In 2002, the Monroe County, Georgia, school system was, according to its then-superintendent Scott Cowart, "underperforming." Test scores were low, and several schools faced interventions under the new No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). One decade later, the 4,000-student school district in central Georgia is one of the highest-performing…

The use of formative assessment can increase student achievement (Black & Wiliam, 1998a). However, some of the challenges of incorporating formative assessment into instruction include the length of time needed to collect, assess and provide feedback to all students and dealing with students misunderstandings and incorrect answers that are…

"An Evaluation of the Public Schools of the District of Columbia" is a comprehensive five-year summative evaluation report for Phase Two of an initiative to evaluate the District of Columbia's public schools. Consistent with the recommendations in the 2011 report "A Plan for Evaluating the District of Columbia's Public…

This report summarizes and further develops ideas discussed at a national working session held on May 23, 2014, to examine issues and options associated with initially classifying English learners (ELs). It is the third in a series of guidance papers intended to support states in large-scale assessment consortia that are expected to move toward a…

Teacher appraisal and evaluation systems have increased the level of teacher accountability, resulting in increased pressure to be successful in the classroom (Benedict, Thomas, Kimerling, & Leko, 2013; Derrington, 2011; Glazerman et al., 2011; Papay, 2012). As a result, several states have begun to stray from the traditional methods of…

This study was designed to analyze the continuous classroom assessment at primary level in Pakistan. Findings of the study revealed that the students' achievement of single class teacher in the subject of English, General science, Urdu and mathematics were almost on average and rubric observation during continuous classroom assessment ranked…

Athletic training students need real-time patient experiences in order to transfer the knowledge and skills learned in the classroom into clinical practice. The objective is to present a description of an assignment that could be incorporated into a therapeutic exercise course giving the student an opportunity to evaluate a patient, design a…

Extension educators endeavor to create and measure outcomes beyond knowledge gain. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the role of social marketing as a method for creating behavior change within the University of Florida Extension system through key leader opinions. Additionally, the study sought to identify perceptions about…

Formative Classroom Assessment Techniques (CAT) have been well-established instructional tools in higher education since their exposition in the late 1980s (Angelo & Cross, 1993). A large body of literature exists surrounding the strengths and weaknesses of formative CATs. Simpson-Beck (2011) suggested insufficient quantitative evidence exists…

This paper discusses the comprehensive and practical training that was delivered to students in a university classroom on how sensory evaluation can be used to determine acceptability of food products. The report presents how students used their training on sensory evaluation methods and analysis and applied it to improving and predicting…

Simulation or game-based assessments produce outcome data and process data. In this article, some statistical models that can potentially be used to analyze data from simulation or game-based assessments are introduced. Specifically, cognitive diagnostic models that can be used to estimate latent skills from outcome data so as to scale these…

This article reports the development and validation study of tests to assess achievements at three levels of knowledge structure, following the model proposed by Sugrue to measure problem-solving skills. The literature has reported this proposal as a model consistent with the theoretical constructs underlying problem-based learning (PBL)…

Classroom assessment is a hot topic in K-12 education because of compelling evidence that assessment in the form of feedback is a powerful teaching and learning tool (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Although formal evaluation has been anathema to many art specialists and teachers (Colwell, 2004), informal assessment in the form of feedback is not.…

Virtual patient cases (VPs) are used for healthcare education and assessment. Most VP systems track user interactions to be used for assessment. Few studies have investigated how virtual exam cases should be scored and graded. We have applied eight different scoring models on a data set from 154 students. Issues studied included the impact of…

The Qualifications Regulator in England (Ofqual) has decided that with the implementation of revised (linear) science specifications, first teaching from September 2015, the assessment of practical skills will not contribute to the overall qualification grade. This could have significant implications for post-16 science teaching. The decision was…