Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons^™

Use Of Youth Program Quality Assessment (Ypqa) As A Method Of Process Evaluation: Maximizing Limited Resources Of Nonprofit Organizations, Young Im

Master's Theses

Past literature shows the progression of different phases of evaluation practice in nonprofit organizations. Pressure of outcome or impact evaluation started the beginning of the 21st century. The attempt to manage the weight of conducting outcome evaluation has raised many complications, inhibiting the nonprofit organization’s ability to learn and understand the proper role of evaluation and what it can provide to assist in improving programs. It, therefore, has led to a gap in which nonprofits miss what happens during implementation, a crucial part of process evaluation. Among nonprofit organizations in the areas of youth development and after-school programs, various types …

Assessing General Capabilities, Julian Fraillon, Juliette Mendelovits

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

There is growing interest in general capabilities and cross-curricular learning outcomes such as literacy in information and communication technologies, creative thinking and collaborative and individual problem-solving. As the expectation for such competencies to be taught in schools has increased, so has the need for teachers and schools to validly and reliably assess student learning in those areas, and to report on them in ways that teaching and learning. In this presentation examine the challenges of assessing on student learning and learning growth capabilities and cross-curricular learning present approaches used in research some of these challenges and reflect can be applied …

Assessment Standards, ‘Intentional Alignment’, And Dialogic Inquiry, Claire Wyatt-Smith

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

Internationally, the policy move towards standards-aligned instruction is gaining momentum. In Australia, standards have assumed unprecedented prominence in education policy relating both to classroom practice and to teacher preparation and career progression. The move is also evident in the United States, where the lure of standards to inform improvement is clear: significant investment has been committed to longitudinal research to examine at state and district levels the desirable conditions for implementing standards, their impact on developing college- and career-ready teachers, and in turn, the impact on teacher instruction and student outcomes. Moves such as this are occurring in the absence …

Illinois Teacher Evaluation Student Growth Component: A Predecision-Making Policy Analysis, Joshua Robert Olsen

Theses and Dissertations

ILLINOIS TEACHER EVALUATION STUDENT GROWTH COMPONENT:

A PREDECISION-MAKING POLICY ANALYSIS

Joshua R. Olsen

122 Pages May 2015

Public school districts in Illinois are going to face massive changes to their evaluation systems in the coming years. Thanks to the adoption of the Performance Evaluation Reform Act of 2010 and Senate Bill 7 of 2011, teacher evaluation must contain student growth as a significant factor, beginning with the 2016-2017 school year. Not only must student performance on tests become part of the evaluation of teachers, but, moreover, teacher evaluation will play a greater role in the hiring, retention, and release of …

Exemplary Teachers' Perspectives On Effective Teaching Elements In Danielson's Framework For Teaching, Derek Jon Olson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Reforms in teacher evaluation are enacted to increase student achievement. Although there is research on teacher evaluation and teacher quality, there is little that addresses effective teaching as conceptualized in Danielson's Framework for Teaching, a commonly used evaluation tool. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine which of the 4 domains and 76 elements of Danielson's framework are viewed by award-winning teachers as having the greatest impact on effective teaching and learning. Constructivism formed the theoretical basis for this study. The research questions examined to what extent state and national teachers of the year perceive differences in the …

An Evaluation Of Formative Audio Feedback Within Part Time Professional Development Programmes In Dit., Claire M. Mcdonnell, Roisin Donnelly, Claire Mcavinia

Other resources

Evidence from the literature indicates that learners often view feedback in terms of assessment only, even though it can play an important role in improving engagement and consolidating and enriching learning. It is well accepted that the feedback strategy used should be appropriate to the purpose and context of the work, but in order for feedback to be truly helpful, it needs to be goal-referenced, tangible, transparent, actionable, user-friendly (specific and personalized), timely, ongoing and consistent. Technology can also play a useful supporting role in achieving this. This paper explores the impact of formative audio feedback across part time programmes …

Exploring Stakeholders' Perceptions Of The Evaluation Of Early Fieldwork Experience In An Undergraduate Teacher Preparation Program, Amber R. Peacock

Theses and Dissertations

This study is a qualitative meta-evaluation of the early field experience (EFE) program at a small, private, undergraduate teacher preparation program in Virginia focusing on the perceptions of preservice teachers, cooperating teachers and course instructors about the EFE evaluation objectives, evaluation experience, and resulting data usage. The EFE evaluation protocol at the study site is explored using a participatory-oriented evaluation model that solicited the perceptions of stakeholders. Analysis of EFE evaluation documents and semi-structured interviews with the stakeholders were conducted to explore the extent to which (1) official EFE objectives are congruent with the EFE evaluation, (2) the intended evaluation …

K-5 Elementary Balanced Literacy Reading Program Implementation Evaluation, Suzanne Marie Anderson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Students who struggle with reading in their elementary years are likely to make poor academic progress, leave school before graduation, and struggle in the workplace. The district leaders at 24 K-5 elementary schools in a large Midwestern district were interested in a formative reading program evaluation to determine reading program effectiveness. This mixed methods study, approached from a cognitive and social theoretical framework, was a formative evaluation of the Balanced Literacy Reading Program implementation at these elementary schools. The purpose of this study was to capture the K-5 classroom teachers' (n = 113), instructional coaches' (n = 18), and principals' …

Tech Edge Student Rubric Grades 2-3, Laurie A. Friedrich, Guy Trainin

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

This rubric can be used to evaluate formative and summative assessments of technology integrated products across the curriculum for grades 2-3.

Tech Edge Student Rubric K-1, Laurie A. Friedrich, Guy Trainin

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

This rubric can be used to evaluate formative and summative assessments of technology integrated products across the curriculum for grades K-1.

Tech Edge Student Rubric Grades 4-5, Laurie A. Friedrich, Guy Trainin

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

This rubric can be used to evaluate formative and summative assessments of technology integrated products across the curriculum for grades 4-5.

Hand Function Evaluation For Dental Hygiene Students, Sara Taft

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dental hygiene students may struggle in dental hygiene curriculum in regards to hand function. Currently, this is not an aspect dental hygiene programs screen for or have protocol in place to help students. The research in the study examined if hand function could improve with hand function exercises and if exercises improved instrumentation scores. During a 6-week pilot study, an occupational therapist tested the hand function of a cohort of dental hygiene students. The results were recorded and the students began a 6-week hand function exercise regimen. After 6 weeks the same evaluations were preformed and the pre- and posttest …

The Evaluation Of Impact The South Carolina System For Teacher And Student Advancement Professional Development Model Has On Teacher Dispositions, Andrew Hooker

Education Dissertations and Projects

Education is continually looking for ways to increase student achievement. This is appropriate because the goal of education is to increase student achievement. Student achievement has continued to be unpredictable throughout the country due to the many factors which present themselves throughout the educational process.

The purpose of this dissertation was to look at a specific professional development model, South Carolina System for Teacher and Student Advancement (SCTAP), to measure the impact this model had on teacher dispositions. The following research question guided this study: To what extent does the SCTAP professional development model impact teacher disposition within the following: …

Reflections On A Decade Of Global Rankings: What We've Learned And Outstanding Issues, Ellen Hazelkorn

Articles

Ten years after the first global rankings appeared, it is clear that they have had an extraordinary impact on higher education. While there are fundamental questions about whether rankings measure either quality or what’s meaningful, they have succeeded in exposing higher education to international comparison. Moreso, because of the important role higher education plays as a driver of economic development, rankings have exposed both an information deficit and national competitiveness. Accordingly, both nations and institutions have sought to maximise their position vis-á-vis global rankings with positive and perverse effects. Their legacy is evident in the way rankings have become an …

Self-Assessment Of Employability Skill Outcomes Among Undergraduates And Alignment With Academic Ratings, Denise Jackson

Research outputs 2013

Despite acknowledgement of the benefits of self-assessment in higher education, disparity between student and academic assessments, with associated trends in over- and underrating, plagues its meaningful use, particularly as a tool for formal assessment. This study examines self-assessment of capabilities in certain employability skills in more than 1000 Australian business undergraduates. It evaluates the extent to which student self-assessments differ from academics, in what ways and the influence of certain individual and background characteristics - such as stage of degree, gender and academic ability - on rating accuracy. Explanations for documented disparities are presented, in addition to implications and strategies …

Teach For Australia Pathway : Evaluation Report Phase 2 Of 3, Paul R. Weldon, Phillip Mckenzie, Elizabeth Kleinhenz, Kate Reid

Initial Teacher education

The evaluation of the Teach for Australia Pathway was commissioned by DEEWR and commenced in March 2010. The purpose of the evaluation is to assess whether the delivery of the Pathway can be modified to better achieve intended outputs and outcomes, and whether the Pathway is achieving expected outcomes.

This report (Part 2) concerns the second of three phases of the evaluation of the TFA Pathway. The first report (Part 1) was designed to provide a summary of data gathered on the operation of the Pathway in its initial stages. Data for that report were collected via site visits with …

Using Learning Goals To Promote Self-Directedness: How Problems In Research Led To Solutions In Teaching, Jaya Kannan, Larry Lutsky, Lisa Bauer, Yasmine Alwan

CTL Publications

In promoting self-directedness, our process at MCNY’s Learning Enhancement Center begins by having the student construct learning goals. A qualitative analysis of these student learning goals was conducted based on the premise that a student’s ability to articulate a goal in a clear, specific, complex, and measurable manner will improve over time. Although our findings did not support our hypothesis, the complex exercise of creating a customized rubric to measure the goals helped us arrive at a standardized evaluation method and build a transparent self-assessment tool to foster independent learning. This attempt to quantify student learning goals created successful iterative …

With Scholarship & Practice In Mind: The Case Study As Research Method, Paula Dawidowicz

Walden Faculty and Staff Publications

Unlike theoretical scholars who seek knowledge to expand humanity’s (or their) understanding of a topic, scholar practitioners seek knowledge that can be applied to understand change or create change in a specific phenomenon. Although many of the same research methods can be used by both groups of educational scholars, and although research designs are determined in large part by the research questions being asked, several research methods can prove most useful for scholar practitioners examining learning environments. One, the case study, stands out as perhaps the most versatile and researcher-friendly, though. A case study, bounded by specific location and topic …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Reading Achievement For Kindergarten-3 Rd Grade Students Of Low Socioeconomic Status, Vicki L. Curtis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The three tiered reading model and the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are two initiatives being used to identify struggling readers of low socioeconomic status. While there is abundant information with statistical reports from various researchers, there is little research available as to what educators implementing DIBELS in the school environment perceive about the instrument, what it measures and what it fails to take into account. It is important to examine all aspects and views of an initiative being widely used across the nation to close the reading achievement gap. Educators working with students of low socioeconomic …

Divided Timed And Continuous Timed Assessment Protocols And Academic Performance, David Perucca

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Children from a low socioeconomic status (SES) are exposed to numerous stress factors that are negatively associated with sustained attention and academic performance. This association suggests that the timed component of lengthy assessments may be unfair for students from such backgrounds, as they may have an inability to sustain attention during lengthy tests. Research has also found academic disparities between gender. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate the relationship between continuous and divided timed tests in terms of student test scores, with additional assessments incorporating gender. Two charter schools from a suburban Idaho school district were the …

Science Scores In Title I Elementary Schools In North Georgia: A Project Study, Ramon Frias

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)'s emphasis of reading, language arts, and mathematics (RLA&M) and its de-emphasis of science has been a source of great concern among educators. Through an objectivist and constructionist framework, this study explored the unforeseen effects of the NCLB on public science education among Title I (TI) and non-Title I (NTI) students. The research questions focused on the effects of NCLB on Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) scores in the high-stakes subjects of reading, language arts, mathematics and the low stakes subject of science among TI and NTI 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students in …

A Comparison Of 2009--2010 Curriculum Test Scores Of Students Taught By Alternate Route And Traditional Route Teachers, James Howard Wallace Ii

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There is an increase in the popularity of alternative certification programs; however, some administrators are still reluctant to hire these graduates to teach within their schools. With the shortage of certified teachers in Mississippi, some school districts have no choice but to hire alternatively certified teachers. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if students taught by teachers trained in alternative teaching programs had significantly different changes in language arts scores on the Mississippi Curriculum Test 2 nd edition, as compared to fellow students who were taught by teachers trained in traditional teaching programs. Scores from the 2008--2009 …

Online Formative Assessments As Predictors Of Student Academic Success, Jacqueline L. Croteau

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Increasingly, educational reform efforts are turning towards data-driven decision making strategies to help teachers improve instruction through skills-based instruction/content that is both measurable and aligned to common rigorous standards, such as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Examining the impact of a formative online assessment system on a summative measurement of student achievement may provide evidence that data-driven instructional platforms can impact student achievement and learning outcomes. Guided by the theoretical frameworks of Vygotsky and Dewey, along with the concepts of multiple intelligence, constructivism, and mastery learning, this study examined the relationship between student scores from an online formative assessment …

Rankings And The Reshaping Of Higher Education:The Battle For World Wide Excellence, Ellen Hazelkorn

Books/Book chapters

No abstract provided.

Teachers' Perception Of Handheld Response Systems As A Tool For Formative Assessment In High School Classrooms, Jon Chevalier

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

While research supports that formative assessment can improve student learning, it is rarely used and difficult to implement. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the use of student handheld response systems (SRS) as a tool for formative assessment in high school classes as well as teachers' attitudes towards this emerging technology. Self-efficacy and motivation theories provide the theoretical framework for this study. To explore this phenomenon, data were collected via an online interview from high school teachers (n=11) and were analyzed using inductive coding. Three themes emerged from this analysis and served as a basis for …

A Quantitative Assessment Of Skills And Competencies In Graduates Of At-Risk High Schools, Charles Jerry Williams Jr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The willingness to work and a high school diploma were once all that was needed to start one's career. The problem is that on the twentieth anniversary of the reports by the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS), high school graduates may still lack what business and education leaders require for success in entry-level employment or post-secondary studies. The research question included understanding how prepared graduates from at-risk high schools are for post-secondary work or study. The study used a Likert-scaled survey to assess participant work readiness in 36 skill or competency areas. The sample consisted of recent graduates …

General Educators Perceptions Of Preparedness To Teach In Mixed-Ability Classrooms, Kristen Sparks Kantor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The increasing populations of students with special academic needs included in general education classrooms in American public schools are providing a growing teacher preparation challenge. The purpose of this study was to analyze both strengths and weaknesses in how general education teachers perceived their pre-service preparation for teaching in mixed-ability classrooms. A constructivist learning theory paradigm was used to interpret shared experiences of general education teachers working in mixed-ability public elementary schools. The research question was centered in how this group of teachers assessed preparation to provide instruction for Autism Spectrum Disorder, English Language Learners (ELL), general education, gifted, and …

The Effect Of Reading Test Mode Interchangeability And Student Assessment Preferences On Achievement, Tania M. Sterling

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Computer-based testing (CBT) in education is on the rise; however, researchers question the interchangeability of CBT and pencil-based testing (PBT). Educators and leaders need to consider test mode interchangeability and student assessment preference prior to adopting CBT in K-8 schools. Following the new literacies theory, this mixed methods study examined test mode preference, the effect on achievement, and factors that influenced student preferences. Research questions investigated participants' computer attitudes and use to determine test mode preference, the impact of test mode and test mode preference on achievement, and factors that influence testing preferences. This sequential explanatory within-group design included 2 …

The Perceptions Of High School Graduates Of Career And Technology Education Courses, Darryl Terrence Middleton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Career and technology education (CATE) courses were offered to high school students as an alternative form of education. The research problem at the study site, which is a high school located in southeastern United States was the lack of research-based findings on high school graduates' perceptions of CATE courses. The purpose of this study was to understand the participants' perceptions of the impact of CATE courses on career goals. The research question that guided this study was: What are the perceptions of high school graduates of a CATE program? The conceptual framework was based upon multiple intelligences, differentiated instruction, and …

Inquiry-Based Laboratory Investigations And Student Performance On Standardized Tests In Biological Science, Usha Patke

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Achievement data from the 3rd International Mathematics and Sciences Study and Program for International Student Assessment in science have indicated that Black students from economically disadvantaged families underachieve at alarming rates in comparison to White and economically advantaged peer groups. The study site was a predominately Black, urban school district experiencing underachievement. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the relationship between students' use of inquiry-based laboratory investigations and their performance on the Biology End of Course Test, as well as to examine the relationship while partialling out the effects of student gender. Constructivist theory formed the theoretical …