National standards for student achievement have been developed in the arts in a process that paralleled the standards discussions being held in mathematics, language arts, science, history, and other areas. The standards process, while demanding, has generated important discussion and debate about which art forms, what kind of knowledge, and what…

Each year the National Reference Test (NRT) reports the proportions of students achieving at or above three key GCSE grades in English and mathematics. The NRT is therefore uniquely placed as a Key Stage 4 assessment which compares performance directly at ability level, to contribute to the evidence on the impact of disruption to education due to…

This study challenges prior evidence on the impact of Korea's high-stakes school accountability policy as a tool to improve overall achievement and close achievement gaps. Applying difference-in-differences method, the study compares Korean high school students' reading and math test score trends before and after the policy based on the National…

The purpose of geography education is to foster the development of citizens who will actively seek and systematically apply the knowledge and skills of geography in life situations. Geography education must be responsive to the abilities and needs of students and to the societal and workplace requirements of the community, the nation, and the…

The purpose of the present article was to illustrate, using an example from a national assessment, the value from analyzing the behavior of distractors in measures that engage the multiple-choice format. A secondary purpose of the present article was to illustrate four remedial actions that can potentially improve the measurement of the…

In Finland, teachers' have extensive autonomy, that is freedom from control by others over their professional actions in the classroom, and it is considered a strength of Finnish education. At the same time, national assessment of learning outcomes has been constructed to examine the learner's progress and achievements in relation to the criteria…

This action research was conducted to help students develop their vocabulary skills through parent-teacher collaboration and to help parents and teachers understand that collaboration is an important aspect that warrants enough attention. Thus, few studies have focused on parent-teacher collaboration to help students develop their vocabulary…

Over the years, the nation's large urban school districts have consistently learned from the progress of their peer districts across the country. In 2002, the board of directors of the Council of the Great City Schools (Council) authorized what became known as the Performance Measurement and Benchmarking Project to develop and implement key…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) measures student science achievement nationally, state by state, and, most recently, across selected urban school districts. Periodically, the framework underlying the science assessment is revised or updated. This document, "Science Framework for the 2019 National Assessment of…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate two methodological perspectives of test fairness using a national Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations. SSC is a suit of multi-subject national qualification tests at Grade 10 level in South Asian countries, such as Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Because it is a high-stakes test, the fairness…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the largest nationally representative assessment of what our nation's students know and can do in subjects such as the arts, mathematics, reading, and writing. NAEP collects and reports information on student trends and performance at the national, state, and district levels. NAEP releases…

This study investigated changes in reported test-taking motivation from a low-stakes to a high-stakes test and if there are differences in reported test-taking motivation between school classes. A questionnaire including scales assessing reported effort, expectancies, perceived importance, interest, and test anxiety was administered to a sample of…

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page PDF sheets, by topic, with graphics, plus key contacts. The topics for this report on English Learners (ELs) and NAEP include: (1) 2013 Reading Scores for Grades 4, 8, and 12: ELs vs. Non-ELs; (2) 2013 Mathematics Scores for Grades 4,…

This study investigates if the probability of being graded up in the school leaving certificates increases if the teacher is of the same gender as the student or if the teacher and the student both have a foreign background. The analysis is based on data on grade 9 students in Mathematics from Sweden. I find that female students and non-native…

Speaking in front of the Education Writers Association, Secretary Betsy DeVos said that decades of reform efforts and increased social spending, both inside and outside of schools, "hasn't ultimately improved anything for any students, particularly not for the most vulnerable students." This seems to be a standard refrain from DeVos, and…