Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Interfacing Catholic Social Meanings, Sociology, Self, And Pedagogical Practices, Daniel J. Myers, Andrew J. Weigert

Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education (EPiCHE)

What connects Catholic Social Tradition with Sociology? How do each inform the other and how do they, together, flow through and animate the sociologist? Within a student-driven learning community pedagogy, this course builds on the humanistic aspects of Sociology as a scientific perspective a la Peter Berger’s Invitation to Sociology. This foundation is then filtered through a social psychological understanding of self with a sense of vocation through which persons’ deepest passions meets humans’ greatest needs. Biographical vignettes of sociologists’ careers of study that address issues of racial and gender inequalities and psycho-social shifts in values over the life course …

Standardized Testing: What Is It Good For? A Case Study In Connecticut, Megan Mapp

Honors Projects in Mathematics

The case study was developed in an attempt to shed more light on the debate of standardized testing. The goal of the study was to find evidence to support whether or not standardized testing is worth doing in public secondary schools. To investigate this question, the state standardized math test scores of three Connecticut public high schools were analyzed. The average math scores over thirteen years were observed and statistical analysis was performed to see if any significant differences existed between the three schools. Tests were performed before and after the change in standardized test. The graduation rates of the …

Academic Unit Assessment Panel, Betsy Aller, James Cousins, Barbara Sagara

Assessment in Action Conference

Three assessment practitioners at Western Michigan University will discuss their experiences with assessment activities, successes, and lessons learned, with time for Q&A.

Faculty Achievements, April 2015, Otterbein University

Faculty Achievement Reports

No abstract provided.

A Qualitative Case Study On Parental Involvement In A Midwestern Urban Charter School District: Perspectives Of Parents, Teachers, And Administrators, Amanda N. Aldridge

Dissertations

Research has shown that there can be a positive impact on the child’s academic achievement when parents are closely involved with the child’s schooling. When parents are involved in the school, they understand what is being taught in the classroom and are usually encouraged to extend the learning at home. When parents value education, students succeed. When parents are invested and show an interest in their child’s school, they develop a sense of pride for the school and tend to support the school and teachers in their decisions. This cooperative attitude allows for better, open communication and a team attitude …

Assessment Resources: How Do I Find The Help I Need?, Karen Stokes Chapo

Assessment in Action Conference

If you are searching for best practices for assessment and/or education and assistance with all things pertaining to assessment of student learning, this session will show you where to find some reliable and useful online resources including information about local assessment conferences.

Developing An Early-Alert System To Promote Student Visits To Tutor Center, Qijie (Vicky) Cai, Carrie Lewis Miller, Jude Higdon

iSALT Outcomes: Publications, Presentations, and Other Scholarly Works

An early-alert system (MavCLASS) was developed and piloted in a large gateway math class with 611 freshman students to identify academically at-risk students and provide alert messages. It was found that there was significant association between the alert messages students received and their visits to the university’s tutor center. Further, the achievement of students who visited the tutor center was improving over the semester. Evidence from the study suggests that an early-alert system focused on personalized feedback from instructional staff correlates with the help-seeking behaviors of at-risk students in large gateway classes.

Retaining Rural Educators: Characteristics Of Teacher Retention Practices Of Rural School Districts, Joshua C. Phillips

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the reasons high-quality rural veteran educators choose to remain in small, rural district settings and to identify common factors among small rural school districts that have high numbers of highly qualified veteran teachers. The study is relevant to school leaders and school boards within small rural communities seeking to develop policies and encourage strategies to keep high-quality educators from leaving districts. The motivation-hygiene theory of job satisfaction developed by Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman (1993), coupled with Rosenholtz’s (1989) 10 essential components for working together were utilized throughout the study to evaluate the …

An Examination Of The Correlation Between Teacher-Assigned Standards-Based Grades And Teacher-Assigned Traditional Grades And Student Achievement, Ashley L. Tyree-Hamby

Dissertations

The relationship between teacher-assigned standards-based grades and teacher-assigned traditional grades and student achievement on the Missouri Assessment Program was examined for all students of the sample. The 120 participants for this study were third graders during the 2012-2013 school year transitioned to fourth grade during the 2013- 2014 school year. The students were enrolled in Elementary School A in rural Missouri. One hundred twenty students’ permanent traditional and standards-based grade cards and Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) scores provided the data to determine the relationship between teacher assigned standards-based grade cards or teacher-assigned traditional grade cards and student achievement. The findings …

How Does Inclusion With Co-Teaching Affect Student Performance On Summative Assessments?, Kaitlin Marie Hutchinson

Masters Theses/Capstone Projects

Schools have been pushed toward inclusive practices with an emphasis on co-teaching models (Yeung, 2012), yet reservations exist and little is known about the effects of inclusive practices. The questions this study aims to answer are: 1. Does inclusion with an emphasis on co-teaching affect performance of newly transitioning students with disabilities on district and teacher made summative assessments?, and 2. Does inclusion with co-teaching have a carry-over effect on typically-developing students’ assessment scores? This study aims to investigate the effect of inclusive practices on student summative assessment scores. Results from the district preassessment were gathered for all students in …

Addressing The Achievement Gap In Pinellas County Schools: School Improvement Plan Compliance Of Listing And Implementing Interventions, Melissa Porter

Dissertations

The focus of this research revolved around the achievement gap which exists among Blacks and non-Blacks in Pinellas County Schools. The problem that I addressed was whether or not the strategies listed in the School Improvement Plan were actually being implemented within the classrooms and whether or not those strategies were academically effective to assist Black students. The method I used to determine implementation and effectiveness was through the use of surveys distributed to parents, students, teachers, and administrators. The results of the surveys revealed which strategies were being used and were the most effective within the classrooms. In conclusion, …

Week One: Certificate Requirements, Judith Longfield

Teaching Academy

The Centers for Teaching and Technology’s Certificate of Teaching in Higher Education is designed to foster experiential, investigative, and reflective approaches to teaching and student learning. It calls for a commitment to learning-centered teaching. All requirements are to be completed within two years of the start date

Just-In-Time Teaching, Judith Longfield

Teaching Academy

Just-In-Time Teaching resources span the spectrum from web and classroom items to books and articles on effective teaching and assessment of learning. Here is a sampling.

Rubric For Lesson Plan With Misconception/Bottleneck Focus, Judith Longfield

Teaching Academy

The following is a rubric for the lesson plan with misconception/ bottleneck focus.

Week Seven: Effective Grading - A Tool For Learning, Judith Longfield

Teaching Academy

The following is an overview of Effective Grading: A Tool for Learning.

Six Steps To Making Positive Changes In Your Teaching, Judith Longfield

Teaching Academy

I’m working my way through a 33-page review of scholarship on instructional change in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) disciplines. The authors reviewed an impressive 191 conceptual and empirical journal articles. However, what they found isn’t impressive both in terms of the quality of the scholarship on this topic and in terms of instructional change in general. It’s not the first article I’ve read of late on the various barriers that stand in the way of change in higher education. The literature is not encouraging, but I think there are some fairly straightforward principles that give any new teaching …

The Entrepreneurial University: A Unifying Theme For Tu4dublin, John Jameson, Patrick O'Donnell

Stream 1: Enterprise and Engagement

The paper is presented as a rationale for the adoption of an entrepreneurial university model as the guiding principle for the organisation of the Technological University for Dublin (TU4D)5. It is argued that the entrepreneurial university provides a coherent context in which the internal resources and capacities of the three organisations, within the alliance, can be aligned to the external environment and the needs of their stakeholders through agility, flexibility and responsiveness.The paper first considers a broad definition of what is understood as an entrepreneurial Higher Educational Institution (HEI). It then considers the entrepreneurial mind-set as a precursor to the …

The Role Of Employability Skills Training Programs In The Workforce Of Malaysia, Mohd Hazwan Mohd Puad

Open Access Dissertations

Employability skills training programs are an essential strategy to improve the skills of the workforce and minimize unemployment in Malaysia. However, there has been a lack of assessment and evaluation studies regarding local employability skills training programs. Existing local studies are focused more on the identification of the skills that allow a person to be employable. Due to the lack of assessment and evaluation studies, stakeholders seem perplexed about the direction of training programs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of educators, employers, and recent graduates regarding the role of employability skills training programs in …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Georgia’S School Climate Star Rating And Student Performance In Reading And Math On The Criterion-Referenced Competency Test, Timothy Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This researcher uncovered the fact that most state departments of education in the United States do not track or focus on professional development for school leaders on the issue of school climate. However, the state of Georgia has made substantial efforts in bringing the importance of school climate into the assessment of schools. The purpose of this study was to determine whether Georgia’s School Climate Star Rating (SCSR) had an effect on its Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) in Reading and Math achievement. Additionally, the researcher sought to determine the effect of Title I/non-Title I status, SCSRs, and the interaction between …

Race For Completion: Success Courses Components Fostering Successful Community College Completion, Brenda Roland

Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to identify the components of first-year first semester college success courses specifically designed to foster student success in single campus Illinois community colleges. The study provides a historical background of community colleges as it develops a context for the need for college success courses. A qualitative case study approach was used. The research conceptual framework encompassed Alexander Astin’s Theory of Student Involvement (IEO), Stufflebeam’s Theory of Course and Program Evaluation (CIPP), and The Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) seven key principles for student success to analyze the findings.

To generate qualitative data …

A Primer On Federal Statutes Affecting Education, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Before the Supreme Court’s monumental decision banning racial segregation in schooling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the federal government had little direct involvement in national education policy. Subsequently, the federal government has assumed a major role in setting national education policy.

The federal government’s first post- Brown major legislative enactment, in 1958, was the adoption of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA). Enacted largely in response to the Soviet Union’s launching of Sputnik 1, the NDEA, made federal funds available to education institutions to focus on areas considered critical to national defense, such as mathematics, science, and foreign …

Integration Of Technology Into The Classroom Environment: A Study Of Student Perceptions As Related To Skill Attainment, Richard M. Sullivan

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to contribute to available literature by ascertaining student perceptions of benefits of student access to technology as correlated to students’ standardized test scores. Students and teachers were surveyed for perceptions of technology benefits. Survey results were analyzed and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were calculated comparing student perceptions to standardized Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) grade-level assessment results. As described in specific detail in this paper, it was found student standardized MAP testing data were positively correlated to the introduction of technology-integrated instruction in the classroom setting. Student perceptions indicated a more positive linear association to …

Rethinking Access To Student Support With The Maps Widget, Neera Malhotra, Erika Schnatz, Dana Lundell

University Studies Assessment Research

The Provost’s Challenge project #113, reTHINKING Access to Student Support with the MAPS Widget, explored the online presence of University Studies (UNST) peer-mentor support team called Mentors Advocating and Promoting Success (MAPS). The grant money was used to create an online widget as a tool to access MAPS team by fellow mentors and students (SINQ + FRINQ) when in need. The project demonstrates that the widget tool not only facilitates instant access of the team’s support and resources, but it also is seen as a tool to document concerns that affect student retention within the University.

Silver Level Certificate Of Achievement, Judith Longfield

Teaching Academy

Form for the Silver level Certificate of Achievement.

Gold Level Certificate Of Achievement, Judith Longfield

Teaching Academy

Form for the Gold level Certificate of Achievement.

Lesson Plan With Misconception/Bottleneck Focus, Judith Longfield

Teaching Academy

The first principle discussed in How Learning Works is “students’ prior knowledge can help or hinder learning.” There is high probability that some, or, all of the students in your target course will have misconceptions and/or inaccurate prior knowledge that will actively inhibit their ability to learn course material. Unless you identify these misconceptions—also called learning bottleneck—and address them explicitly, students may be unsuccessful in mastering disciplinary thresholds. During the Teaching Academy, you will have the opportunity to apply the principles of smart teaching by designing a lesson to address an important misconception or bottleneck in your target course.

Reflection As The Key To Intuitive Knowing, Judith Longfield

Teaching Academy

In The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action (1983), Schön introduced the idea of knowing-in-action or “reflection-in-action,” observing that “[w]hen we go about the spontaneous, intuitive performance of the actions in everyday life, we show ourselves to be knowledgeable in a special way. Often we cannot say what it is that we know . . . [because it is] implicit in our patterns or action and in our feel for the stuff with which we are dealing” (p. 49). According to Schön, knowing-in-action complements reflection.

Getting Acquainted Sample, Judith Longfield

Teaching Academy

The following is information on getting acquainted.

Sample Civility Statements, Judith Longfield

Teaching Academy

These are samples of statements from a range of college and university campuses.

University Of The Future Colombia-Purdue Workshop Report, Suresh V. Garimella, David B. Janes, Liliana Gómez Díaz

PPRI Digital Library

The University of the Future Workshop, a joint Colombia-Purdue event, was held at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, October 28-29, 2014. Participants included rectors and board members from six top universities in Colombia, along with executive directors of NGOs, government representatives from the U.S. and Colombia, and Purdue faculty and administrators. The workshop was focused on a dialog among participants on key programs and focuses that will allow universities to be responsive to the 21st century needs of the Americas.

This report is a summary of the workshop and is based on the contributions of all the participants. Key …