The use of the Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) to improve early childhood education program quality is based in part on assumptions that the quality of programs can be measured and that quality ratings are associated with meaningful differences in learning outcomes for children. This report reviews all of the state QRIS validation…

Research demonstrates that intrinsic motivation "drives students' amount of reading" and that students who read for pleasure, to explore topics they care about, and for interest "read a lot and achieve greatly" (Guthrie 2). As teachers incline their pedagogy to student interests, ownership, self- efficacy, social interaction,…

For over two decades, Giselle O. Martin-Kniep and her colleagues have worked for Learner-Centered Initiatives, a consulting organization based in New York, promoting best practices in curriculum, development, assessment, and leadership. A significant portion of their work is directed toward helping educators attend to and assess students' ability…

Classroom observation has changed dramatically in recent years. Trivial checklists have given way to research-based rubrics that describe important aspects of teaching and, for each aspect, explain the difference between more and less effective practice. Instead of asking if the lesson objective was posted, these new instruments typically ask to…

Transformative learning hinges on navigating cognitive dissonance; thus, intercultural competency assignments and experiences need to be integrated into study abroad/away courses to help students process and make sense of the cognitive dissonance such an experience provides. Assignments, therefore, need to consciously and intentionally triangulate…

Recent efforts to reform K-12 science curricula, embedded within the "NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education" and the "Next Generation Science Standards," have focused on unifying core disciplinary content with crosscutting concepts that span across science disciplines and scientific practices. With these reforms comes the…

Statistical literacy is essential to an informed citizenry; and two emerging trends highlight a growing need for training that achieves this literacy. The first trend is towards "big" data: while automated analyses can exploit massive amounts of data, the interpretation--and possibly more importantly, the replication--of results are…

Assessing student learning outcomes and determining achievement of the Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (IPCEP) Core Competency of Values/Ethics in a generic pre-professional Bachelor of Science in Health Science (BSHS) program is challenging. A course level Student Learning Outcome (SLO) is: "….articulate the impact of personal…

Currently, schools of education across the United States are reforming teacher education programs in light of the newly developed common core standards, shifting accreditation principles, new measures of teacher performance, and the pressing concern that in-service teachers are woefully under-prepared for the realities of classrooms. During this…

Educational partnerships surged in the 1980s, and saw an equally substantive increase in research about these relationships. However, not all aspects of these partnerships have been examined and as a result there are gaps in the literature. A thorough literature review confirmed that in fact there was no research specifically about partnerships…

Across the South, many states and school districts provide basic training for evaluators. But this basic training does not assure that evaluators will be prepared to provide teachers with classroom observations that are rigorous, reliable and personally relevant. High-quality evaluator training leads to improved instructional practice, both…

An innovative assignment to capture soft-skills and create opportunities for a health profession program is presented. A full description of this semester-long assignment will be highlighted, including the associated rubric and a student example. Assessment results provide initial insight as to how the HOT Sheet supported opportunity for soft…

Over the past several decades, writing assessment has evolved in an ever-growing attempt to provide contextual fairness to a student while maintaining standards across a larger community. This study analyzed writing assessment at a Saudi English Language Institute (ELI) by first discussing teaching and learning in an EFL context before examining…

This study was primarily aimed at developing an English-speaking proficiency test and analytic rubrics designed to measure speaking proficiency of Malaysian undergraduates. On the basis of Littlewood's Methodological Framework and Long's Interaction Hypothesis, the researchers derived three speaking tasks from four sources: (a) syllabus of the…

In recent years, there has been increasing interest within the engineering education research community to prepare engineering students to address wicked problems (WPs) such as climate change, resource scarcity and violent conflict. Previous research suggests that engineering students are able to address WPs if they are given adequate support, but…