Parents, professionals, and policymakers agree that quality is crucial for early education. But precise, consistent, and valid definitions of quality have been elusive. In this article, Robert Pianta, Jason Downer, and Bridget Hamre tackle the questions of how to define quality, how to measure it, and how to ensure that more children experience…

Black and Hispanic students are consistently underrepresented in gifted education. Several factors contribute to their low identification and lack of access to such programs and services. While teacher underreferral is a significant contributing factor, problematic also is testing and assessment, which is often administered by school…

Quality engagement in early childhood programs is critical to the development and learning of young children, particularly those with disabilities. The purpose of this study was to examine the quality of engagement and interaction of children with disabilities in inclusive kindergartens in China. Specifically, the study aimed to examine the…

There are usually limited user evaluation of resources on a recommender system, which caused an extremely sparse user rating matrix, and this greatly reduce the accuracy of personalized recommendation, especially for new users or new items. This paper presents a recommendation method based on rating prediction using causal association rules.…

While the literature emphasizes the importance of teaching political science students methods skills, there currently exists little guidance for how to assess student learning over the course of their time in the major. To address this gap, we develop a model set of assessment tools that may be adopted and adapted by political science departments…

In an age of assessment and accountability, academic libraries feel much pressure to prove their value according to new university measurements of student success. This study describes a methodology for how libraries may examine student interactions with services to assess whether library usage impacts student grade point averages (GPAs) and…

The current interest in evaluating teachers and teacher education programs provides an opportunity to consider the education of diverse learners in K-12 schools in the United States. We address teaching English language learners (ELLs), a rapidly growing population. Challenges lie in holding content teachers of ELLs accountable as they are not…

A challenge for the practical-aesthetic subjects is the perception that they are less important than theoretical knowledge subjects. These subjects are among the non-core subjects receiving highest grades in Norwegian lower secondary schools, but also represent the highest number of complaints about grading. This study investigates teachers'…

This article analyses student-learning outcomes from the redesign of Introduction to Physical Geography 101. Among the purposes of the redesigned course were to enhance student learning by providing rich interactive online content, provide more meaningful instructor-student and peer-peer exchanges, and to promote attitudes that facilitate student…

Academic language is a challenging yet increasingly important skill for Adult Basic Education/English as a Second or Other Language learners. Related to academic language learning is an adult's developmental perspective. Developmental perspectives have been shown to vary in adulthood and shape qualitatively distinct ways of reasoning and learning…

This descriptive study examines online assessment strategies employed by preservice teacher candidates when creating thematic learning experiences in online teaching environments. Using the learning management system Moodle as part of their innovative training, this review of a sample of 395 candidate-created instructional units across all grades…

With some 460 languages spoken across the land, the United States has a deep reservoir of linguistic diversity. But our nation's inconsistent language-learning policies and practices present a variety of obstacles for learning English. Understanding and then addressing student needs during the critical transition phase for newcomer students is an…

We conducted a content analysis of 27 assessment textbooks to determine how assessment planning was framed in texts for preservice teachers. We identified eight assessment planning themes: alignment, assessment purpose and types, reliability and validity, writing goals and objectives, planning specific assessments, unpacking, overall assessment…

Engaging less academically qualified Higher Education students being taught within a Further Education setting, who have weaker study skills and little experience of independent learning, is challenging. Confidence and motivation levels are often low and they feel overwhelmed. Effective assessment design is crucial and needs to capitalise on…

School grades provide an easily understandable metric to measure the performance of a school. Parents and the general public can use the school grade and its associated components to understand how well each school is serving its students. The school grades calculation was revised substantially for the 2014-15 school year to implement statutory…