Education Commons^™

Comparing Online And Traditional Assessment Practices In Middle School Mathematics, Maxwell Krueger, Kathy Enger

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers across the world have been forced to explore different modalities of assessment, many of them virtual. Now that many of the most restricting policies for schools due to pandemic have been lifted, the use of these virtual assessments remain. Due to the recent nature of their use though means that not many studies have looked into the implications of these assessments on students let alone middle school students. This study aims to help fill in some of the gaps in this research. In this study, students will take one of two assessments …

The Effect Of Fifty Percent Minimum Grades On Student Achievement, James M. Mariani

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This causal-comparative quantitative research study aims to determine whether mandating a 50% minimum grade significantly increases student achievement. The setting for this study was one suburban Pennsylvanian high school of approximately 1,250 students. The educational process involves three integrated components: curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Evaluating methods in which schools assign grades is an inherent part of every school assessment system. The Treedale School District and Pennsylvania Department of Education collected data, which the researcher analyzed by performing multiple Mann-Whitney U tests between pre-policy 0%-100% and post policy 50%-100% grade scale groups. The independent variable is grading scale and the dependent …

The Language Of 21st Century Skills: Next Directions For Closing The Skills Gap Between Employers And Postsecondary Graduates, Gabe A. Orona, Ou Lydia Liu, Richard Arum

Chinese/English Journal of Educational Measurement and Evaluation | 教育测量与评估双语期刊

The onus of preparing skilled employees for the modern workforce is largely placed on institutions of higher education. However, recent surveys consistently show a skills gap between what employers’ desire and what graduates possess. This review engages this discussion in the context of measuring and assessing 21^st century skills. We begin by succinctly reviewing literature pertaining to the skills gap, including what types of skills are commonly referenced, before moving to examine literature indicating the relations between current 21st century skills and job-related outcomes. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for higher education researchers examining skill development. Our recommendations cover …

Utilization Of Summative Assessment In Physical Therapy Education To Establish Foundations Of Clinical Science Knowledge, Katherine Grevelding, Ken Kosior

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Abstract

Purpose: Doctor of Physical Therapy [DPT] students’ ability to apply, integrate, and synthesize foundations of clinical science knowledge is vital to success in clinical practice. The aim of this case study was to explore summative examination quantification of foundational clinical science knowledge as a benchmark toward competence-based education in the first year of a DPT program. Methods: First year DPT students from a private New England University took the Physical Therapy Foundations of Clinical Science [PT-FCS] exam at the end of the second semester following completion of foundational clinical sciences coursework. The PT-FCS exam is a multiple-choice exam comprised …

Educator Cultural Proficiency Insight Tool: As We Know Better, We Can Do Better!, Queinnise Miller

Tapestry: Journal of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Education

All across the U.S. student populations are evolving to reflect the increase in diversity. These students are culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse in nature (CLED). Apart from the health field, cultural competence has not been widely assessed in the education field. A purposeful sample of 362 K-12 teachers, who served 50% or more of CLED students, were administered the Educator Cultural Proficiency Insight Tool (ECPIT). The purpose of this research was two-fold: (a) develop and validate the ECPIT and (b) examine the demographic differences regarding levels of cultural proficiency of current educators. Findings indicated that the ECPIT was a valid …

Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (And What To Do Instead), Lori M. Costello

Journal of Applied Communications

Book review of Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead), edited by Susan D. Blum with a foreword by Alfie Kohn

Centering Equity In Assessment: Theories, Models And Practices, Anne E. Lundquist

Measures of Success Educator Impact Series

Assessment data can be a valuable tool to explore inequities on campus and move to remedy them. But assessment itself is not apolitical or objective and the approaches we use and the mindfulness with which we conduct assessment can advance equity in higher education or perpetuate inequities and cause harm. This session will highlight the critical role of cultivating individual awareness as assessors; discuss the context and scholarly history of equity-centered and equity-minded assessment; share frameworks for considering various approaches to centering equity in assessment; and provide some examples of practice and resources. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect …

Infographic: Basic Literacy Skills And The Gap Between Male And Female Students, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

NAPLAN’s National Minimum Standard is the ‘agreed minimum acceptable standard of knowledge and skills without which a student will have difficulty making sufficient progress at school’. Ahead of the 2023 tests, we compare the percentage of male and female students in year 9 achieving at or above the standard in Literacy, over time.

Program Assessment – Implementing A Cycle Of Continuous Improvement, Terri Gaeddert

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

Presenter and participants will discuss challenges of assessment processes and best practices available to assessment coordinators, department chairs, and administrators to support a culture of assessment for continuous improvement. The presenter will share how adjusting the timeline of assessment reporting provided for increased data collection and more meaningful discussion and reflection on data trends.

Infographic: Basic Skills And The Gap Between Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Students, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

In the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests, the national minimum standard (NMS) is the ‘agreed minimum acceptable standard of knowledge and skills without which a student will have difficulty making sufficient progress at school’. This infographic looks at the performance of Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in Year 9, over time.

Securing The Right Skills: A Longitudinal Assessment Of College Students’ Writing And Public Speaking Self-Efficacy, T. Kody Frey, Jessalyn I. Vallade

Basic Communication Course Annual

This research investigated the developmental patterns of students’ writing and public-speaking self-efficacy throughout their experience in the basic communication course (BCC). Questions were posed regarding (a) whether students grew in their reported writing and public speaking self-efficacy over two semesters, (b) whether growth differed based on biological sex, and (c) whether affinity and apprehension (as sources of performance self-efficacy) played a role in student growth. Two multilevel models revealed significant differences in students’ initial status and rate of growth for each outcome. Specifically, sex, affinity, and apprehension influenced students’ starting positions in the course, while only apprehension had a significant …

Conceptualizing Lifelong Learning For K-12 Education, Betsy Ng

Journal of Research Initiatives

In this era of rapid evolution, education in the twenty-first century must strive to develop students to be lifelong learners. Students should possess goals and life-ready competencies for continuous learning during formal, non-formal, and informal education. Within a globalizing world, lifelong learning skills enable students to manage difficulties and challenges. Lifelong learning for K-12 education may shape our students’ values and behavior, as well as build resilience in the face of challenges ahead. To date, educational research related to lifelong learning across varied contexts of K-12 education is still in its infancy. The present paper contributes to the conceptualization of …

Onward In Higher Education: Business Faculty Perspectives On Authentic Assessment, Farah L. Kashef, Matt Townsley

Journal of Research Initiatives

This mixed-method study explored business faculty’s perspectives on drawbacks and benefits associated with authentic assessment at 10 R1 Midwestern universities. In search of solutions, faculty were also asked to provide recommendations in implementing authentic assessment. Quantitative and qualitative findings suggest most business faculty are in favor of assessment strategies that promote higher order thinking and real-world practices. However, ongoing faculty professional development opportunities and reconsidering the assessment culture of higher education are needed to make this important shift towards authentic assessment.

A 5-Week Personalized Training Workshop To Assess And Evaluate Faculty Members Teaching Online, Felix O. Quayson, Christopher Zirkle

Journal of Research Initiatives

The authors developed the Skills of Inquiry (SoI) model accompanied by a logic model to assess and evaluate faculty members teaching online. The Skills of Inquiry is based on faculty members’ abilities to understand the online environments, skills development pertaining to online teaching, and acquisition of specific online skills. The Skills of Inquiry model was used to personalize a 5-week workshop training and development module specifically for faculty members teaching online. The training workshop is effective in training faculty members to acquire specific online teaching skills through customized and individualized professional development learning. The training is a self-paced asynchronous online …

Establishing The Validity And Reliability Of The Locus Assessments, Tim Jacobbe, Bob Delmas, Brad Hartlaub, Jeff Haberstroh, Catherine Case, Steven Foti, Douglas Whitaker

Numeracy

The development of assessments as part of the funded LOCUS project is described. The assessments measure students’ conceptual understanding of statistics as outlined in the GAISE PreK–12 Framework. Results are reported from a large-scale administration to 3,430 students in grades 6 through 12 in the United States. Items were designed to assess levels of understanding as well as components of the statistical problem solving process as articulated in the GAISE framework. We discuss details of how the model used to develop the LOCUS assessments guided the gathering of evidence for validity and reliability arguments. Three types of validity evidence are …

Focused On Pedagogy: Qr Grading Rubrics For Written Arguments, Ruby Daniels, Kathryn Appenzeller Knowles, Emily Naasz, Amanda Lindner

Numeracy

Institutional assessments of quantitative literacy/reasoning (QL/QR) have been extensively tested and reported in the literature. While appropriate for measuring student learning at the programmatic or institutional level, such instruments were not designed for classroom grading. After modifying a widely accepted institutional rubric designed to assess QR in written arguments, the current mixed method study tested the reliability of two QR analytic grading rubrics for written arguments and explored students’ reactions to the grading tools. Undergraduate students enrolled in a business course (N = 59) participated. A total of 415 QR artifacts from 40 students were assessed; an additional 19 …

Score Equating Between Aeps-2 And Aeps-3 For 0-3 Year Olds, Yuyan Xia

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

Over the past two decades, the emphasis on educational equity in early childhood education (ECE) and early childhood special education (ECSE) has highlighted the importance of assessment through policies and regulations. Ensuring accurate assessment scores is a fundamental aspect of this trend. The release of the Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System for Infants and Children, Third Edition (AEPS-3) in December 2021 led to a shift from the Second Edition (AEPS-2) in child development scoring. In order to harmonize the previous and updated assessment versions for children aged 0-3 across six developmental domains, a common item non-equivalent design, featuring fixed parameter …

Experiential Learning Projects As Assessment In Initial Teacher Education, Renee Crawford, Louise E. Jenkins, Lydia Wan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In a rapidly changing global environment, Initial Teacher Educators (ITE) have a responsibility to role-model contemporary teaching approaches, which develop graduates who think creatively and flexibly in educational workplaces. An important aspect of this work is supporting pre-service teachers (PSTs) to understand how to design assessments which facilitate a deep understanding of student learning. This learning can be achieved through the implementation of assessments which model contemporary practices and enrich student learning in ITE courses. This paper discusses new ways to consider the purpose of assessment by focusing on Experiential Learning (EL) as a form of assessment in ITE. This …

Social Studies And History Curriculum Assessment In Colleges Of Education In Ghana: Reflective Practices Of Teacher Educators, Bernice Oteng, Ronald Osei Mensah, Pearl Adiza Babah, Enock Swanzy-Impraim

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Assessment is a crucial and essential component of successful instruction and learning. As a result, teachers must examine their actions in the classroom through a process of reflective practices (self-observation and self-evaluation) and think about why they do it and if it works. This essay examines the reflective practices of Ghanaian teacher educators regarding the evaluation of social studies and history curricula. It made use of the sequential explanatory mixed method as a methodology drawn from questionnaires, interviews and document reviews. The findings disclosed that teacher educators in Ghana’s colleges of education have low efficacy and poor reflective practices when …

Evaluating The Assessment Of Resident Assistant Training, Diego Ulloa

Masters Theses

This poster provides the findings from a qualitative study of four housing professionals responsible for Resident Assistant (RA) training at four institutions in the Great Lake Association of College and University Housing Officers (GLACUHO) professional association that includes the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. This study looked at how those four institutions assessed, evaluated, and improved the centralized training provided to RAs by the department. Key findings include the importance of the use of learning outcomes for training sessions, developing, and maintaining strong relationships with key campus partners, and the issues around prioritizing session topics and departmental needs …

The Use Of Single-Subject Research Design For Assessment, Evaluation, And Research In Higher Education, Jordan C. Spencer

Theses and Dissertations

While enrolling in a college for a degree is still considered to be more of the expectation than the rule in households across the United States it is facing public criticism regarding its overall cost versus long-term benefits. This has prompted researchers to reevaluate practices in higher education to determine ways in which post-secondary institutions can improve their overall outcomes. In part, research indicates that this should include revisions to assessment, evaluation, and research (AER) practices. Currently, higher education faces many challenges associated with rigorous AER practices, which include an institutional focus on accountability measures, organizational challenges, and difficulties in …

Review Of The Australian Core Skills Framework And Digital Literacy Skills Framework And Relevant Assessment Tools. Final Report, Louise Wignall, Anita Roberts, Jana Scomazzon

Transition and Post-School Education and Training

This is the final report of a project commissioned in 2020 by the then Department of Education, Skills and Employment to review the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) and Digital Literacy Skills Framework (DLSF) and tools available to support assessment using these frameworks. The review explored the development and history of the ACSF and DLSF, their use and application in the Australian context and examined features of selected international adult skills frameworks and curriculum. Through this desktop research and range of consultation activities with stakeholders, the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) has investigated current use of the ACSF and …

Developing Rubrics Using The New Oru Outcomes, Kim Boyd, Trevor Ellis, Leighanne Locke, Terry Shannon, Rachael Valentz

Professional Development Resources

The development and examples of key program assessments (KPAs) are shared. Dr. Boyd opens the presentation. Dr. Shannon (B.S. Sports Management) begins by providing an overview of aligning program and ORU outcomes. Prof. Locke (B.S. Mathematics) walks through how current assignments were chosen to be used as key program assessments and then how the rubrics were revised to improve alignment. Dr. Valentz (B.S. Nursing) discusses how to improve the foundational alignment between program outcomes and the criterion (rubric row headings) used to measure them. She shares how criterion can be contextualized in different assignments and demonstrates in Brightspace, by D2L, …

Examinees’ Affective Preference For Online Speaking Assessment: Synchronous Vs Asynchronous, Yuxiao Du, Fangzheng Zhang

Chinese Language Teaching Methodology and Technology

With technological advancement and the COVID pandemic, online speaking assessment is increasingly used in language teaching. Two modes are developed: online synchronous testing (direct human-to-human interview) and online asynchronous testing (semi-direct human-to-machine interview). Ample literature has explored how each of the two online modes differs from traditional face-to-face speaking assessments. However, few studies have investigated the differences between the two modes, especially in terms of examinees’ affective preferences. This study, therefore, compares the extent to which each mode is accepted and favored by test takers and explores why such an affective preference emerges. The participants are 46 college students enrolled …

Book Review: Going Gradeless, Grades 6–12: Shifting The Focus To Student Learning, Ana De Jesús, Alesia Mickle Moldavan

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

This book review of Going Gradeless, Grades 6–12: Shifting the Focus to Student Learning by E. Burns and D. Frangiosa (2021) provides an alternative pedagogical method to assessment that uses a “gradeless” approach to learning for purposes of removing the stress and negative impacts of traditional grading practices while maintaining accountability with equity in mind. In this review, we describe the foundational underpinnings that frame the book and summarize some of the observed benefits as well as challenges faced by the authors who implemented this approach. We provide an overview of the chapters situated in four major takeaways guiding this …

It’S All About To Change: Implications Of Reforming Grading & Assessment Within A Public School District, Divonna M. Stebick, Megan L. Pilarcik, Daniel W. Hartman

Education Faculty Publications

Calls to reform grading systems and other assessment practices have been growing for several decades. There is consensus among many educators that grading and assessment practices that have been traditionally accepted as good practice are at best ineffective and at worst have a negative impact on raising achievement. Consequently, there is no single solution or methodology for grading that has emerged as the best practice. A variety of contemporary grading approaches have gained widespread popularity in recent years, typically being referred to as standards-based grading, standards-referenced grading, proficiency-based grading, or competency-based learning. A challenge, however, is that different school districts …

High Quality, Equity, And Assessment: An Analysis Of Variables Impacting English Learner Standardized Science Test Performance And Implications For Construct Validity, Maria Del Carmen Salazar, Joanna K. Bruno, Melissa P. Schneider

Curriculum and Instruction: Faculty Scholarship

In the United States, assessment is seen as a lever that can facilitate high-quality education. This study on English learners, students whose native language is not English, was based on data from eighth-grade English learners’ performance on science general and content-specific (physical, life, and earth science) standardized exams and an English language proficiency exam. The researchers utilized regression analysis to examine factors (i.e., socioeconomic status, home language, English language proficiency, and receptive and productive elements of language) that are predictive of English learner performance in general and content-specific science standardized assessments to identify implications for construct validity of high-stakes science …

Living, Learning, Serving: Outcomes Of Combining A Living-Learning Program With Service-Learning Courses, Allen Brizee, Kate Figiel-Miller, Marianna Carlucci

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Abstract

This article discusses a two-year IRB-approved programmatic case study that measured the outcomes of merging a living-learning program (LLP) with service-learning. The study compared student survey data from four different pedagogical models, one of which was the hybrid LLP-service-learning model where service-learning students also participated in the LLP. We also interviewed instructors who used the LLP with their service-learning pedagogy. We used a one-way ANOVA and a non-parametric test to code and analyze the survey data. We used grounded theory to code and analyze interview data. Survey data revealed that the LLP-service-learning hybrid model scored the lowest of the …

Measuring Student Reading Comprehension Performance: Considerations Of Accuracy, Equity, And Engagement By Embedding Comprehension Items Within Reading Passages, Meg Guerreiro, Elizabeth Barker, Janice Johnson

Practical Assessment, Research, and Evaluation

Reading comprehension is measured differently between classroom and more formal approaches to assessment. Traditional reading comprehension assessments often prompt students to read a multi-paragraph passage prior to displaying a set of questions that are related to the passage; however, this approach is not utilized during classroom practices. The study suggests that assessments may inadvertently measure extraneous constructs (e.g., working memory, attention, language, reading ability) by prompting students to answer items at the conclusion of the reading passage. The current study evaluates the effect of asking items throughout the passage (i.e., embedding items) to achieve a more precise measure of reading …

Equitable Assessment For Elementary Dual-Language Learners, Joliette Mandel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis points out the contradictions between the goals of standardized testing and the goals of dual-language elementary education. I argue that dual-language elementary schools in the New York City Department of Education would be better served by a performance assessment model to measure student and school accountability for several reasons. Performance assessment is more equitable for students who are marginalized by their race, language, or class. Many students who attend dual-language schools in the NYCDOE fall into all these categories. I will discuss in depth why standardized testing is failing students, particularly those in dual-language elementary programs. Next, I …