An essential component in school accountability efforts is for assessments to be well-aligned with the standards or curriculum they are intended to measure. However, relatively little prior research has explored methods to determine statistical significance of alignment or misalignment. This study explores analyses of alignment as a special case…

Information and communication technology (ICT) literacy education has become an important issue, and the necessity of computational literacy (CL) has been increasing in our growing information society. CL is becoming an important element for future talents, and many countries, including the USA, are developing programs for CL education.…

Value-added models are considered one of the best alternatives not only for accountability purposes but also to improve the school system itself. The estimates provided by these models measure the contribution of schools to students' academic progress, once the effect of other factors outside school control are eliminated. The functional form…

The aim of this study is to determine the extent to which principals' self-ratings of leadership effectiveness coincide with their teachers' perceptions of their leadership effectiveness. Furthermore, we explore several characteristics of teachers and principals in an attempt to identify the factors that may predict congruence in…

This study explored what types (commercial, in-house, or hybrid) of electronic assessment systems (EASs) are currently being used at university-based educator preparation programs, how important the system components were at the time of system selection, how satisfied users were with the components of the system, and how well they perceive that…

In this article, I specify a conceptual framework for test validity research on content assessments taken by English language learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools in grades K-12. This framework is modeled after one previously delineated by Willingham et al. (1988), which was developed to guide research on students with disabilities. In this framework…

In this three-state study, the authors estimate the magnitudes of achievement gaps between English learner (EL) students and their non-EL peers, while avoiding typical caveats in cross-sectional studies. The authors further compare the observed achievement gaps across three distinct dimensions (content areas, grades, and states) and report…

The purpose of the present study is to examine the language characteristics of a few states' large-scale assessments of mathematics and science and investigate whether the language demands of the items are associated with the degree of differential item functioning (DIF) for English language learner (ELL) students. A total of 542 items from 11…

This study compared performance of both English language learners (ELLs) and non-ELL students in Grades 4 and 8 under accommodated and nonaccommodated testing conditions. The accommodations used in this study included a computerized administration of a math test with a pop-up glossary, a customized English dictionary, extra testing time, and…

We investigated language variation and score variation in the testing of English language learners, native Spanish speakers. We gave students the same set of National Assessment of Educational Progress mathematics items in both their first language and their second language. We examined the amount of score variation due to the main and interaction…

This article examines nonmathematical linguistic complexity as a source of differential item functioning (DIF) in math word problems for English language learners (ELLs). Specifically, this study investigates the relationship between item measures of linguistic complexity, nonlinguistic forms of representation and DIF measures based on item…

This article is an analysis of the role of assessment portfolios in teacher learning. Over 18 months, 23 science teachers developed, implemented, and evaluated assessments to track student learning, supported by portfolio tasks and resources, grade-level colleagues, and team facilitators. Evidence of teacher learning included (a) portfolios of a…

In this study we use data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey third- and fifth-grade samples to investigate teacher judgments of student achievement, the extent to which they offer a similar picture of student mathematics achievement compared to standardized test scores, and whether classroom assessment practices moderate the relationship…

The No Child Left Behind act resulted in an increased reliance on large-scale standardized tests to assess the progress of individual students as well as schools. In addition, emphasis was placed on including all students in the testing programs as well as those with disabilities. As a result, the role of testing accommodations has become more…

Many U.S. students must pass a standards-based exit exam to earn a high school diploma. The degree to which exit exams and state standards properly signal to students their preparedness for postsecondary schooling has been questioned. The alignment of test scores with college grades for students at the University of Arizona (n = 2,667) who took…