Modern international large-scale assessment in education: an integrative review and mapping of the literature

Research in international large-scale assessment (ILSA) has become an increasingly popular field of study in education. Consequently, interest and debate in the field by practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and the public has grown over the past decades. This study adopts a descriptive bibliometric approach to map modern research on ILSA in education and provide an up-to-date picture of the recent developments and structure of the field. The analysis of 2,233 journal articles indexed in the Web of Sciences database revealed that ILSA research in education is an emerging field in a stage of exponential growth that has become increasingly international with recent substantive contributions from China, Spain, and Turkey. Research in the field is currently produced by a tupid network of scholars with diverse geographical backgrounds that engage frequently in national and international research collaborations. Also, the field is relatively interdisciplinary and has developed grounded on nine differentiated historical paths. The PISA program has received the greatest attention in the field, and a wide variety of topics have been addressed in the literature in the last decades, including equity and quality education, globalization and education policy, measurement and statistics, student motivation and self-concept, and interpersonal relationships. The paper concludes by pointing to the potential of future ILSA research to make use of new more relevant instrumentation, data linkages, and trans-regional collaborations.

A systematic review of school health policy measurement tools: implementation determinants and outcomes

Background Governments in some countries or states/provinces mandate school-based policies intended to improve the health and well-being of primary and secondary students and in some cases the health of school staff. Examples include mandating a minimum time spent per week in programmed physical activity, mandating provision of healthy foods and limiting fat content of school meals, and banning tobacco products or use on school campuses. Although school health researchers have studied whether schools, districts, or states/provinces are meeting requirements, it is unclear to what extent implementation processes and determinants are assessed. The purposes of the present systematic review of quantitative measures of school policy implementation were to (1) identify quantitative school health policy measurement tools developed to measure implementation at the school, district, or state/provincial levels; (2) describe the policy implementation outcomes and determinants assessed and identify the trends in measurement; and (3) assess pragmatic and psychometric properties of identified implementation measures to understand their quality and suitability for broader application. Methods Peer-reviewed journal articles published 1995–2020 were included if they (1) had multiple-item quantitative measures of school policy implementation and (2) addressed overall wellness, tobacco, physical activity, nutrition, obesity prevention, or mental health/bullying/social-emotional learning. The final sample comprised 86 measurement tools from 67 peer-review articles. We extracted study characteristics, such as psychometric and pragmatic measure properties, from included articles based on three frameworks: (1) Implementation Outcomes Framework, (2) Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, and (3) Policy Implementation Determinants Framework. Results Most implementation tools were developed to measure overall wellness policies which combined multiple policy topics (n = 35, 40%) and were in survey form (n = 75, 87%). Fidelity was the most frequently prevalent implementation outcome (n = 70, 81%), followed by adoption (n = 32, 81%). The implementation determinants most assessed were readiness for implementation, including resources (n = 43, 50%), leadership (n = 42, 49%), and policy communication (n = 41, 48%). Overall, measures were low-cost and had easy readability. However, lengthy tools and lack of reported validity/reliability data indicate low transferability. Conclusions Implementation science can contribute to more complete and rigorous assessment of school health policy implementation processes, which can improve implementation strategies and ultimately the intended health benefits. Several high-quality measures of implementation determinants and implementation outcomes can be applied to school health policy implementation assessment. Dissemination and implementation science researchers can also benefit from measurement experiences of school health researchers.

Environmental policy creation : examining the Ontario municipal approach

This thesis examines the environmental content of municipal official plans in Ontario, Canada. It is an exploration of how environmental policy can be measured, categorized and compared at the municipal level. The legislative and societal framework from which municipal environmental policy emerges is examined before a method for measuring the level of the policy is proposed. The results of the policy measurement are then analyzed quantitatively for relationships with demographic characteristics and qualitatively for strength of language and level of policy as well as for spatial patterns in policy levels. From these analyses conclusions are drawn regarding the presence of significant variation in the environmental content found in municipal official plans. Conclusions are also made regarding the attention given to individual components of municipal environmental content. Finally, recommendations for future environmental policy integration into municipal official plans are suggested as are recommendations for future research.

Environmental policy creation : examining the Ontario municipal approach

This thesis examines the environmental content of municipal official plans in Ontario, Canada. It is an exploration of how environmental policy can be measured, categorized and compared at the municipal level. The legislative and societal framework from which municipal environmental policy emerges is examined before a method for measuring the level of the policy is proposed. The results of the policy measurement are then analyzed quantitatively for relationships with demographic characteristics and qualitatively for strength of language and level of policy as well as for spatial patterns in policy levels. From these analyses conclusions are drawn regarding the presence of significant variation in the environmental content found in municipal official plans. Conclusions are also made regarding the attention given to individual components of municipal environmental content. Finally, recommendations for future environmental policy integration into municipal official plans are suggested as are recommendations for future research.