The Finnish National Board of Education has been publishing guidelines for the evaluation of student learning in the comprehensive school since the 1970s. This evaluation is two-fold: 1) during school it guides and supports students along their academic paths and 2) at the conclusion of the comprehensive school it expresses each student's level of…

In conjunction with the adoption and subsequent implementation of the "Common Core State Standards for Mathematics" (CCSSM), state-led consortia are developing next-generation assessments aligned to the CCSSM. This paper discusses the progress and plans of two main coalitions of states--the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for…

The "Common Core State Standards for Mathematics" presents challenges and opportunities to contribute to a common understanding of the mathematical proficiencies expected of our students. This paper discusses the movement to establish multi-state assessment consortia in the United States based in the standards movement set in motion by…

Three-month-old Cameroonian Nso farmer and German middle-class infants were compared regarding learning and retention in a computerized mobile task. Infants achieving a preset learning criterion during reinforcement were tested for immediate and long-term retention measured in terms of an increased response rate after reinforcement and after a…

Despite the extensive testing for federal accountability mandates, college students' understanding of federal accountability testing (e.g., No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, Spellings) has not been examined, resulting in a lack of knowledge regarding how such understanding (or lack thereof) impacts college students' behavior on accountability…

In this technical report, we present the results of a reliability study of the seventh-grade multiple choice reading comprehension measures available on the easyCBM learning system conducted in the spring of 2011. Analyses include split-half reliability, alternate form reliability, person and item reliability as derived from Rasch analysis,…

In this article we will try to realize a comparative study in order to find out if the internet has a positive or a negative role for undergraduate's university students. The purpose of this study is to identify the perception of undergraduate university students regarding the effects of the internet for their scientific activities and their…

The measurement of student learning is becoming increasingly important in U.S. higher education. One way to measure learning is through longitudinal testing, but this becomes especially difficult when applied to cumulative learning within programs in situations of low persistence. In particular, many Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) find…

Many studies have been made on the impact of supplemental instruction in supported courses, with most showing significantly better examination results for students attending supplemental instruction in comparison to those who do not. However, remarkably little attention has been devoted to following up whether the benefits of supplemental…

Grief is prevalent in counseling, but little is known about the current status of counselors' preparation and competencies to provide effective care. This exploratory study surveyed counselors (N = 369) on grief training, personal and professional experiences with grief, and grief counseling competence. Multiple regression analyses found training…

This article reports on the collaboration of six states to study how simulation-based science assessments can become transformative components of multi-level, balanced state science assessment systems. The project studied the psychometric quality, feasibility, and utility of simulation-based science assessments designed to serve formative purposes…

Objective: The primary purpose of this study was to test a relatively efficient strategy for enhancing the capacity of juvenile drug courts (JDC) to reduce youth substance use and criminal behavior by incorporating components of evidence-based treatments into their existing services. Method: Six JDCs were randomized to a condition in which…

This paper presents a framework for incorporating the assessment of psycholinguistic constructs into spoken language proficiency testing. Although response time and automaticity of language processing are vital factors in language acquisition, as constructs they are rarely explicitly assessed in language tests. It is proposed that efficiency of…

A handful of states are gradually adopting licensing tests that measure aspiring elementary teachers' ability to master aspects of what's arguably their most important task: teaching students to read. In the most recent example of what appears to be a slow but steady push, Wisconsin became the latest state to adopt a rigorous, stand-alone test of…

High-stakes placement testing at eleven plus remains a central and constant feature of education systems in the Anglophone Caribbean. In the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the Eleven Plus has been retained well into the era of universal secondary education, with a perceived legitimacy founded on the belief that examinations provide the fairest…