scholarly journals Why Graded Assessment for Undergraduates During the COVID-19 Lockdown? An Experience Introspection

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-75
Author(s):  
Abdullatif Alshamsi ◽  
Alex Zahavich ◽  
Samar El-Farra
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Technology Infrastructure ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Assessment Development ◽  
Student Efficacy ◽  
Institutional Accountability ◽  
To Come

This paper presents a retrospective evaluation of the Higher Colleges of Technology’s student assessments during the COVID-19 lockdown, reflecting the justified decision to deploy graded assessments during the lockdown for students to academically progress and/or graduate on time, while maintaining the quality and rigor of academic awards. The outcome-based evaluation of this paper is intended to provide lessons for any future situations of this significance and magnitude. While online education was the obvious response to the pandemic, the provision of assessments was not possible without risk. Taking a high-stakes decision that would affect the future of thousands of students, for years to come, involved complex steps of reasoning and justification. Addressing the role of graded assessment in supporting institutional accountability and transferability of students’ achievements, student efficacy and informed pedagogy alterations were the main objectives. To meet those objectives, the Higher Colleges of Technology was able to deploy an off-campus student assessment model that builds upon three pillars of adjustments (assessment development and deployment; technology infrastructure; and governance resilience) to support students’ learning, while mitigating vulnerabilities. The evaluation of student performance indicators and stakeholders’ satisfaction rates revealed a successful deployment of off-campus assessment while maintaining the traditional conventions pertaining to evaluation of assessments.

scholarly journals Developing a Diagnostic Assessment Model

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
James Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Quality Assessment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Diagnostic Assessment ◽  
Education Quality ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Formal Testing ◽  
To Come ◽  
Grade 3

The recent implementation of annual testing at the grade 3, 6 and 9 levels by the Education Quality Assessment Office has forced the school boards in Ontario to try to come to grips with the problem of measuring student achievement. This problem is not a new one in that teachers have been concerned about evaluating student progress since the advent of schooling . In this respect, the literature suggests that most teachers are quite capable of identifying the students in their classrooms who are or are not making sufficient progress. Why then do we need formal testing and in particular, large scale high stakes assessments?

scholarly journals Math and science outcomes for students of teachers from standard and alternative pathways in Texas

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Michael Marder ◽  
Bernard David ◽  
Caitlin Hamrock
Keyword(s):  
Student Performance ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Algebra I ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Alternative Pathways ◽  
Biology Students ◽  
University Preparation ◽  
Alternative Routes ◽  
Almost All ◽  
High Stakes Exams

Texas provides a unique opportunity to examine teachers without standard university preparation, for it prepares more teachers through alternative pathways than any other state. We find two advantages for mathematics and science teachers prepared in the standard way. First, since 2008 they have been staying in the classroom longer than those who pursued alternative routes. Second, we analyze student performance on Algebra 1 and Biology exams over the period 2012-2018. Algebra I students with experienced teachers from standard programs gain .03 to .05 in standard deviation units compared to students whose teachers were alternatively prepared. For Biology students there are fewer statistically significant differences, although when differences exist they almost all favor standard programs. These effects are difficult to measure in part because teachers are not assigned to teach courses with high-stakes exams at random. Nevertheless, we find strong evidence in Algebra I that students learn more when their teachers have standard preparation. In Biology there is also evidence but less compelling. Thus, we recommend that all states bolster traditional university-based teacher certification, that Texas not take drastic action to curtail alternative certification, and that other states not allow it to grow too quickly.

scholarly journals HIGHER AND LOWER-ORDER THINKING SKILLS: THE CASE OF CHEMISTRY REVISITED

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 467-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgios Tsaparlis
Keyword(s):  
Student Performance ◽  
Lower Order ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Twelfth Grade ◽  
Low Performance ◽  
The Individual

This work analyses students’ failure in the 2019 Nationwide Chemistry Examination in Greece, which concerns secondary education graduates, competing for admission to higher education Greek institutions. The distinction of thinking skills into higher and lower order (HOTS and LOTS) is used as a theoretical tool for this analysis. The examination included several questions that contained HOTS elements that had been unusual in previous examinations. This led to a decrease in overall student performance but better discrimination between outstanding and good students. Based on two samples of examination papers, corresponding to very similar subsets of the student population, the 2018 and 2019 examinations are compared, and the individual 2019 questions are evaluated. It was found that section B of the 2019 examination paper (which included contexts unfamiliar to the students, and for which, a large effect size between 2018 and 2019 was calculated) may have caused the large drop. An important link is established between the 2019 low performance and the HOTS and LOTS features of the questions, and the role or non-role of algorithmic calculations is examined. In addition, the critical opinions of chemistry teachers are provided, with a consensus emerging in favour of connecting chemistry with everyday life. Keywords: chemistry examinations, higher-order cognitive skills, higher-order thinking skills, student assessment, twelfth-grade chemistry.

scholarly journals Grit in Online Education

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Nicole Buzzetto-Hollywood ◽  
Kathy Quinn ◽  
Wendy Wang ◽  
Austin Hill
Keyword(s):  
Student Achievement ◽  
Online Education ◽  
Student Success ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
P Value ◽  
Learning Success ◽  
Promising Area ◽  
Learning Efficacy

Aim: This study sought to explore the role of the elusive non-cognitive skill set known as grit, or the resolve and determination to achieve goals regardless of impediments, on student success in online education. It represents an area of exploration where there is a dearth in the available literature and reports the results of a study conducted at a Mid-Atlantic minority-serving university that examined the relationship between grit and student performance in fully online courses. Methodology: Students were administered the standard 12-Question Grit Scale with the addition of a series of validated questions that sought to measure perceived self-learning efficacy. Additionally, student performances in online courses were recorded and correlations conducted. Basic statistical analyses such as mean, mode, standard deviation, variance, and confidence interval were calculated. Two hypotheses were introduced as part of this study and tested with Anovas and crosstabulations. Results: This study found that higher grit scores correlated progressively to both self-discipline and self-efficacy but that a positive relationship to student achievement in fully online courses as measured with a p value of greater than .05 could not be confirmed. Conclusion: As online education continues to grow, providing opportunities to foster and strengthen student success in online courses and programs is increasingly important. E-learning success requires that students exhibit strong self-regulation, self-discipline, resilience, dutifulness, conscientiousness, and low impulsivity all of which are attributes of grit. As such, grit is presented as a promising area of exploration for increasing student achievement in online education.

scholarly journals Identifying Levers Related to Student Performance on High-Stakes Science Exams: Examining School, Teaching, Teacher, and Professional Development Characteristics

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Fischer ◽  
Brandon Foster ◽  
Ayana McCoy ◽  
Frances Lawrenz ◽  
Christopher Dede ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Student Achievement ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Science Teachers ◽  
Curriculum Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Level ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Reform Implementation ◽  
School Teaching

Background: Many students enter into postsecondary education without the college readiness skills that allow them to face the demands of postsecondary education. Increasingly, policymakers and educational researchers are responding to calls for reforming secondary education to provide more opportunity for all students to receive high quality education and to become career and college ready. Purpose: This study attempts to identify levers to increase student performance in secondary education. In particular, it examines relationships of school, teaching, teacher, and teacher professional development characteristics with student scores on high-stakes Advanced Placement (AP) examinations in the sciences.Setting: This study is situated in the context of the large-scale, top-down, nationwide AP curriculum and examination reform in the sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics) in the United States. This is an unprecedented opportunity to analyze changing educational landscapes in the United States with large-scale national student-, teacher-, school-, and district-level data sets across multiple science disciplines and different stages of the curriculum reform implementation connected to a standardized and high-stakes student outcome measure.Population: This study analyzes nationwide data samples of the AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics population during the first, second, and third year of the curriculum reform implementation. Across disciplines and years, the analytical samples include a total of 113,603 students and 6,046 teachers. Research design: This empirical quantitative study uses data from web-based surveys sent to all AP science teachers. Additionally, College Board provided student- and school-level data for all students taking AP examinations. Data preparation methods included exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Associations towards student achievement were analyzed through multi-level ordered logistic regression analysis separately by science discipline and year of the curriculum reform implementation. Afterwards, the results were aggregated through a meta-analysis. Findings: Student performance is not pre-determined by students’ background, leaving roughly 60% of the AP score variance potentially malleable for teacher and school-level factors. In particular, teachers’ perceived administrative support, self-efficacy, teaching experience, and elements of classroom instruction were related to student performance. Notably, teachers’ professional development participation has a small, mixed impact on student achievement. Conclusion: The identified levers for improving student achievement provide a strong rationale for the continued efforts of policy makers to improve school environments and to support science teachers to ultimately both increase student learning and help all students graduate prepared for college and ready for their future careers.

Universal Screening Methods and Models: Diagnostic Accuracy of Reading Assessments

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 255-265
Author(s):  
Kalie VanMeveren ◽  
David Hulac ◽  
Sarah Wollersheim-Shervey
Keyword(s):  
Student Performance ◽  
Upper Elementary ◽  
Fifth Grade ◽  
Screening Methods ◽  
Elementary Grades ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Fifth Grade Students ◽  
Statewide Assessment ◽  
Student Risk

Reading screening assessments help educators identify students who are at risk of reading and determine the need for intervention and supports. However, some schools screen and assess students more often than needed, and the additional information does not improve the accuracy of decisions. This may be especially true for students at the upper elementary grades who have already taken high-stakes tests. This exploratory study evaluated how accurately a variety of screening measures predicted performance on a high-stakes end of year test for fourth- and fifth-grade students. Results of this study indicated that previous scores on the statewide assessment and computer-adaptive assessment best predicted student performance on a high-stakes reading test (Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment—Third Edition). When comparing screening models, a two-gate approach appeared to be the best method for identifying student risk.

To Screen or not to Screen: Criterion-Related Validity of Math and Reading Curriculum-Based Measurement in Relation to High-Stakes Math Scores

2020 ◽  
pp. 073428292095014
Author(s):  
Giancarlo A. Anselmo ◽  
Jamie L. Yarbrough ◽  
Van Vi N. Tran
Keyword(s):  
Early Literacy ◽  
Student Performance ◽  
Predictive Validity ◽  
Math Application ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Curriculum Based Measurement ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Calculation Skills ◽  
Math Test

This study analyzed the relationship between benchmark scores from the newly published Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Math (i.e., Acadience™) math probes and student performance on math and reading sections of a state-mandated high-stakes test. Participants were 420 students enrolled in third, fourth, and fifth grades in a rural southeastern school district. Specific to this study was the calculation of the predictive validity of benchmark scores obtained in the spring from curriculum-based measurement probes measuring math computation, math application skills, and reading ability. Results of the study suggest that math application probes have strong predictive validity. The study also provides evidence that even at early grades the skill of reading is associated with performance on a high-stakes math test. The study provides some evidence that calculation skills are needed, but do not account for as much of the variance as reading ability does in grades as low as third grade. Implications for practice are discussed as it relates to multiple gating screening procedures at the elementary level.

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