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Full-Text Articles in Education

Test-Based Accountability Systems: Concerns For Indiana’S Multilingual Learners And Their Teachers, Kathryn Brooks, Brooke Kandel-Cisco Oct 2016

Test-Based Accountability Systems: Concerns For Indiana’S Multilingual Learners And Their Teachers, Kathryn Brooks, Brooke Kandel-Cisco

Kathryn Brooks

Indiana’s current test-based accountability system grew, in part, out of decades of federal-level educational reform initiatives. This article reviews the history of Indiana’s test-based accountability system for schools and details how the system calculates evaluative ratings for Indiana teachers and schools. Additionally, the article analyzes how the Indiana accountability system contradicts what is known about appropriate measurement of English language learners and lists psychometric and validity concerns such as valid assessment, non-random assignment, norming groups, and ceiling/bottom effects. This article calls for a system in which multiple assessments offer rich data for school and teacher evaluations.


Validity And Qualitative Research: An Oxymoron?, Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Nancy L. Leech May 2016

Validity And Qualitative Research: An Oxymoron?, Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Nancy L. Leech

Nancy Leech

Although the importance of validity has long been accepted among quantitative researchers, this concept has been an issue of contention among qualitative researchers. Thus, the first purpose of the present paper is to introduce the Qualitative Legitimation Model, which attempts to integrate many of the types of validity identified by qualitative researchers. The second purpose of this article is to describe 24 methods for assessing the truth value of qualitative research. Utilizing and documenting such techniques should prevent validity and qualitative research from being seen as an oxymoron.


Test-Based Accountability Systems: Concerns For Indiana’S Multilingual Learners And Their Teachers, Kathryn Brooks, Brooke Kandel-Cisco Apr 2016

Test-Based Accountability Systems: Concerns For Indiana’S Multilingual Learners And Their Teachers, Kathryn Brooks, Brooke Kandel-Cisco

Brooke Kandel-Cisco

Indiana’s current test-based accountability system grew, in part, out of decades of federal-level educational reform initiatives. This article reviews the history of Indiana’s test-based accountability system for schools and details how the system calculates evaluative ratings for Indiana teachers and schools. Additionally, the article analyzes how the Indiana accountability system contradicts what is known about appropriate measurement of English language learners and lists psychometric and validity concerns such as valid assessment, non-random assignment, norming groups, and ceiling/bottom effects. This article calls for a system in which multiple assessments offer rich data for school and teacher evaluations.