This study focused on preservice secondary teacher's use of the Understanding by Design (UbD), framework to create effective, engaging lessons for their future secondary level students. The subjects consisted of 69 secondary pre-service secondary education majors at a Texas University who were enrolled in a required course for admission into the…

This article draws on three assessment paradigms -- psychometrics, outcomes-based and curriculum-based assessment -- to discuss paradigmatic changes in senior school assessment and achievement standard-setting in Queensland, Australia, over the last 50 years. These include radical reforms in 1970 from university-controlled examinations to…

States continue to navigate the shift that came with the 1% threshold on participation in alternate assessments based on alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AAAS). This shift, following the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in 2015, limited participation in the…

Unreliability in marking is well documented, yet we lack studies that have investigated assessors' detailed use of assessment criteria. This project used a form of Kelly's repertory grid method to examine the characteristics that 24 experienced UK assessors notice in distinguishing between students' performance in four contrasting subject…

This Information Capsule summarizes the history of educational reform in the State of Florida from the 1970s through the present. Although the Florida Legislature has modified accountability policies and added new reforms over the years, the "A+ Plan for Education", signed into law by Governor Jeb Bush in 1999, remains the foundation of…

A key predictor of young people's future outcomes is their level of academic achievement whilst at school. In England this is most commonly measured by achievement in GCSEs. However, not all pupils will have taken the same set of GCSE examinations as, for example, they may make different subject choices. For this reason, GCSE performance is often…

On the basis of reforms to undergraduate education at Peking University, this article sets out from students' free choice and strict institutional selection, focusing on the process of the cultivation of the elite in mass higher education. The article analyzes the systems for student recruitment, talent training, educational programs, testing and…

Chapter One explores whether teacher grading standards affect learning. Lenient standards are controversial because of concerns that students may put less effort into a course. Conversely, harder standards may discourage the lower performing students. Using detailed longitudinal data on all North Carolina public school students and teachers over…

Title I, Part A, Title II, Part A, and Title IV, Part A funds are provided to the Houston Independent School District (HISD) through the 2015 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), also known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). All three funds focus on enhancing student achievement: Title I, Part A…

Between 1994 and 2014, New York City engaged in a historic overhaul of its publicly funded high schools. This included the opening of charter high schools (made possible by a 1999 state law) and the creation of new, smaller district high schools that would, in time, replace many of the city's large, traditional, comprehensive, and vocational high…

Internationally, attempts at developing explicit descriptions of academic achievement standards have been steadily intensifying. The aim has been to capture the essence of the standards in words, symbols or diagrams (collectively referred to as codifications) so that standards can be: set and maintained at appropriate levels; made broadly…

The importance of high-quality evaluation is underscored in Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning: Evaluation provides information that supports advocates, professional learning planners, and anyone who wants to know "about the contribution of professional learning to student achievement" (Learning Forward, 2011). Most…

As an early Common Core booster, Michael Petrilli had hoped that by now--10 years after most states adopted the standards--the nation's schools would have logged tangible improvements in teaching and learning that resulted in higher student achievement. In this article, Petrilli reviews what Common Core is and discusses the work ahead that is…

A decade ago, states across the nation adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in an effort to raise the academic bar for their students. This has provoked countless political battles since then--including an especially intense one in Florida. That fight culminated in Governor Ron DeSantis vowing to eliminate and replace the Common Core,…

A chain of interconnected events has occurred over the past four decades that can transform the lives of students with disabilities and their families. These events include the national policy shift to standards-based reform, legislative action that is reflected in reauthorizations of federal educational laws and regulations, and sustained state…