Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Healing Racial Trauma From Public School Systems, Lisa Y. Collins

Journal of Research Initiatives

Oregon needs Black educators in the K-12 public school system. In 35 school districts throughout the state, the number of students of color has risen by over 40% in recent years (Oregon Chief Education Office, 2019). The number of educators of color in the state is under 10%. The number of Black educators is even lower. Research has shown that Black educators improve all students' academic, cultural, and social aspects, especially Black students. Nationally, Black educators were impacted by the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. At that time in history, Black communities fought for civil rights as they experienced …

The Lived Experiences Of Teachers Of Color And Racial Microaggressions, Torine Champion, Linda Wilson-Jones

Journal of Research Initiatives

This qualitative study describes the lived experiences of teachers of color and identify commonalities within the lived experiences of teachers of color employed in predominately White K–12 schools. This study utilized interpretive phenomenological analysis, viewed through the White racial frame lens. There were 15 participants who were included in this research study. Participants were teachers of color with at least five years of teaching experience in predominately White K–12 environments. Data collection procedures included confidential virtual, semi-structured interviews with specific information the researcher wanted to explore. A lack of professional connectivity and microaggression was revealed as a theme. While teachers …

“It’S Part Of Your Life Now Because Someone Has Exposed You To It”: The Experiences Of Adult Learners Of Color In The Clemente Course In The Humanities, Charity Anderson

Journal of Research Initiatives

At 30 sites across the United States and Puerto Rico, the Bard College Clemente Course in the Humanities provides economically and socially marginalized adults with a free college course in the humanities. The experience of non-traditional adult students, particularly adults of color, is often missing from academic literature, exacerbating past injustices and increasingly marginalizing the historically underserved people and communities of color by higher education. This paper, which draws from a two-year critical ethnography of Clemente courses, examines the perspective of the adult learners of color who participated in the course. Interview and participant-observational data indicate that adults enrolled in …

Associations Between Multicultural Distress, Academic Achievement, And General Stress Among Racial/Ethnic Minority College Students At A Minority-Serving Institution, Alexandra O. Gil, Franklin Dickerson Turner, Aaron A. Gubi

Journal of Research Initiatives

This study explored the relationship between multicultural distress and general stress symptoms and the academic achievement of college students attending a Minority-Serving Institution (MSI). Research suggests that students who identify as being from a racial or ethnic minority background are likely to experience multicultural distress. Such students are believed to be at greater risk of experiencing mental health and academic challenges. Many contend that being in a diverse learning setting serves as a protective factor, shielding racial/ethnic minority students from some degree of distress and thereby promoting mental health and academic well-being. In contrast, other research findings suggest that multicultural …

Teacher Research Seminar Syllabus Fall 2023, David Allen

Open Educational Resources

This is syllabus for a teacher research seminar for Masters students in an adolescence (secondary) English education program at the College of Education. This is the first iteration of the course. The course is a zero textbook cost course.

The Impact Of The Corona Pandemic On The Quality Of High School Exam Questions In Jordan أثر جائحة كورونا في جودة أسئلة امتحان الثانوية العامة في الأردن, Haidar Zaza

Association of Arab Universities Journal for Education and Psychology

The study aimed to identify the quality of the high school exam questions by measuring that the questions do not violate the rules of their writing. The number of questions that formed the study population was 4,915 distributed over 160 exams held during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The descriptive analytical approach was followed to analyze 1230 multiple-choice questions using the violation detection tool. The results showed that 434 (35.3%) questions violated at least one rule, and 736 (59.8%) questions violated two or more rules. In total, the analysis revealed that 1170 (95.1%) questions violated five rules out of 18 …

The Reality Of The Use Of Alternative Evaluation Strategies And Tools By Statistics Teachers In The Initial Stage In Iraq "واقع استخدام مدرسي الإحصاء إستراتيجيات التقويم البديل وأدواته في المرحلة الأولية في العراق ", Ali Somoum Al-Fartousi

Association of Arab Universities Journal for Education and Psychology

The study aimed to identify the status of practicing the alternative evaluation strategies and its tools by the higher basic cycle statistics teachers in Iraq. The sample of the study consisted of (26) male and female teachers who were selected randomly from the teachers of statistics at Al-Mustansiriya University / College of Basic Education for the academic year 2021/2022. A questionnaire was developed to measure the variables of the study, including 58 items distributed to eight areas to ensure its validity and reliability. The results of the study showed that the degree of statistics teachers practicing of alternative evaluation strategies …

An Evaluation Of The English Secondary School Certificate Test In Syria, Ali Suad Hasan

Association of Arab Universities Journal for Education and Psychology

Language assessment is a continuous process that is used in almost every EFL classroom. Teachers constantly assess student performance when replying to certain questions, using a new vocabulary or structure in a sentence or providing a written work. Whether these forms of assessment are incidental or intended, they are certainly considered significant in assessing learners’ performance. The present research presents various types of language tests, illustrates what makes a good test including the reliability and validity of the test and examines how to evaluate tests. Specifically, this paper aims at evaluating one of the English language tests administered by the …

Professional Learning Conversations: Adaptive Expertise For Schools. Supplementary Digital Materials, Helen Timperley

Educational leadership

School leaders face complex challenges, that typically have multiple causes and often persist despite everyone’s best attempts to address them. Addressing complex challenges requires juggling both the big picture, and the specific parts of the challenge. Without a roadmap, this process is fraught and unlikely to succeed in improving outcomes. In order to make a difference, schools need adaptive expertise; a skill which can be learnt through professional conversations and inquiry. In Leading professional conversations, Emeritus Professor Helen Timperley deftly outlines the key enablers for effective professional conversations – relationships, resources, processes, knowledge and culture – which support teachers to …

Self-Study Portfolio Jessica Hanig, Jessica Hanig

Master of Education in Teacher Leadership Portfolios

No abstract provided.

The Lived Experiences Of Secondary Teachers Who Give Grades And Feedback: A Phenomenological Study, Brandon Miles Moore

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of secondary teachers who grade student work, including their grading beliefs, decisions, and feedback practices at Discovery Hills Unified School District. The theory that guided this study was self-determination theory as it helps explain the motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, for teacher grading practices and the impact of teacher feedback on students. The central question was: What are secondary teachers’ lived experiences with grading student work? Sub questions were used to explore the beliefs, decisions, and practices secondary teachers employ when grading student work or providing feedback. …

One Font Doesn’T Fit All: The Influence Of Digital Text Personalization On Comprehension In Child And Adolescent Readers, Shannon M. Sheppard, Susanne L. Nobles, Anton Palma, Sophie Kajfez, Marjorie Jordan, Kathy Crowley, Sofie Beier

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Reading comprehension is an essential skill. It is unclear whether and to what degree typography and font personalization may impact reading comprehension in younger readers. With advancements in technology, it is now feasible to personalize digital reading formats in general technology tools, but this feature is not yet available for many educational tools. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of character width and inter-letter spacing on reading speed and comprehension. We enrolled 94 children (kindergarten–8th grade) and compared performance with six font variations on a word-level semantic decision task (Experiment 1) and a passage-level comprehension task (Experiment 2). …

Analyzing Arkansas's Course Credit And Unexcused Absence Policy, Sarah Mckenzie, Josh Mcgee, Sarah R. Morris

Policy Briefs

In this brief, we examine the implementation of A.C.A 6-18-222, a statewide policy in Arkansas that addresses the unexcused absences and course credit. We find wide variability in the policy’s local implementation. We suggest districts examine their thresholds and language in this policy, and implement Early Warning Intervention and Monitoring Systems to improve school culture.

Freshman Course Credit And Unexcused Absences: An Arkansas Policy Analysis, Sarah R. Morris, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Miranda Vernon

Arkansas Education Reports

This policy analysis examines the implementation of A.C.A. 6-18-222, a statewide policy in Arkansas that addresses unexcused absences and course credit consequences for students. Using anonymized student-level data from the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years (N=65,651), the study explores variations in policy implementation across districts and investigates the relationship between absences and course failures for freshmen. Our results highlight the wide variability in the number of allowed unexcused absences and the language of course credit consequence among districts. Additionally, our multivariate logistic regressions reveal FRL-eligible students more likely to fail a course after reaching their district’s unexcused absence threshold. Lastly, …

Long-Term Outcomes Of Early Adult 4-H Alumni, Nicole Marshall-Wheeler, Roshan Nayak, Anne Iaccopucci, Steven M. Worker

Journal of Extension

Very little has been published reporting on long-term outcomes experienced by young adults (aged 19 to 34 years old) who participated in 4-H youth development programs. We adopted Gambone et al.’s (2002) framework advancing three long-term outcomes for early adulthood: economic stability, health and well-being, and community involvement. With cross-sectional survey methods, we compared long-term impacts between 693 California 4-H young adult alumni and 373 young adults in a U.S. general population sample who had not participated in 4-H. The results demonstrated that 4-H alumni report more positive long-term outcomes than the U.S. general population sample. The study contributes to …

Effects Of Transition From Closed-Book To Open-Book Assessment On Students’ Scores In A Pharmacokinetics Course, Reza Mehvar, Richard Beuttler

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Closed-book summative assessment of student learning, common in pharmacy education, is challenging to administer in a remote setting due to the need for costly and intrusive monitoring technology. Therefore, open-book assessments without monitoring have been considered an alternative in remote settings. The present study investigated the effects of the transition from in-person closed-book to remote open-book format on the students’ scores in different assessment categories in a Pharmacokinetics course. The students’ performances in the transition cohort (Transition, n = 96) during the in-person and remote periods were compared with those of an in-person cohort (Control, n = 85) during the …

Implementing Social Emotional Activities Into The English Language Arts Curriculum, Allison M. Sherbel

Masters Theses

Over the last decade social emotional learning has revealed itself to be an important element in students' academic growth. Social emotional learning requires students to learn the skills necessary to effectively communicate with others as well as maintaining a positive classroom environment, where all students feel supported, safe and heard. When students become more connected to their own emotions, they are developing an essential skill that will help them inside and outside of the classroom. Research shows that implementation of social emotional lessons can improve both immediate and long-term social-emotional ability as well as academic growth. Despite this research, teachers …

The National Student Assessment 2022 In Bangladesh. Key Findings & Learnings, Directorate Of Primary Education Bangladesh

Assessment and Reporting

This fact sheet highlights the key findings of the National Student Assessment (NSA) 2022, a sample-based assessment in Bangladesh, covering 3,357,233 students in grade 3 and 3,604,586 students in grade 5. The NSA project is a partnership of the Monitoring and Evaluation Division. Directorate of Primary Education. Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, UNICEF, UKAID and Australian Council for Educational Research (India) as technical agency.

Ensuring Quality In Qualitative Research: A Researcher's Reflections, Niroj Dahal

The Qualitative Report

This reflective paper is the outcome of my qualitative research engagement aligned with quality standards. I began with autoethnography in my master's research in mathematics education (see Dahal, 2013), then moved on to narrative inquiry in my MPhil research (see Dahal, 2017), and collaborative autoethnography in my doctoral research (see Dahal, 2023). With the above, this paper aims to clarify the quality criteria used in autoethnography, narrative inquiry, and collaborative autoethnography based on my experiences to evaluate the robustness of qualitative research from various ontological and epistemological vantage points. Likewise, this article offers a comprehensive overview of the key elements …

How Teachers Conceptualise Shared Control With An Ai Co-Orchestration Tool: A Multiyear Teacher-Centred Design Process, Luettamae Lawrence, Vanessa Echeverria, Kexin Yang, Vincent Aleven, Nikol Rummel

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance teachers' capabilities by sharing control over different parts of learning activities. This is especially true for complex learning activities, such as dynamic learning transitions where students move between individual and collaborative learning in un-planned ways, as the need arises. Yet, few initiatives have emerged considering how shared responsibility between teachers and AI can support learning and how teachers' voices might be included to inform design decisions. The goal of our article is twofold. First, we describe a secondary analysis of our co-design process comprising six design methods to understand how teachers conceptualise sharing control with …

International K-12 Schools Seeking U.S. Accreditation: An Analysis Of The Rationales Involved In Earning Accreditation Through The Western Association Of Schools And Colleges, Kerri Knapp

Capstone Collection

The international K-12 school market is growing fast, and new international schools are opening every year. Hundreds of those international K-12 schools seek out accreditation to help validate their institution’s authenticity. Accreditation allows potential students and families to trust that the education provided is legitimate according to a set of principles and standards provided by the accreditation organization. Colleges and universities, particularly those in the United States, where thousands of international students strive to be accepted, typically require students to matriculate from an accredited school. With this market growth comes a need for accountability, and therein lies accreditation. The United …

Evaluating The Feasibility And Impact Of A Well-Being Retreat For Physicians And Advanced Practice Providers, Amanda K. Bailey, Amanda T. Sawyer, Hong Tao, Leila Durr, Alexandra Lajeunesse, Ravindran Sabapathy, Tyon L. Hall

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Work stress experienced by physicians and advanced practice providers (APPs) can have a detrimental psychological and physical impact. Targeted interventions that focus on self-awareness, peer connection, and intentional self-care may reduce stress and improve well-being and professional fulfillment.

Methods: This is a summative program evaluation of a two-day well-being retreat for physicians and APPs employed at a healthcare system headquartered in Florida. Led by mental health professionals in May 2022, this retreat combined facilitator-led workshops and experiential practice activities with opportunities for peer connection and designated time with family members. The retreat objectives were to facilitate social …

Building A World-Class Learning System: Insights From Some Top-Performing School Systems, Geoff N. Masters

School and system improvement

The result of a multi-year study, this book explores how five school systems - British Columbia, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong and South Korea - have been rethinking and reforming their schools systems. It addresses questions including: What policies need to be in place for every child to experience an engaging and supportive learning environment that motivates not only high performance but a desire to keep learning? What do students really need to know and be able to do to thrive in a changing world? How can systems engage in ongoing improvement while also cultivating innovation? The book provides a framework …

Standardized Testing And Stress In Teachers And Students, Gretchen L. Spoelman-Delong

Masters Projects

This project demonstrates the relationship between standardized testing and increased stress in both teachers and students. The emphasis placed on standardized testing and therefore potential for increased anxiety and stress for teachers and students is important because stressed and anxious teachers are not going to be teaching to their full potential. Likewise, stressed and anxious students are not going to be able to rise to their full learning potential (Gonzalez et al., 2017). The purpose of this project is to decrease the amount of stress and anxiety that students and teachers feel. This can be accomplished by informing school personnel, …

Equalizing Community Voice In An International Service-Learning Project: A Narrative Inquiry Of A Social Entrepreneurial Peruvian Women's Group, Monica D. Hernandez

Theses & Dissertations

Traditionally, international service-learning (ISL) programs are created and led by host groups, which frequently overlook the international communities’ learning process and perspectives and the long-term impact of service missions on the community. Fundamentally, ISL is meant to address community needs. With the principal focus being on enriching students’ learning, community voice is often eclipsed. The research aim was to investigate the empowerment and efficacy of an ISL project to strengthen relationships between engaged scholars and international communities and improve future service-learning trips. Using a qualitive narrative research design, I investigated a 2021-2022 ISL Based Photovoice Project applying Kolb’s Experiential Learning …

Ctl Impact Report (Fy23), Center For Teaching & Learning

CTL Publications

The Sacred Heart University CTL was founded in 2022 as an integrated scaffold of teaching and learning support. Its founding brought together instructional development for SHU faculty with academic support services for SHU undergraduate and graduate students. In this report, we share our center’s reach and impact during FY23 (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023), marking the first full academic year in which the CTL has operated in its current model.

Understanding Administrators' Perceptions Of Gifted Ell Students, Abigail Eaton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Students with gifts and talents are identified in school districts across the nation. However, there is severe underrepresentation of minority groups in gifted education programs, specifically students with ELL backgrounds. This issue is important because students from diverse backgrounds are the fastest growing group of the K-12 population. If the issue is not addressed, many talents will be overlooked and underdeveloped (Peters & Engerrand, 2016). The purpose of this study was to analyze administrators’ perceptions of gifted ELL students.

Participants in this study include six administrators from a small, rural district in Southcentral Kentucky. All of the administrators participated in …

College For What . . . How Middle School Students From Low Socioeconomic Backgrounds Perceived Post-Secondary Education, Michelle Patrick

Dissertations

This study examines the attitudes and perceptions of middle school students from low socioeconomic backgrounds about attending post-secondary institutions. As research continues to explore the experiences of traditional high school students from low socioeconomic backgrounds and students' attendance into post-secondary institutions, research concerning middle school students from low socioeconomic backgrounds preparedness for college attendance has been limited. Using a phenomenological research design to obtain the study's results from fifteen students and thirteen parent interviews provided insight into the “lived experience” of the students’ and parents' attitudes and perceptions regarding college attendance. The study found that regardless of the parents’ and …

Nonparametric Analysis In Educational Test Development - A Mokken Scale Approach To Evaluating Efl Vocabulary Proficiency, Ali Jahanaray, Akram Faravani

Publications

Mokken Scale Analysis (MSA) can offer a more flexible approach to common Item Response Theories (IRT) as a non-parametric method for evaluating educational tests with ordinal data. This study applied MSA on a Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) originally developed with IRT methods among 234 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students to test the assumptions of MSA, including unidimensionality, monotonicity, local independence, and invariant item ordering (IIO) with mokken package in R. MSA assumptions successfully met with the VLT validated with validating the VLT being a unidimensional test with Automated Item Selection Procedures (AISP) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) methods utilized. …

The Basic Communication Course And College Student Retention: A Longitudinal Analysis, David E. Schneider, Jennifer D. Mccullough

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This longitudinal study examined the relationship between two formats of the basic communication course (BCC) and first-year college student retention over a four-year period. Chi-square and logistic regression models indicated students who completed the BCC were more likely to be retained than those who did not complete the BCC. While completing the BCC was associated with retention for both formats, the hybrid BCC format was more consistently related to retention than the public speaking BCC. Students from certain demographic groups who completed the hybrid BCC were retained more frequently than students from the same demographic who did not complete the …