In spite of Tea Party criticism, union skepticism, and anti-testing outcries, the campaign to implement Common Core State Standards (otherwise known as Common Core) has achieved phenomenal success in statehouses across the country. Since 2011, 45 states have raised their standards for student proficiency in reading and math, with the greatest…

A key aspect of the teaching and learning cycle involves checking the progress of student learning along the way. Traditionally, state summative assessments have served as a way to measure student mastery of the knowledge and skills outlined in the learning expectations or standards at the end of the academic year. As many states began adopting…

Computational thinking is a core skill in computer science that has become a focus of instruction in primary and secondary education worldwide. Since 2010, researchers have leveraged Evidence-Centered Design (ECD) methods to develop measures of students' Computational Thinking (CT) practices. This article describes how ECD was used to develop CT…

This report is the ACT annual report on the progress of U.S. high school graduates relative to college readiness. This year's report shows that 59% of students in the 2015 U.S. graduating class took the ACT® test, up from 57% last year and 49% in 2011. The increased number of test takers over the past several years enhances the breadth and depth…

This report provides information about the performance of 2012 graduating seniors who took the ACT as sophomores, juniors, or seniors; and self-reported at the time of testing that they were scheduled to graduate in 2012 and tested under standard time conditions. This report focuses on: (1) Performance: student test performance in the context of…

This report provides information about the performance of 2012 Hispanic/Latino graduating seniors who took the ACT as sophomores, juniors, or seniors; and self-reported at the time of testing that they were scheduled to graduate in 2012 and tested under standard time conditions. This report focuses on: (1) Performance: student test performance in…

This report introduces the "WorkFORCE"™ Assessment for Job Fit, a personality assessment utilizing the "FACETS"™ core capability, which is based on innovations in forced-choice assessment and computer adaptive testing. The instrument is derived from the fivefactor model (FFM) of personality and encompasses a broad spectrum of…

This report looks at the progress of the 2017 ACT®-tested graduating class relative to college and career readiness. This year's report shows that 60% of students in the 2017 US graduating class took the ACT test, up from 54% in 2013. The increased number of test takers over the past several years enhances the breadth and depth of the data pool,…

Singapore students have scored exceedingly well on international tests in mathematics. In response, there has been a desire in the United States--both at the policy level and at the school level--to emulate Singapore. Because what can be identified most easily about Singapore's school mathematics can be gleaned from curriculum documents from the…

The nonprofit organization Common Core looked at curriculums, standards, and assessments in nine nations that consistently outrank the United States on the Programme for International Assessment (PISA) to see whether differences in countries' PISA scores are due to differences in the content they teach. Findings revealed that top-performing…

This report is the ACT annual report on the progress of U.S. high school graduates relative to college readiness. This year's report shows that 64% of students in the 2016 US graduating class took the ACT test, up from 59% in 2015 and 49% in 2011. The increased number of test takers over the past several years enhances the breadth and depth of the…

Annually, ACT provides each state with "The Condition of College & Career Readiness," a report that details the college readiness of students who took the ACT[R] test. Based on extensive empirical research, ACT has defined "college and career readiness" as the acquisition of knowledge and skills a student needs to enroll…

The "NCAA Guide to International Academic Standards for Athletics Eligibility" provides specific criteria to be used as a guide in reviewing the initial eligibility (graduation, core curriculum, grade-point average and ACT/SAT test scores) of students who have completed any portion of their secondary education in a non-United States…

The National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), working with several other groups, launched a project to develop a "common core" of standards that, if adopted by the states, would give a set of national standards in reading and mathematics with other subjects to come later. The author says…

A growing number of school districts in the United States are introducing formative assessment systems to measure student skills in core subjects throughout the year. The underlying logic is that providing teachers with timely information on student skills will enable them to improve instruction and better prepare students to excel on high-stakes,…