The field of research impact assessment (RIA) has seen remarkable growth over the past three decades. Increasing numbers of RIA frameworks have been developed and applied by research funders and new technologies can capture some research impacts automatically. However, RIAs are too different to draw comparable conclusions about what type of…

In this article, the authors share their reflections on how different experiences and paradigms have broadened their understanding of the work of assessment in higher education. As they collaborated to create a panel for the 2024 International Conference on Assessing Quality in Higher Education, they recognized that they, as assessment…

Despite college rankings' popular yet controversial nature, there is little known about the relationship between college rankings and students. Prior literature suggests that students who make use of rankings are more privileged, yet there lacks a comprehensive analysis surrounding the types of students who place importance on rankings in more…

A subset of individuals with learning disabilities is currently prevented from accessing postsecondary education; these individuals experience general learning disabilities, or GLD (Greenspan, 2017, p. 117). GLD is not a formal disability category in K-12 special education; individual students might not be eligible for academic supports and…

For years, discussions on inequality in college admissions have addressed standardized tests, but less is known about inequality in non-standardized components of applications. We analyzed extracurricular activity descriptions in 6,054,104 applications submitted through the Common Application using natural language processing methods. Overall,…

The standards-based learning and grading movement of the past twenty years has ushered in a critical shift in assessment that demands clarity in both what is being measured and how well students are learning. Seeing the value in this evolution, a wave of schools has invested enormous effort to institutionalize the policy and practices of the…

The recent advancement in technology has attracted learners' attention worldwide to Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) for educational purposes. While GenAI has shown promising results for general language purposes (Godwin-Jones, 2023; Xiao & Zhi, 2023), the potential of GenAI for language learning has not been fully explored. This…

The ability to effectively identify students for advanced learning opportunities has been an ongoing issue within the field of gifted education. Common criteria to guide the design and evaluation of identification systems has been essentially non-existent. In this article we provide a practical guide for evaluating and reflecting on the…

Selective college admissions are fundamentally a question of tradeoffs: Given capacity, admitting one student means rejecting another. Research to date has generally estimated average effects of college selectivity, and has been unable to distinguish between the effects on students gaining access and on those losing access under alternative…

In Geneva, Switzerland, students in secondary 1 education are grouped into different tracks according to their academic level. The tracking system in Geneva has been reformed recently. Prior to the reform, the tracks were very hierarchical but less selective; following the reform, the tracks are still very hierarchical but the entry criteria are…

Properly selecting students is one of the core responsibilities of higher education institutions, which is done with selection criteria that predict student success. However, student selection literature suffers from a dearth of research on non-cognitive selection criteria which can lead to incorrect admission assessments. Contrarily, personnel…

Previous research has shown that social inequalities in the transition to higher education are a persistent phenomenon in Germany. Additionally, studies indicate that graduates from vocational schools are less likely to enter higher education, compared to their peers who graduated from general schools. However, research is scarce about how social…

This paper highlights the importance of considering both researcher and participant contexts when exploring everyday educational lives. It emerges during a period of increasing and sustained social inequality in England, and against a backdrop of increasingly tight research timeframes and resources in higher education. Drawing on a project…

Undergraduate music education programs are the most common pathway for someone seeking to become a music teacher. Admission into preservice programs may be a barrier for minority students. We conducted a collective case study and qualitative content analysis to examine the written and enacted policies of music education admissions at institutions…

The purpose of this study is to measure the appropriateness of the existing admissions requirements as related to the likelihood of graduation. We employ a five-year sample of students admitted into the graduate program and selected a cutoff date to allow sufficient time for most of each cohort to complete their studies. Following the general…