Every three years the focus of the international education community shifts to the release of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). No other international study of education commands as much attention as PISA. In an age of intense global…

The University of Ottawa (UofO) in Ottawa, Canada offers a formal supplemental instruction program, called the residence study group program (RSGP), to residence students registered in first year courses that are associated with a high degree of failure or attrition. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of this program by comparing…

Background/Context: Two key uses of international assessments of achievement have been (a) comparing country performances for identifying the countries with the best education systems and (2) generating insights about effective policy and practice strategies that are associated with higher learning outcomes. Do country rankings really reflect the…

Knowing that grades can have long-term consequences for students, teachers voice concern about being fair in the grading process. However, their interpretations of fairness are varied and sometimes contradictory. This study looked at how teachers in one standards-based educational system determined secondary students' grades, focusing specifically…

This paper presents some of the major issues raised in Education International's preliminary analysis of the overall PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2009 study. Some of these issues are: (1) PISA has serious limitations. The study does not cover the full curriculum, focusing on a narrow set of subject areas, neglecting such…

Foucault's concept of governmentality frames a critical discourse analysis of Grade Level of Achievement (GLA) Reporting in Alberta. GLA requires teachers to report to the provincial government a whole number that represents their judgment of each student's achievement in meeting the mandated curricular outcomes in grades 1 to 9 language arts and…

The paper takes a critical look at the different metrics that could be used to measure First Nations student success. The paper concludes that more than one metric is needed given the holistic worldview of First Nations Aboriginal people. A framework undergirding First Nations student success is presented and discussed.

"Quality Counts 2012," the 16th edition of "Education Week"'s annual examination of issues and challenges facing America's public schools, takes aim at topics high on the policy agenda, from the White House and Congress down to the level of local school boards and chambers of commerce: the nation's international standing in…

Large-scale assessment regularly takes place in most jurisdictions across Canada, a fact not lost on the Fraser Institute and other right wing think tanks such as AIMS (Atlantic Institute for Market Studies) which use the test results as the primary basis for compiling school rankings at both the elementary and secondary level (see Gutstein,…

Policies and procedures for student achievement within a provincial system are described and compared to a theoretical model of systemwide policy devolution. Student evaluation activity is examined at the following levels: province, district, school, department, and classroom. Methodology involves analysis of documents from four elementary and…

Test components and results of the Grade 6 Social Studies Achievement Tests in Alberta, Canada administered to 28,566 students are described in this booklet. All questions were drawn from three prescribed topics: Topic A--"How People in Earlier Times Met Their Needs"; Topic B--"How People in Eastern Societies Meet Their Needs…

The diversity of grading systems used in 23 of Canada's largest universities is examined. Various suggestions are offered that, if adopted, should improve the communication value of grades and increase their effectiveness in decision-making. (Editor/LBH)

Studies processes in 49 Canadian K-13 classrooms to identify teachers' student achievement evaluation methods. Teacher interviews and categorization of their testing instruments showed teachers beyond early primary grades used evaluations mainly to generate marks for reporting purposes. Such reports seen as reaffirming existing judgments, rather…

School motivation and achievement for an individual is the product of a complex set of interacting goals, goals which may be more or less significant to individuals from different cultural backgrounds. This paper describes a project which examines the nature of goals held by students from different cultural groups, the compatibility of these goals…

This study was conducted to identify characteristics of the most academically successful graduates of a teacher education program at the University of Alberta (Canada). Graphical data provide information about all of the graduates; tabular displays provide more specific information about those who graduated with distinction. For example, students…