The one-size-fits-all instructional and assessment practices of the past no longer equitably meet the needs of all students. Competency-based education (CBE) has emerged not only as an innovation in education, but as a true transformation of the approaches to how we traditionally "do" school. In "Deeper Competency-Based…

The U.S. Army is interested in extending the application of intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) beyond cognitive problem spaces and into psychomotor skill domains. In this paper, we present a methodology and validation procedure for creating expert model representations in the domain of rifle marksmanship. GIFT (Generalized Intelligent Framework…

The school librarian has a critical role to play in the 21st-century school learning environment. However, because of the constant changes in K-12 school environments and the difficult decisions administrators must make about allocating money to best help students, school librarians must rigorously document their professional growth and impact.…

Accreditation is a process by which programs demonstrate their academic quality; that is, they demonstrate that they are making decisions for programmatic changes based on: (1) a sound theoretical foundation; (2) clearly stated mission, goals, and objectives; (3) a comprehensive self-study and thoughtful use of best practices; and (4) consistent,…

In his focus article, "Rethinking Traditional Methods of Survey Validation," published in this issue of "Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives," Andrew Maul wrote that it is commonly believed that self-report, survey-based instruments can be used to measure a wide range of psychological attributes, such as…

Higher education is facing a host of challenges, including external questions regarding its value and purpose. These questions cut to the core of the states' role in higher education. Traditionally, states have the responsibility to ensure that institutions of higher education are operating in the public interest and that the institutions are good…

Curriculum mapping is a necessary process for establishing evidence of where learning outcomes are taught and assessed in higher education programmes. Mapping ensures the credibility of the institution and programme offerings and provides students with a clear understanding of what they can expect to learn and achieve during their academic…

Within the higher education context, capstone units can be viewed as a significant means of assuring intended learning outcomes for programmes. They provide students with the opportunity to consolidate and apply prior and new disciplinary learning, as well as employability skills and graduate attributes. This paper describes the first stage of an…

This paper describes the development and validation of a set of three assessment instruments that can be used to assess students' progress on the energy concept (ASPECt) from fourth through twelfth grade. Rasch analysis techniques were used throughout the development process to guide the construction of an item bank and the selection of items for…

In this exploratory research project, our team's goal was to design and begin validation of a measurement approach that could provide indication of a student's ability to transfer their mathematics understanding to future, more advanced mathematical topics. Assessing transfer of learning in mathematics and other topics is an enduring challenge. We…

This dissertation explored the effectiveness of a well-researched social skills intervention for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder for ethnically and linguistically diverse families. The UCLA PEERS program (Laugeson et al., 2009; 2012) has largely been studied using predominately White and affluent populations; thus, the study explored…

This article describes and theorizes a failed writing program assessment study to question the influence of "the rhetoric of agreement," or reliability, on writing assessment practice and its prevalence in validating institutional mandated assessments. Offering the phrase "dwelling in disagreement" as a queer perspective, the…

The purpose of this quantitative study is to analyze data around school culture and climate during the authorization process of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. Data collected was analyzed to test the hypothesis that the authorization process serves as a "weeding out" of students by causing a significant difference to…

Community colleges offer an array of programs designed to help students meet different goals. Noncredit education provides training for students seeking targeted, often shorter, courses for personal and professional enrichment (Cohen, Brawer, & Kisker, 2014). Many community colleges are now increasingly emphasizing noncredit workforce…

This study longitudinally examined the experiences of four different student cohorts who participated in Adelante, a sustained orientation/transfer program designed to assist students in the transfer process from the community college to a baccalaureate-degree granting university. The researcher found that students positively perceived the…