

Students improve even amid evaluation controversy
Positive student achievement and growth results for students in New York suggest that improvements to the teacher evaluation process that emphasize the importance of strong evaluation procedures, the systematic collection of evidence of teacher performance, and the use of data to inform the process, have promise for improving educator effectiveness far more than a narrower punitive approach.


Modeling student test-taking motivation in the context of an adaptive achievement test
This study examined the utility of response time‐based analyses in understanding the behavior of unmotivated test takers. For the data from an adaptive achievement test, patterns of observed rapid‐guessing behavior and item response accuracy were compared to the behavior expected under several types of models that have been proposed to represent unmotivated test taking behavior.
Topics: Innovations in reporting & assessment, Measurement & scaling, School & test engagement


Get it right: Common sense on the common core
In this podcast, Nate Jensen discusses the value of assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards and the misconceptions that accompanied the implementation of new assessments in some states.
Learning First Alliance, Get It Right podcast


Evaluating content alignment in computerized adaptive testing
This article describes the decisions made in the development of CATs that influence and might threaten content alignment. It outlines a process for evaluating alignment that is sensitive to these threats and gives an empirical example of the process.
By: Norman Webb
Topics: Measurement & scaling


Is Moneyball the next big thing in education?
Predictive analytics in education can offer a benefit as long as educators heed the differences between how the tools are used in industry and how they should be used differently in schooling. Perhaps most important, teachers already know a great deal about their students — far more than an investor knows about a stock or a baseball scout about an up-and-coming pitcher.
By: James Soland


Increasing parental involvement of English language learner families: What the research says
The nearly 10 million English Language Learners (ELLs) represent the fastest-growing segment of the US’s public school student population. While research continually finds that ELL parents, generally speaking, place a high value on their children’s education, many immigrant, refugee, and ELL parents experience their relationships with their children’s schools very differently from mainstream English-speaking families.
By: Beth Tarasawa, Jacqueline Waggoner


Modeling student growth has been a federal policy requirement under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). In addition to tracking student growth, the latest Race To The Top (RTTP) federal education policy stipulates the evaluation of teacher effectiveness from the perspective of added value that teachers contribute to student learning and growth. Student growth modeling and teacher value-added modeling are complex.
Topics: Growth modeling, Measurement & scaling, Student growth & accountability policies