Data collected by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has consistently shown public school students performing more poorly than those in private schools. But when a more sophisticated assessment model was applied to recent NAEP data for students in grades 4 and 8, the achievement gap narrowed considerably and reversed for…

In this study, we examine grade-level growth rates for general education students and students with learning disabilities in grades two to six. In conducting the study, we demonstrate how schools, districts, and state educational agencies can use a combination of Curriculum-Based Measurement and Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) methods to…

Global university rankings have cemented the notion of a world university market arranged in a single "league table" for comparative purposes and have given a powerful impetus to intranational and international competitive pressures in the sector. Both the research rankings by Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the composite rankings by…

In this article we examine empirical evidence on the criterion, predictive, transfer, and fairness aspects of validity of a large-scale language arts performance assessment, referred to as the Performance Assignment (PA). We use multilevel models to avoid biased inferences that might result from the naturally nested data. Specifically, we examine…

Shanghai Jiao Tong University has published on the Internet an Academic Ranking of World Universities that has attracted worldwide attention. Institutions are ranked according to academic or research performance and ranking indicators include major international awards, highly cited researchers in important fields, articles published in selected…

Abstract Research has demonstrated girls outperform boys on conventional literacy tests. The present studies concern gender differences on computerised educational tests. Seventy-one children were tested using LASS Secondary and a set of seven conventional measures. No significant gender differences were found on any of the LASS Secondary modules,…

Considers the advantages and disadvantages of using national rating associations to evaluate school publications. Compares the services of the four most commonly used rating associations. (FL)

Notes that there are state and regional, as well as national, rating services for school publications. Provides information about three such services. (FL)

Grades generated by self-evaluation of performance were often more generous than those generated by instructor evaluation. (JD)

Explores how college rankings may be having a negative effect on higher education, since something as simple as technical changes in the formula for ranking may vary a college's computer ranking from year-to-year. Suggests that attention needs to be given to what really matters about the college experience, that is, what students put into their…

The list of recognized creators is constantly changing with the passage of time. An up-to-date list of recognized Chinese creators emerges from a survey of a large sample of Chinese students in various places in China. To understand the sustainability of the creators' fame, this study examines how the creators' personal characteristics affect…

This article argues that the engagement of teachers in collaborative discussions about assessment can provide a fruitful context for valuable professional learning. It is of interest to those who provide Continuous Professional Development (CPD) opportunities for teachers and teachers themselves. It looks particularly at the value of writing…

This study explores the research question: Does the promotion system in Taiwan reward faculty research productivity? By conducting event history analyses, I have demonstrated that the simple answer to the question is "yes." After controlling for the effects of demography, education, institutions and seniority, the discrete-time logit…

The Department of Education plans to re-evaluate how many students' test scores districts and schools will be permitted to exclude when determining whether they've met annual educational goals under the No Child Left Behind Act. At a June 13, 2006 hearing before the House Education and the Workforce Committee, Deputy Secretary of Education Raymond…

The study of federal education initiatives that takes place over multiple years in multiple settings often calls for aggregating and comparing data-in particular, student achievement data-across a broad set of schools, districts, and states. The need to track the trends over time is complicated by the fact that the data from the different schools,…