Many of the studies used to support the claim that student evaluations of teaching are reliable measures of teaching effectiveness have frequently calculated inappropriate reliability coefficients. This paper points to three coefficients that would be appropriate depending on if student evaluations were used for formative or summative purposes.…

This hermeneutic phenomenological study investigated the lived experiences of 12 Chicana/o students who completed a baccalaureate degree at a majority school. The strategies and experiences that Chicana/os used in persisting through a majority college environment were examined. Theoretically, cultural code-switching is considered as a strategy…

There are many positive effects that family, school, and community partnerships (FSP) have on student achievement, behavior, and social-emotional development (Desforges & Abouchaar, 2003; Epstein, 1994, 2011; Graham, 2011; Henderson & Mapp, 2002; Jeynes, 2005, 2007; Ulugag, 2008). Due to the many benefits FSP have on student educational…

One of the biggest challenges that states and local intermediaries face in setting up and scaling high-quality youth apprenticeships is gathering relevant, accurate and actionable data. High-quality data is an essential ingredient for a strong youth apprenticeship program because it equips state and local leaders to evaluate impact, monitor…

Student learning in instructional physics labs represents a growing area of research that includes investigations of students' beliefs and expectations about the nature of experimental physics. To directly probe students' epistemologies about experimental physics and support broader lab transformation efforts at the University of Colorado Boulder…

Free-response research-based assessments, like the Colorado Upper-division Electrostatics Diagnostic (CUE), provide rich, fine-grained information about students' reasoning. However, because of the difficulties inherent in scoring these assessments, the majority of the large-scale conceptual assessments in physics are multiple choice. To increase…

Measuring students' conceptual understandings has become increasingly important to biology faculty members involved in evaluating and improving departmental programs. We developed the Molecular Biology Capstone Assessment (MBCA) to gauge comprehension of fundamental concepts in molecular and cell biology and the ability to apply these concepts in…

Digital technologies have revolutionized the way people acquire information and gain new knowledge. With a click or touch on the screen, anybody who is online can sail in the digital world and accomplish many things. As such, the optimal use of information and communication technology involves user comprehension, knowledge, and awareness of…

The problem addressed in this study was the assumption that faculty at the postsecondary level in the U. S. are not sufficiently or effectively engaged with student learning outcomes assessment (LOA) activities and/or practices. This issue emerged in two primary ways within the Scholarship of Assessment (SoA) body of literature: (1) as a…

Standardized conceptual assessment represents a widely used tool for educational researchers interested in student learning within the standard undergraduate physics curriculum. For example, these assessments are often used to measure student learning across educational contexts and instructional strategies. However, to support the large-scale…

Assessing conceptual understanding of foundational topics before instruction on higher-order concepts can provide chemical educators with information to aid instructional design. This study provides an instrument that can be used to identify students' alternative conceptions regarding thermochemistry concepts. The Thermochemistry Concept Inventory…

As part of an effort to systematically improve our junior-level E&M I course, we have developed a tool to assess student conceptual learning of electrostatics at the upper division. Together with a group of physics faculty, we established a list of learning goals for the course that, with results from student observations and interviews,…

As part of an ongoing investigation of students' learning in first semester upper-division quantum mechanics, we needed a high-quality conceptual assessment instrument for comparing outcomes of different curricular approaches. The process of developing such a tool started with converting a preliminary version of a 14-item open-ended quantum…

Productive strategies for evaluating outcomes in teacher licensure programs are becoming increasingly important in the education field. Research data from 492 teacher licensure program completers from 2006-2009 in the School of Education, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado (USA) was compiled after accreditation by the Colorado…