The Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory 4 (MPAI-4) is a valid and reliable assessment tool to detect clinical impairments in patients with acquired brain injury. The tool is widely used by rehabilitation therapists worldwide, given its good psychometric properties and its availability in several languages. The purpose of this study was to…

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Barack Obama's plan for teacher education reform and improvement was described in the document "Our Future, Our Teachers" (2011). The rationale for reform is that "many of our teacher preparation programs fall short" (p. 5). The measures of this are stated as "only 23% of…

The article analyses the gender effects on student achievement at University of Genova and it is a part of the research performed by the University of Genova called "Benchmarks interfaculty students: Development of a gender perspective to find strategies to understand what leads students to success in their studies", financed by the…

Virtually everyone agrees that teacher evaluation in the United States needs an overhaul. Existing systems rarely help teachers improve or clearly distinguish those who are succeeding from those who are struggling. The tools that are used do not always represent the important features of good teaching. Criteria and methods for evaluating teachers…

Performance Management clearly illustrates an attempt by the State to control the work of teachers by making them more efficient, more effective and more accountable. This article will critically scrutinise this bureaucratic process and amplify the voices of those being controlled and will highlight first-hand accounts of how teachers employ…

Implementation of state and federal high-stakes accountability measures such as end-of-course tests (EoCTs) has contributed to increased teacher stress in the classroom, decreased teacher creativity and autonomy, and reduced effectiveness. Prior research focused primarily on the elementary and middle school levels, so this study sought to examine…

The basic currency of higher education--the credit hour--represents the root of many problems plaguing America's higher education system: the practice of measuring time rather than learning. "Cracking the Credit Hour" traces the history of this time-based unit, from the days of Andrew Carnegie to recent federal efforts to define a credit…

Guam Department of Education (GDOE) is a single unified school district consisting of grades Kindergarten through 12. Its 26 Elementary Schools, 8 Middle Schools, 5 High Schools, and an alternative school serve over 31,000 students, and is managed by the 11-member Guam Education Board (GEB). Despite the operational and financial challenges the…

Assessments developed and field tested for the mainstream student population may not be accessible for students with disabilities (SWDs) as a result of the impact of extraneous variables, including cognitive features, such as depth of knowledge required, grammatical and lexical complexity, lexical density, and textual/visual features. This study…

WestEd, a research and development agency, and ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career have partnered to develop a framework for college and career readiness. In this article, the authors look at one student's successful journey from high school to college to career, and highlights a career-readiness framework to ensure more…

This study investigates whether the type of instruction (a single face-to-face librarian-led instruction, instructor-led instruction, or an online IL course--the Online Research Lab) has an impact on student information literacy gains in a Freshman English Composition program. A performance-based assessment was carried out by analyzing…

The purpose of the study was to examine differences in early numerical competencies, as well as subtraction skill, as a function of children's mathematics difficulty (MD) status: computational difficulty (CD), word problem-solving difficulty (PD), concurrent difficulty (CDPD), or neither difficulty (i.e., typically developing; TYP). Based on…

Background: In PISA 2009, seven East Asian countries rank high among the 65 participating countries, but some of the differences among the seven countries are small to be of substantive meaning. Aims: This paper is an attempt to fine tune the comparisons for better understanding of the situation in East Asian. Sample: Data of the seven East Asian…

Successful exam composition can be a difficult task. Exams should not only assess student comprehension, but be learning tools in and of themselves. In a biotechnology course delivered to nonmajors at a business college, objective multiple-choice test questions often require students to choose the exception or "not true" choice. Anecdotal student…

Authentic assessment "refers to the systematic collection of information about the naturally occurring behaviors of young children and families in their daily routines" (Neisworth & Bagnato, 2004, p. 204). In formative assessments, the assessment information informs instruction. Formative assessments are given periodically and should be used to…