This article explores the German discourse of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) as it has emerged and changed over time. The conceptual elements of the triad of care, child raising and education ("Betreuung," "Erziehung" und "Bildung") are described and illustrated by salient points in the development of…

Competent writing eludes many school children and adolescents, especially those with developmental language and reading disorders. Language sample analysis (LSA) of writing is a powerful but underused assessment tool that can also inform instruction. Similar to LSA of oral language, writing has been analyzed at word, sentence, and text levels…

The landscape for STEM instruction is rapidly shifting in the United States. Attention toward STEM instruction and assessment opportunities is increasing. All students must have opportunities to gain access to the STEM content and show what they know and are able to do. We caution that attention to fairness and accessibility is critical for…

A reproducible analysis is one in which an independent entity, using the same data and the same statistical code, would obtain the exact same result as the previous analyst. Reproducible analyses utilize script-based analyses and open data to aid in the reproduction of the analysis. A reproducible analysis does not ensure the same results are…

For more than a century, numerous studies examined and reported how principals allocated their time. Assuming that differences in selection, participation and satisfaction of tasks by principals resulted in different outcomes, researchers have continued to study principal time use. In 1989, Wimpelberg, Teddlie, and Stringfield indicated a need for…

Amidst diminishing federal investment in Adult Basic Education (ABE), there is growing interest in return on investment (ROI) as an economic rationale to support ABE funding. Against this backdrop, we provide an overview of the ROI concept and methods and the empirical evidence on ABE program impacts to broaden the discourse among practitioners…

Utilizing the perspective of finite mixture modeling, this note considers whether a finding of a plausible one-parameter logistic model could be spurious for a population with substantial unobserved heterogeneity. A theoretically and empirically important setting is discussed involving the mixture of two latent classes, with the less restrictive…

The aim of teaching observations and post observation feedback in higher education is to support teachers to reflect on and improve their teaching. Yet, our understanding of tutors' (observers') and teachers' (observees') capacities for capitalising on these feedback opportunities is limited and there is little empirically derived advice for…

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address the challenges posed by disinformation in an educational context. The paper aims to review existing information assessment techniques, highlight their limitations, and propose a conceptual design for a multimodal, explainable information assessment system for higher education. The ultimate goal…

In some approaches to dialogic pedagogy research, authentic questions have long attracted attention, since the prevalence of authentic questions has been used as an indicator of the dialogic quality of classroom activities. However, this article offers an analysis of the concept of authentic questions in the research literature and shows that this…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents a three part series on fixing assessments. In Part 1: "Assessment Standards are Broken," David Eubanks highlights the challenges with the assessment standards articulated by institutional accreditors. In this article, Part 2: Megan R. Good, discusses the opportunity costs faced and…

As artificial intelligence (AI) expands its scope of applications across society, understanding its impact becomes increasingly critical. The OECD's AI and the Future of Skills (AIFS) project is developing a comprehensive framework for regularly measuring AI capabilities and comparing them to human skills. The resulting AI indicators should help…

Alignment is an essential piece of validity evidence for both educational (K-12) and credentialing (licensure and certification) assessments. In this article, a comprehensive review of commonly used contemporary alignment procedures is provided; some key weaknesses in current alignment approaches are identified; principles for evaluating alignment…

In "Teaching Against the Grain: Critical Assessment in the Library Classroom," Maria Accardi sought a critical, feminist approach to assessment that questioned power structures, celebrated learners, and found strength in diverse perspectives and voices. This article expands on Accardi's work to explore a care-based assessment framework…

The purpose of the current article is to introduce the equating and evaluation methods used in this special issue. Although a comprehensive review of all existing models and methodologies would be impractical given the format, a brief introduction to some of the more popular models will be provided. A brief discussion of the conditions required…