Examining the current discussion on efficient grading practices in online and distance learning, a mixed-method study was designed to assess the grading policies and practices. Through census sampling, all of the education department's teachers as well as the head teachers of the Pakistani virtual university were chosen. In the questionnaire as…

Purpose: In the last 5 years, many states have introduced science of reading (SOR) reforms that require increased attention to foundational skills instruction in grades K-3. The fast spread of these policies raises questions about the mechanisms that facilitated their rapid adoption. The purpose of this article is to examine how SOR discourses…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how learning design and educational technology degree programs prepare students to evaluate in practice. This study involved the curricular mapping of 16 graduate instructional design programs and 29 semi-structured interviews with program faculty and recent postgraduates. Based on information…

During the development of large-scale school achievement tests, panels of independent subject-matter experts use systematic judgmental methods to rate the correspondence between a given test's items and performance objective statements. The individual experts' ratings may then be used to compute summary indices to quantify the match between a…

Do you, your school, or your school district want to align your science curriculum with state standards while meeting the growing demand for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) instruction? If so, this is the book for you. It's a guide to creating coherent, high-quality classroom materials that make standards and STEM work together…

To comply with the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 and related U.S. Department of Education peer review guidance, state education agencies must provide evidence demonstrating clear alignment (technically referred to as correspondence) between their K-12 English language proficiency standards and their academic content standards. This technical…

This 15-page document provides a high-level summary and key excerpts from WCER Working Paper No. 2023-3 (ED631017). Readers should consult the full working paper for more in-depth detail and evidence, particularly in the extensive appendices. This technical summary reports on analyses conducted during the standards development process to establish…

In an effort to improve learning for young children and respond to preschool fade out, some districts are working on "PreK-3" initiatives to create better connected learning pathways for children. In these pathways, primary grades continue to build on what children learn in preschool; they also present potential implementation challenges…

Summer bridge programs (SBPs) are intended to promote student learning, academic achievement, and persistence to graduation. They are also a viable vehicle for supporting diverse minoritized student constituencies. Our study, guided by a student-centered assessment approach, examined the experiences of incoming first-year students. Findings…

This study examined a network of concepts used in the curriculum, textbooks, instruction, and assessment in relation to somatic cell division and investigated the alignment of science concepts used in them. Textbooks and teachers' instruction and evaluation questions were collected to analyse the alignment between the concepts and the conceptual…

High-quality assessments help determine which students are on track and, importantly, which ones are falling behind and need additional support. This is true in a normal school year, and it is even more critical now because of the pandemic's massive disruption of schooling for the Nation's young people. The following policy recommendations from…

School districts are highly complex organizations. Leaders often feel frustrated by the failure of improvement efforts that are built with rational if-then structures when the intended goals are not met. During the design phase of this Participatory Action Research study, a group of Co-Practitioner Researchers (CPR) highlighted Trust and Coherence…

This qualitative case study explored how grading can be used to support learning by analyzing the implementation of a skills-based grading system in a high school English department. Black and Wiliam's (2018) model for assessment in relation to pedagogy was used as a lens through which to examine the relationship between the grading system and…

Digital automated assessment is a valuable and time-efficient tool for educators to provide immediate and objective feedback to learners. Automated assessment, however, puts high demands on the quality of the questions, alignment with the intended learning outcomes, and the quality of the feedback provided to the learners. We here describe the…

Investigators often rely on the proportion of correct responses in an assessment when describing the impact of early mathematics interventions on child outcomes. Here, we propose a shift in focus to the relative sophistication of problem-solving strategies and offer methodological guidance to researchers interested in working with strategies. We…