Despite the substantial shifts in education to align classroom instruction and assessment to common academic standards, traditional grading practices remain largely associated with longstanding beliefs and practices. Research suggests that traditional grading may be an inequitable practice that inaccurately communicates student learning (Plourde,…

The analysis of exemplars of different quality is a potentially powerful tool in enabling students to understand assessment expectations and appreciate academic standards. Through a systematic review methodology, this paper synthesises exemplar-based research designs, exemplar implementation and the educational effects of exemplars. The review of…

The purpose of this study was to compare pre-service teachers' views of ethical issues in assessment practices in the US and China. Focus group interviews were conducted among 16 pre-service teachers from the US and 15 pre-service teachers from China. Results indicated that the inclusion of effort in grading is a key issue for the pre-service…

Assessment of students' work in Virtual Exchange (VE) frequently focuses on their participation in the activities and may also include an evaluation of students' learning. In this chapter, we discuss a two-sided approach to assessing students' work in an intercultural VE project. On the one hand, we evaluated students' engagement in the exchange…

Studies of the use of teacher judgement for summative assessment in the USA are considered in two general categories. (1) Studies of teacher classroom summative assessment, that is, teacher grading practices, have historically and currently emphasised the lack of validity and reliability of these judgements. (2) Studies of how teacher judgement…

RateMyProfessors.com (RMP) is becoming an increasingly popular tool among students, faculty and school administrators. The validity of RMP is a point of debate; many would argue that self-selection bias obscures the usefulness of RMP evaluations. In order to test this possibility, we collected three types of evaluations: RMP evaluations that…

A high school math teacher describes how U.S. schools unwittingly erode student learning by using assessments to emphasize the wrong goals. He claims that students have begun to see school as a "game" in which collecting the most points--seen as "capital" or wealth--leads them to success. Instead, he argues, assessment should…

The American system of grading is criticized by a British educator as heavily goal- and test-oriented. Problems arising from use of grade contracts at a large state university for students studying in England are discussed, including student expectations and study habits, differing assessment methods and criteria, and exploitation of faculty. (MSE)