Open-ended questions in mathematics are commonly used by teachers to monitor and assess students' deeper conceptual understanding of content. Student answers to these types of questions often exhibit a combination of language, drawn diagrams and tables, and mathematical formulas and expressions that supply teachers with insight into the processes…

Formal testing dominates Singapore's secondary school curricula; the Ministry of Education seeks to redress this through promoting assessment for learning (AfL). Success however requires teachers' belief that AfL practices are valuable and achievable. A survey of all teachers in 12 secondary schools (n=913) investigated attitudes to 35 assessment…

Most higher education institutions employ a traditional, summative scoring system to report student grades at the end of each semester. This system is limited in that it offers a final grade based on individual assignments completed throughout the semester without testing whether students have sufficiently understood the learning objectives of the…

The proportional odds (PO) model, which is also called cumulative odds model (Agresti, 1996, 2002 ; Armstrong & Sloan, 1989; Long, 1997, Long & Freese, 2006; McCullagh, 1980; McCullagh & Nelder, 1989; Powers & Xie, 2000; O'Connell, 2006), is one of the most commonly used models for the analysis of ordinal categorical data and comes from the class…

This investigation examined the course experiences of Bachelor of Education Primary students across each year of the course. The aims of the study were to identify gaps in what we know about our students; to identify relevant domains in student experiences and to assist with course improvements. A reflective inquiry paradigm was adopted for…

Concept map structure, testing, and scoring methods are discussed and a new scoring methodology is introduced using the breadth and depth of individual concept maps. The scoring method proposed here provides advantages of grading "on a curve" such as the ability to estimate and compare the complexity of different concept maps, the ability to…

The grading system for technical practicums in theatre at California State University, San Bernandino uses an evaluation form completed by each student's practicum supervisor. The evaluation form gives concrete evidence that there are viable criteria for grading practicums, and also helps if a student wishes to challenge his or her grade. Usually…

Students' perceptions of assessment activities are the focus of this research. An instrument, Perceptions of Assessment of Teachers by Students, was developed in a primary version (kindergarten through grade 3) with a pictorial scale and a senior version (grades 4 through 12) with a 5-point Likert scale. Fifteen teachers returned the student…

This paper presents a model for evaluating student writing, that emphasizes the interplay between the paper and the evaluator. Past studies of composition evaluation have tended to focus on the paper or on the rater, but not both. The paper concludes that further experimental research on the evaluation process must be designed to examine the…

The traditional "black box" approach to evaluation of assignments in educational research courses has at least two effects: (1) products that fail to meet the expectations of the instructor; and (2) frustration on the part of students who do not know exactly what is expected, and who are consequently confused about or disappointed in the grades…

Reliability methodology needs to evolve as validity has done into an argument supported by theory and empirical evidence. Nowhere is the inadequacy of current methods more visible than in classroom assessment. Reliability arguments would also permit additional methodologies for evidencing reliability in classrooms. It would liberalize methodology…

Despite writing teachers' best efforts, students still seem to regard the request to revise as intimating failure. Many researchers have noted students' lack of response to teacher comments, and much of this research has provided a corrective lens on vague or even aggressive teacher comments. Unpracticed writers replace the task of revising with…

To assess teachers' grading and other evaluation practices and policies in Ohio, a 79-item questionnaire was administered to 258 elementary and secondary school teachers, and 137 other teachers were interviewed by college students taking an educational assessment class. The typical teacher assigned term grades of "A" or "B" to…

Designed to help teachers in writing programs collaborate to reach a consensus on grading standards for freshman essays, the "Buddy System" was instituted on a voluntary basis at a Pennsylvania college with an English department with a traditional literature orientation. To participate, the instructors were required: (1) to choose at…

The presence of F in the ABCDF grading scale results from the struggle between authoritarian and egalitarian philosophies over how best to support the school work ethic. Authoritarian forces have favored the precise 0-100 scale that centralizes power clearly in the hands of the teacher. Egalitarian forces have supported less precise measures, such…