Keeping Score for All


Book Description

U.S. public schools are responsible for educating large numbers of English language learners and students with disabilities. This book considers policies for including students with disabilities and English language learners in assessment programs. It also examines the research findings on testing accommodations and their effect on test performance. Keeping Score for All discusses the comparability of states' policies with each other and with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) policies and explores the impact of these differences on the interpretations of NAEP results. The book presents a critical review of the research literature and makes suggestions for future research to evaluate the validity of test scores obtained under accommodated conditions. The book concludes by proposing a new framework for conceptualizing accommodations. This framework would be useful both for policymakers, test designers, and practitioners in determining appropriate accommodations for specific assessments and for researchers in planning validity studies.







State Assessment Policy and Practice for English Language Learners


Book Description

State Assessment Policy and Practice for English Language Learners presents three significant studies, each examining a different aspect of states' strategies for including English language learners in state assessments. *an Analysis of State Assessment Policies Regarding Accommodations for English Language Learners; *a Survey and Description of Test Translation Practices; and *an Examination of State Practices for Reporting Participation and Performance of English Language Learners in State Assessments. With the rise in population of English language learners and the subsequent stepped-up legislative focus on this student population over the past decade, states have been challenged to include English language learners in state assessment programs. Until now, the little data available on states' policies and practices for meeting this challenge has been embedded in various reports and professional journals and scattered across the Internet. This volume offers, for the first time, a focused examination of states' assessment policies and practices regarding English language learners. The three studies were supported by OELA, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students. State Assessment Policy and Practice for English Language Learners is of interest to researchers and professionals involved with the assessment of English language learners; state- and district-level policy makers; and academics, teacher educators, and graduate students in a number of fields, including educational and psychological assessment, testing and measurement, bilingual education, English as a second language, and second language acquisition.










The Future of Test-Based Educational Accountability


Book Description

In recent decades testing has become a much more visible and high-stakes accountability mechanism that is now seen as a powerful tool that can be used to drive school improvement. The purpose of this book is to identify and analyze the key issues associated with test-based educational accountability and to chart the future of educational accountability research. Chapter contributions are intended to be forward looking rather than a compendium of what has happened in the past. The book provides an accessible discussion of issues such as validity, test equating, growth modeling, fairness for special populations, causal inferences, and misuses of accountability data.




What Is the Influence of the National Science Education Standards?


Book Description

In 2001, with support from National Science Foundation, the National Research Council began a review of the evidence concerning whether or not the National Science Education Standards have had an impact on the science education enterprise to date, and if so, what that impact has been. This publication represents the second phase of a three-phase effort by the National Research Council to answer that broad and very important question. Phase I began in 1999 and was completed in 2001, with publication of Investigating the Influence of Standards: A Framework for Research in Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (National Research Council, 2002). That report provided organizing principles for the design, conduct, and interpretation of research regarding the influence of national standards. The Framework developed in Phase I was used to structure the current review of research that is reported here. Phase II began in mid-2001, involved a thorough search and review of the research literature on the influence of the NSES, and concludes with this publication, which summarizes the proceedings of a workshop conducted on May 10, 2002, in Washington, DC. Phase III will provide input, collected in 2002, from science educators, administrators at all levels, and other practitioners and policy makers regarding their views of the NSES, the ways and extent to which the NSES are influencing their work and the systems that support science education, and what next steps are needed.




CSE Report


Book Description




Students Learning Science


Book Description

This report on teachers' academic preparation and professional development, the amount of emphasis science instruction receives in schools, student course taking, and the availability of school resources that support science learning is intended primarily for policy makers, school administrators, and educators concerned with state- or school-level policies. Data is drawn from the 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and results are presented using the students as the unit of analysis. Appendises present an overview of procedures used for the NAEP 1996 Science Assessment and standard errors. Contains 14 figures and 25 tables. (DDR)




Educational Measurement


Book Description

Educational Measurement has been the bible in its field since the first edition was published by ACE in 1951. The importance of this fourth edition of Educational Measurement is to extensively update and extend the topics treated in the previous three editions. As such, the fourth edition documents progress in the field and provides critical guidance to the efforts of new generations of researchers and practitioners. Edited by Robert Brennan and jointly sponsored by the American Council on Education (ACE) and the National Council on Measurement in Education, the fourth edition provides in-depth treatments of critical measurement topics, and the chapter authors are acknowledged experts in their respective fields. Educational measurement researchers and practitioners will find this text essential, and those interested in statistics, psychology, business, and economics should also find this work to be of very strong interest. Topics covered are divided into three subject areas: theory and general principles; construction, administration, and scoring; and applications. The first part of the book covers the topics of validation, reliability, item response theory, scaling and norming, linking and equating, test fairness, and cognitive psychology. Part two includes chapters on test development, test administration, performance assessment, setting performance standards, and technology in testing. The final section includes chapters on second language testing, testing for accountability in K-12 schools, standardized assessment of individual achievement in K-12 schools, higher education admissions testing, monitoring educational progress, licensure and certification testing, and legal and ethical issues.