Data-based decision-making has been a frequently used policy and practice intervention used in schools to help inform the decision-making processes of educational practitioners, with the aim of improving student outcomes. Interim benchmark assessments are designed by commercial test developers to support educators in this framework. In fact, the…

COVID-19 upended schooling across the United States, but with what consequences for the state-level institutions that drive most education policy? This paper reports findings on two related research questions. First, what were the most important ways state government education policymakers changed schools and schooling from the moment they began…

Standards-based grading (SBG) is an assessment/grading system that attaches scores to the mastery level of specific learning objectives. This methodology is gaining momentum in the K-12 environment but has been largely overlooked at the post-secondary level. In this paper, I will discuss the implementation of this practice in a College Algebra…

This paper describes a project undertaken at Grand Valley State University in which a co-creative model was used to develop a rubric for assessing student learning in library instruction. It outlines the design process as well as the training and support provided throughout implementation. It concludes with the authors' reflections on the…

When educators develop and introduce new learning approaches or resources, they usually have specific didactic goals in mind that they want to achieve. However, these goals may not always match the needs of their students, who often confound such plans by finding new and different uses for the educational tools that are offered to them.…

A Michigan school district established a districtwide reading board as a different but necessary alternative to a response to intervention model. The reading board sought a new way to acknowledge the depth and breadth of individualized diagnoses, instructional needs, and social justice in their school district. In addition, the reading board…

Although educators frequently use assessment to identify who needs supplemental instruction and if that instruction is working, there is a lack of research investigating assessment that informs what instruction students need. The purpose of the current study was to determine if a brief (approximately 20 min) task that reflects a common middle…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore strategies to overcome limitations to instructional creativity resulting from an emphasis on standardized test preparation in southeast Michigan. The target population for this study were elementary teachers who taught 4th grade with 5 or more years of teaching experience. Purposeful…

Fewer than half of students demonstrated proficiency on Michigan state-administered summative assessments at the end of third grade at a rural, Title I school in Michigan. The purpose of this quantitative study was to compare reading fluency gains between grade levels (i.e., kindergarten, first, and second grades) in an effort to better understand…

Although annual state tests had been federally required since 2001, and the consortia and standards were led by states, the new tests became a focal point of narratives about federal overreach and over-testing. Current wisdom holds that testing has become politically toxic. There are real risks that some states are rolling back advancements in…

Existing research suggests that teacher beliefs are powerful factors in teachers' thoughts and actions. The research also suggests that connections may exist between elementary general music teachers' beliefs about musical ability, assessment, and the purpose of elementary general music. Therefore, the purpose of this survey study was to examine…

Preparing to become a music teacher educator is a complex process and one component of this process should be learning to model, demonstrate, and teach assessment practices to preservice music educators. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to discover how, and to what extent, music teacher educators (MTEs) are educated about…

Oral demonstration of knowledge is an effective learning and assessment strategy. It has been shown that generating explanations to oneself, or self-explaining, can improve student understanding of information. This can be achieved via student-generated videos. The quantitative effects of student-generated videos on learning and assessment in…

Formative assessment is one of the most effective tools that teachers use to promote student learning and watching one's self teach on video is one of the most effective ways to improve teaching. As part of a project for the Michigan Department of Education, the authors worked with eight teachers in Michigan who are using videos of their teaching…

Many engineering courses rely on in-person lectures and textbooks for content delivery, with homework sets and exams for evaluating and reinforcing student progress. Yet some research studies have shown that exams--high-pressure, time-limited assessments--are detrimental to the learning process and unnecessarily increase students' stress. We…