of using informal reading inventories and writing samples for 138 students (K-4) to evaluate the effectiveness of a summer literacy program. Running Records (a measure of a child's reading level) and teacher experience during daily reading instruction were used to estimate the reliability of the more formal…

These proceedings contain the papers of the International Conference e-Learning 2016, which was organised by the International Association for Development of the Information Society, 1-3 July, 2016. This conference is part of the Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems 2016, 1-4 July. The e-Learning (EL) 2016 conference aims…

Objective: This article seeks to determine whether medical students can estimate the appropriate score for the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) compared with psychiatry residents and staff psychiatrists. The authors hypothesized that medical students' estimations of GAF scores for patients in clinical vignettes would differ from those…

The use of Self-Directed Learning (SDL) as a learning tool is increasing in today's educational environment, especially in medical schools. We wanted to examine whether all students are effective self directed learners and can make use of this learning tool to achieve learning objectives. Students (n = 125) of first-year medical training program…

Since researchers acknowledged the several advantages of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) over traditional linear test administration, the issue of item exposure control has received increased attention. Due to CAT's underlying philosophy, particular items in the item pool may be presented too often and become overexposed, while other items are…

To provide an accurate reading of students' and schools' rates of progress, and to provide cues for instruction, assessment at every level should be connected to explicit learning goals and standards. To show how this requirement can be fulfilled, and how research-based assessment can effectively support learning and instruction, this article…

Lissitz and Samuelsen (2007) propose a new framework for validity theory and terminology, emphasizing a shift in theory and practice toward issues of test content rather than constructs. The author of this article argues that several of Lissitz and Samuelsen's critiques of validity theory focus on previously considered, but subsequently discarded,…