Objective: This study examined whether and to what extent researchers addressed intervention fidelity in research of after-school programs serving at-risk students. Method: Systematic review procedures were used to search, retrieve, select, and analyze studies for this review. Fifty-five intervention studies were assessed on the following…

In this paper, we provide an overview of psychometric procedures and guidelines Educational Testing Service (ETS) uses to evaluate automated essay scoring for operational use. We briefly describe the e-rater system, the procedures and criteria used to evaluate e-rater, implications for a range of potential uses of e-rater, and directions for…

Standardized external testing (SET) began to be implemented in Ukraine in 2008 as an instrument for combating corruption in higher education and ensuring fair university admission. This article examines the conditions and processes that led to the introduction of SET, overviews its implementation over three years (2008-10), analyzes SET and…

Libraries are all about collecting data. When it comes to collection development and assessment of e-resources, collecting data on usage of resources aids in decision making regarding these resources and provides data-rich evidence to support the value for the user of these resources. However, the author asserts that libraries should take some…

The purpose of this study was to examine procedures for analyzing ratings of large-group festivals and provide data with which to compare results from similar events. Data consisted of ratings from senior division concert band contests sponsored by the South Carolina Band Directors Association from 2008 to 2010. Three concert-performance and two…

Objective: This study aimed to explore sex differences in autistic traits in relation to diagnosis, to elucidate factors that might differentially impact whether girls versus boys meet diagnostic criteria for autism or a related autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Method: Data from a large population-based sample of children were examined. Girls and…

It has been a long, litigious road from Heman Sweatt, an African-American mail carrier who wanted to attend the prestigious, all-White law school at the University of Texas at Austin in 1946, to Abigail Fisher, a White high school student who failed to win undergraduate admission to the same university a half-century later. Depending on what the…

Traditional methods for item selection in computerized adaptive testing only focus on item information without taking into consideration the time required to answer an item. As a result, some examinees may receive a set of items that take a very long time to finish, and information is not accrued as efficiently as possible. The authors propose two…

There is no question that students who experience homelessness, like all students, are entitled to be educated. A federal law, known as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, requires states to provide homeless children and youth with the same access to free appropriate public education as is available to other students. The Act also requires…

This report presents the "Annual Report Card on California Teacher Preparation Programs for the Academic Year 2015-2016" as required by Title II of the Higher Education Act. In 2008, the law was reauthorized and changes were made to the Title II data collection and reporting requirements. The 2008-09 reporting year was the pilot year in…

The purpose of this study was to examine how 52 pre-service teachers (PSTs) assessed 7th-grade students' learning of social studies lessons they planned and taught. The PSTs provided assessment artifacts on 312 students, along with explanations for how they assessed and graded each student. Of the 429 coded assessment explanations, 240 (56%)…

Adaptive testing is advantageous in that it provides more efficient ability estimates with fewer items than linear testing does. Item-driven adaptive pretesting may also offer similar advantages, and verification of such a hypothesis about item calibration was the main objective of this study. A suitability index (SI) was introduced to adaptively…

This article examines the minefield that now surrounds admissions starting with a comparison of the relatively easy system of the 1950s and early 1960s and the complexity of multiple admission authorities of today. Taking evidence from a range of agencies, including government official bodies, and admission issues, the article aims to show that a…

Background: Prior research suggests that 60-74% of males and 16-45% of females with fragile X syndrome (FXS) meet criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in research settings. However, relatively little is known about the rates of clinical diagnoses in FXS and whether such diagnoses are consistent with those performed in a research setting…

The primary goal of this paper is to examine what makes Chinese college students dissatisfied with entrance opportunities for higher education. Based on the author's survey data, we test two parameters which could be a potential cause of this dissatisfaction: 1) distributive inequality, which emphasizes the individual's dissatisfaction caused by…