As readers of "Assessment Update" know, the call for assessment is sweeping over the globe, so much so that faculty and administrators are finding it difficult to ignore it--though many may wish they could. Unfortunately, awareness does not lead to an increase in assessment implementation because fear of assessment is still widespread. The push…

Student feedback collected through program evaluation of secondary education licensure and Master's program clinical experiences prompted us to conduct a collective self-study. We used a reflective framework for analysis and discussion of the shifts students in our courses made as they progressed from observers to practicing teachers. Along with…

While literacy interventions can be implemented in any grade, focusing on interventions in grades 3-8 is critical because it is often the best chance for students identified with earlier reading deficiencies to become ready for the literacy demands of postsecondary education and careers. States in both the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL)…

A fundamental principle of Education Diplomacy is that education is a human right central to the attainment of all other human rights. Monitoring and advocacy tools such as the Right to Education Index serve to mobilize national partnerships to hold governments to account for all children's enrollment in school and enjoyment of the right to…

This study was designed to improve the current beginning teacher support program and address the problem of beginning or early career teachers leaving the district. Researchers have found that as many as 50% of teachers leave the profession within their first five years of teaching (Darling-Hammond & Sykes, 2003). This study proposed changes…

This study was carried out to ascertain the quality assurance of teachers (lecturers) in the implementation of the curriculum of Technical and Vocational Education (TVE) in Colleges of Education (Technical) in North Central Nigeria. Two research questions were formulated and answered in this study. Survey research and evaluation designs were…

Many studies point to potential unintended consequences of accountability systems such as when schools narrow their teaching to fixate on tested subjects. As a result, some states and districts in the USA have complemented the federal test-based accountability system with additional measures of educational practices to hold schools accountable on…

This article looks at the curriculum redesign of a master's-level program in international marketing from a UK perspective. In order to ensure that the program would be more fit-for-purpose for future managers working under conditions of complexity, uncertainty, and within regimes often very different from the home market, the team began the…

Background: Many parents with intellectual disabilities (ID) want and/or need professional guidance and support to learn skills and strategies to prevent and manage child behaviour problems. However, the available support is rarely suitable, and suitable support is rarely available. The aim of this study was to determine whether a popular…

As candidates in the 2012 election debated issues raised by the state of the US economy, unemployment statistics and job creation took center stage. The problems under discussion posed (and continue to pose) a particularly clear and pressing challenge to the nation's graduate schools. While the US enjoys a reputation for having the most dynamic…

The question for this brief is whether education leaders can use value-added measures as tools for improving schooling and, if so, how to do this. Districts, states, and schools can, at least in theory, generate gains in educational outcomes for students using value-added measures in three ways: creating information on effective programs, making…

With teacher preparation in the United States under serious scrutiny, there is a growing movement to improve the way teachers are prepared for practice. A key element of that improvement is shifting from instructing candidates about teaching to teaching them how to teach, emphasizing the key activities teachers actually carry out in classrooms and…

The BC Council on Admissions and Transfer is always seeking ways to improve the transfer system for the benefit of students. Doing so is often informed by research in one form or another. Questions were added to the 2011 Diploma, Associate Degree, and Certificate Student Outcomes (DACSO) survey to help us gain a better understanding of why some…

As highlighted in recent series in "The Lancet" (2007, 2011), children from low and middle income countries are more likely to be adversely affected by early biological and psychosocial experiences that have their origins in environments characterized by poverty, violence, nutritional deficiencies, HIV infections, substance abuse, and…

A group of 87 teacher certification candidates in a program at a large university in Southern California took the California Teaching Performance Assessment task for assessing learners in 2004-2005. These candidates' tests were analyzed with qualitative research methods and their scores calculated with quantitative methods. Subsequently, three…