Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Enhancing Children's Achievement In Basic Science Using Library Electronic Books: A Case Of Simple Repeated Evaluation, Christian Ugwuanyi Phd

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The 21^st century classrooms demand a lot from both the teachers and the learners due to the technological developments and demands in teaching and learning. These days, most parents buy their children (smart/android phones, tablets, or laptops without knowing the educational benefits of these gadgets in accessing online learning materials. The 21^st century technology has made the use of e-books very beneficial to the teaming population of learners who have access to the internet, but it is worrisome that there is a dearth of research on such issues in the Nigerian context. Thus, this research examined the effect …

Learning Recovery And Addressing The Learning Crisis In The Asia Pacific: Policy Brief, Pina Tarricone, Kemran Mestan, Ian Teo, Yung Nietschke

Global education monitoring

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education for approximately 1.2 billion students across the Asia-Pacific, and forced the closure of many schools, precipitating a transition towards remote learning, albeit with uneven access and quality (UNESCO, 2021; Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel, 2022), and threatening to deepen the ‘learning crisis’ that already existed, particularly for the most vulnerable learners. As education systems in the Asia-Pacific seek to recover the learning loss due to the pandemic and address the broader learning crisis, it is incumbent on governments to identify appropriate recovery strategies in the short term. Also, governments need to support education system …

Achievement Growth In K-8 Catholic Schools Using Nwea Data, Julie W. Dallavis, Megan Kuhfeld, Beth Tarasawa, Stephen Ponisciak

Journal of Catholic Education

Using a national sample of kindergarten to eighth grade students from Catholic and public schools who took MAP Growth assessments, we examine achievement growth over time between sectors. Our findings suggest that while Catholic school students score higher in math and reading than public school students on average, they also enter each school year at a higher level. Public school students close this gap to some degree during the school year. Additionally, these patterns varied by age and subject. Catholic school students in the earlier grades show less growth in both reading and math during the academic year compared to …

Reporting Student Progress: What Might It Look Like?, Hilary Hollingsworth, Jonathan Heard, Anthony Hockey, Tegan Knuckey

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

The Communicating Student Learning Progress review produced by ACER in 2019 set out recommendations for schools and systems to improve the way schools report on student learning, in particular learning progress. Two case study schools from Victoria – a Catholic primary school and government secondary school – discuss changes they’ve made to their student reporting processes, in response to the review’s recommendations. Further research is recommended into how schools are rethinking reporting to engage students and parents in monitoring learning growth.

How Might We Identify And Measure Learning Progression In History?, Louise Zarmati

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

In this session, Dr Zarmati will share her research on efforts to map and describe progress in the learning area of History.

Learning progression is a continuum that measures advances in learning by tracking development from early learning to more sophisticated levels of mastery. Mathematics relies on an understanding of empirical knowledge and concepts in a hierarchical sequence; students need to understand (or master) one mathematical concept before they can proceed to the next. In comparison, progress of understanding in history is not necessarily hierarchical because it is based on mastery of concepts and skills rather than historical knowledge, which …

Strengthening The Connections Between Library Instruction And Student Success, Lucinda R. Wittkower, Joleen Westerdale Mcinnis

Libraries Faculty & Staff Presentations

This poster will share the results from a three-year study that investigated correlations between student participation in library instruction and student academic achievement. Using rigorous research practice and acknowledging ethical concerns by use of an in-depth student consent process, the researchers will share their findings regarding the relationships that exist between student participation in library instruction and completion of course for which instruction was attended and the relationships between student participation in library instruction and their grade in course. Additionally, the researchers will share the unexpected, but interesting finding related to student withdrawal rates. Finally, the researchers will include information …

Pisa 2018: Australia In Focus Number 1: Academic Resilience Among Australian Students, Sue Thomson

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

Socioeconomically disadvantaged students (i.e. those whose scores on a constructed measure of social and cultural capital are below a specified cut-off, usually the 25th percentile) have been found to be more likely to drop out of school, repeat a grade, achieve lower levels at senior secondary school, and score lower on tests such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Despite this association between socioeconomic disadvantage and poorer outcomes related to education, a percentage of students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds enjoy success at school. This apparent success despite the odds is of interest to researchers and educators alike …

Study Protocol For Testing The Association Between Physical Activity And Academic Outcomes Utilizing A Cluster-Randomized Trial, Peter Boedeker, Lindsey Turner, Hannah Calvert, Christi Kay, Adria Meyer, Chuck Truett, Julie Gazmararian

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend adolescents engaging in 60 min of physical activity (PA) every day. Students should spend at least 30 min being active while at school. However, schools rarely provide that much PA time for students. This paper describes the planned analyses for a study evaluating the relationships between PA (measured as average daily minutes of Moderate to Vigorous Physical Activity [MVPA]) and educational outcomes of standardized test scores and classroom grades cross-sectionally in 4 th grade and longitudinally from 4 th to 5 th grade. Investigations of moderators (both student- and school-level), mediators, and potential …

Performance Comparison Between Ib And Non-Ib School Students On The International Schools’ Assessment, Ling Tan

Monitoring Learning

This report examines the performance of students enrolled in the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) and the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) on the ACER International Schools’ Assessment (ISA) compared with non-IB students from the same ISA cohorts. The ISA is an assessment created especially for students in international schools in Grades 3 to 10. The assessment asks both multiple-choice and open-ended questions in the areas of writing, reading, mathematics and science, and provides international normative information about student performance. The ISA scales for Reading, Mathematical Literacy and Scientific Literacy are based on those developed for the internationally endorsed frameworks …

Sense Of Belonging And Association With Academic Achievement Of Hispanic And Non-Hispanic High School Students, Mary Webster

Ed.D. Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental, correlational research study was to investigate the extent that Hispanics in grade 11 in a rural high school in Tennessee experienced a sense of belonging and the correlation, if any, between sense of belonging and academic achievement on the state English I and English II standardized tests. I selected Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs as the theoretical framework to focus the nonexperimental, correlational study. I collected student perceptions for sense of belonging using the Psychological Sense of School Membership scale, designed to measure perceptions of psychological membership and sense of belonging, for students in grade …

Australia: Pisa Australia—Excellence And Equity?, Sue Thomson

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

Australia’s education system reflects its history of federalism. State and territory governments are responsible for administering education within their jurisdiction and across the sector comprising government (public), Catholic systemic and other independent schooling systems. They collaborate on education policy with the federal government. Over the past two decades the federal government has taken a greater role in funding across the education sector, and as a result of this involvement and the priorities of federal governments of the day, Australia now has one of the highest rates of non-government schooling in the OECD. Funding equity across the sectors has become a …

Academic Goal Orientation: New Insights And Cultural Adaptation Of Academic Goal Orientation Questionnaire Into The Turkish Language, Fuat Findikoglu, Mehmet Gurol

Georgia Educational Researcher

This study aims to review and provide new perspectives for academic goal orientation. The study introduces first chronological history of goal orientation and depicts how goal orientation evolved into a new construct in learning from the discussion on motivational factors. At first, this study isolates goal orientation from motivation and provides novel insights into goal orientation as a separated factor affecting learning. Then, this study provides analyses of the adaptation work of the academic goal orientation questionnaire into the Turkish language. The translated scale was applied to a sample of 729 undergraduate students, 376 (51.6%) of which were female and …

Engagement Requires The Institution Too: A Case Study Of A California Community College Using Assessment Data To Improve Student Success Practices, Duane Brooks

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While the collection of assessment data by educational institutions is important, these activities are not sufficient to create an institution that is fully “engaged” with not only the data, but also in using data to improve decision making and student success practices within the institution. The institution must be ready to use the data for action and improvement. Understanding the process that transforms data into institutionalized knowledge is an important component of what institutional engagement looks like. This qualitative single case study explored the scope and nature of institutional engagement in the case of one California community college by examining …

Time For A Paradigm Shift In School Education?, Geoff N. Masters

Occasional Essays

The thesis of this essay is that the schooling paradigm is in need of review and that the answer may lie in a shift in how we think about teaching and learning. Under the prevailing paradigm, the role of teachers is to deliver the year-level curriculum to all students in a year level. This mismatch has unfortunate consequences for both teaching and learning. Currently, many students are not ready for their year-level curriculum because they lack prerequisite knowledge, skills and understandings. The basis for an alternative paradigm and a 'new normal' is presented. The essay addresses concerns raised about changes …

The Latin-American Laboratory For Assessment Of The Quality Of Education: Measuring And Comparing Educational Quality In Latin America, Australian Council For Educational Research

Assessment GEMS

The Laboratorio Latinoamericano de Evaluación de la Calidad de la Educación (Latin-American Laboratory for Assessment of the Quality of Education or LLECE) is the network of national systems for the assessment of education quality in Latin America, created in 1994, and coordinated by UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC). LLECE’s purpose is to produce data and knowledge that inform educational policy in the region, contribute to capacity building, and serve as a forum for reflection, exchange and generation of new ideas and good practices in education evaluation. LLECE assessments aim to provide information about …

The Federal 1003g Title I School Improvement: Perceptions Of Principals And Teachers Of Mathematics Regarding Program Outcome Of Five Arkansas Delta Schools, Gheric E. Bruce

Student Theses and Dissertations

This study focused on principals and math teachers’ perceptions on how the 1003G School Improvement Grant improved academic achievement at five schools in the Arkansas Delta. Data was collected through face to face interviews. Interview questions consisted of open-ended questions that were general, but yet aimed at comprehending the perceptions of selected principals and math teachers. The questions were specific to how the principals and math teachers perceived math achievement improved from pre grant periods to post grant periods; how they perceived math assessment strategies improved from pre grant periods to post grant periods; and how they perceived math instructional …

The Influence And Predictability Of Socioeconomic Factors On The 2018 Parcc Middle School Ela Scores In New Jersey, Charlene Jones

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This quantitative study is nonexperimental, utilizing socioeconomic, community, and district data to determine what influence and level of accuracy of prediction is made on standardized testing in New Jersey. This study focuses on middle school students in Grades 6, 7, and 8 in New Jersey's traditional public schools. The study design is a quantitative correlational predictive study design. SES factors for each district were identified using both U.S. Census data and NJDOE district data. Independent variables include percentage of poverty, percentage of single-parent families, education level of parents, percentage of free and reduced price lunch. The dependent variables include: 2018 …

Environmental Scan: Topical Areas To Inform A Future Review Of The Australian Professional Standards For Teachers, Kerry Elliott, Pru Mitchell, Hilary Hollingsworth, Charlotte Waters, Jenny Trevitt

Teaching standards and teacher evaluation

The brief was to conduct a broad sweep of literature that has surfaced since the publication of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers in 2011, and to consider how this literature could inform any future review of the standards. This multi-pronged scan method identified eleven topics that have increasingly influenced teachers' work over the past decade. The environmental scan report provides a critical review of current educational research and policy literature for each of the 11 topics. Findings provide a description of the topic, key sources, an outline of the changing landscape as it relates to teaching, examples of how …

Moving Beyond Executive Functions: Challenge Preference As A Predictor Of Academic Achievement In Elementary School, Michael J. Sulik, Jenna E. Finch, Jelena Obradović

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Intrinsic motivation and executive functions (EFs) have been independently studied as predictors of academic achievement in elementary school. The goal of this investigation was to understand how students’ challenge preference (CP), an aspect of intrinsic motivation, is related to academic achievement while accounting for EFs as a confounding variable. Using data from a longitudinal study of 569 third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders (50% female), we tested students’ self-reported CP as a predictor of mathematics and English language arts (ELA) achievement in multilevel models that controlled for school fixed effects and student demographic characteristics. CP was positively associated with mathematics and ELA …

Responsive Classroom: A Mixed Methods Study Of The Impact On Academic Achievement And Social Skills, Amy Hildenbrand

Doctor of Education Dissertations

In a single-year mixed methods explanatory study, the researcher sought to determine the impact the Responsive Classroom approach had on student achievement and social skills. The participating elementary school had 14 teachers and two administrators voluntarily participate in the 4-day Responsive Classroom training. The school used the train-the-trainer model, and the participating teachers and administrators brought the training to all other staff for the school-wide implementation of the Responsive Classroom approach. At the end of the year, the researcher analyzed student achievement data to look for any statistically significant changes as measured from the non-implementation year to the year with …

Mastery Learning: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Teacher Efforts Implementing Key Components Of The Mastery Learning Framework, Lashay Conley

Doctor of Education Dissertations

This study works to assess the degree to which the impact of implementation of Mastery Learning can be described through teacher perception, academic achievement, and student growth. Elementary school teachers in a suburb in North Carolina implemented the Mastery Learning framework. The school’s end-of-grade test scores were above state and district averages but did not meet expected academic growth as identified by the state. These results are an indicator that many of the students were proficient but were not growing at an acceptable rate. Beginning in the 2017 school year, teachers attended professional development training on the framework, processes, and …

Pisa 2018 In Brief I. Student Performance, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Marina Schmid

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This document provides a summary of student performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 assessment and tells us about their capacities to apply knowledge and skills in the domains of reading, mathematical, and scientific literacy. In 2018, 79 countries and economies including Australia participated in PISA. The focus of this report is Australia’s performance results in an international context. It covers Australia’s performance over time, results for the Australian states and territories, school sectors, female and male students, the geographic location of schools, socioeconomic background, Indigenous background, immigrant background and language spoken at home.

Pisa 2018: Reporting Australia’S Results. Volume I Student Performance, Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Marina Schmid

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is an international comparative study of student performance directed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). PISA measures the cumulative outcomes of education by assessing how well 15-year-olds, who are nearing the end of their compulsory schooling in most participating educational systems, are prepared to use the knowledge and skills in particular areas to meet real-life opportunities and challenges. The term literacy is attached to the assessment domains of reading, mathematics and science to reflect the focus on these broader skills and as a concept it is used in a much …

Pisa 2018: Reporting Australia’S Results. Volume I Student Performance: Data Tables [Excel] [Data Set], Sue Thomson, Lisa De Bortoli, Catherine Underwood, Marina Schmid

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) Australia

This zipped excel file is the data behind the figures and tables in the report: PISA 2018: Reporting Australia’s Results. Volume I Student Performance. They cover Australian student performance in reading literacy, reading literacy subscales, mathematical literacy and reading literacy.

Reporting Student Learning, Hilary Hollingsworth, Jonathan Heard

NSW Curriculum Review

This paper is one of six research ‘backgrounders’ to support the 2018–20 review of the New South Wales (NSW) curriculum. It focuses on reporting student learning, which has been identified as an area of interest in the review. This paper seeks to present an evidence base, based on a rapid review of relevant research literature, to inform considerations related to student reporting practice reform.

Communicating Student Learning Progress: A Review Of Student Reporting In Australia. Findings In Brief, Hilary Hollingsworth, Jonathan Heard, Paul R. Weldon

Assessment and Reporting

The Communicating Student Learning Progress project was initiated to investigate questions relating to the effectiveness of current methods of communicating student progress, the extent to which they are valued by stakeholders, whether they are considered to provide quality information about student learning, and whether there are alternative designs for these activities that might be more effective. The project took place over a three-year period from July 2016 to June 2019.

Communicating Student Learning Progress: A Review Of Student Reporting In Australia, Hilary Hollingsworth, Jonathan Heard, Paul R. Weldon

Assessment and Reporting

The Communicating Student Learning Progress project was initiated to investigate questions relating to the effectiveness of current methods of communicating student progress, the extent to which they are valued by stakeholders, whether they are considered to provide quality information about student learning, and whether there are alternative designs for these activities that might be more effective. The project took place over a three-year period from July 2016 to June 2019.

The Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics Program: Thinking Globally In A Regional Context, Unicef, Southeast Asian Ministers Of Education Organization (Seameo)

Assessment and Reporting

The Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) program is a regional assessment that aims to set a common approach to assessing the learning outcomes of students at Grade 5. As an alternative to international large-scale assessments and national assessments, SEA-PLM has developed a set of assessment and survey instruments for the Southeast Asian region. Designed to be a system-level monitoring tool of educational quality and equity, SEA-PLM covers four domains: mathematics, reading, writing and global citizenship. The assessment also includes questionnaires that gather important contextual information from students, parents, teachers and school principals. A key feature of the SEA-PLM assessment …

School Readiness Profiles And Growth In Academic Achievement, Qianqian Pan, Kim T. Trang, Hailey R. Love, Jonathan Templin

Educational & Clinical Studies Faculty Research

The purpose of this research was to identify the presence of different school readiness profiles and to determine whether profiles could differentially predict academic growth. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study: 2010-11 (ECLS-K: 2011) public data set was used, and participants were 14,954 first-time kindergarteners. The age of entering kindergarten ranged from 44.81 to 87.98 months with a mean of 76.13 months. In Study 1, a six-dimensional construct of school readiness was used: health, self-regulation, social and emotional development, language development, cognitive development, and approaches to learning. Results revealed 41 profiles with the top six school readiness profiles covering 85% of …

How Traditional Grading Contribute To Student Inequities And How To Fix It, Laura J. Link, Thomas R. Guskey

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Grades have long been identified by those in the measurement community as prime examples of unreliable measurement (Brookhart, 1994; Stiggins, Frisbie, & Griswold, 1989). What one teacher considers in calculating students’ grades may differ greatly from another teacher (Guskey & Link, 2019; McMillan, 2001; McMillan, Myran, & Workman, 2002). A major factor contributing to the unreliability of grades is teachers’ inclusion of aspects of students’ behavior in the grades they assign. Despite the recommendation of experts to separate behavior from academic achievement in formulating students’ grades, teachers at all grade levels typically include student behavior as a contributing factor in …