Author(s): |
White, John |
Source: |
London Review of Education, v11 n1 p1-6 2013 |
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Pub Date: |
2013-00-00 |
Pub Type(s): |
Journal Articles; Opinion Papers |
Peer Reviewed: |
Yes |
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Descriptors:
Student Evaluation; Evaluation Methods; Educational Testing; Testing Programs; Educational Change; Foreign Countries; College Bound Students; College Entrance Examinations; Secondary School Students
Abstract:
It is time to replace the examination regime at 16 and 18 by something more appropriate. The coalition government has been solidifying its place by its Baccalaureate reforms at both ages, but this is a move in quite the wrong direction. Whatever the wider purposes that the examination system may serve, its core aim is to find out how well students are faring in their learning. The author argues that the examination regime has many faults, among them financial, psychological, sociological and ethical. It also has epistemological deficiencies. These are more serious in that they strike at the heart of what examining is supposed to be. As the people have seen, a fundamental problem with public examinations is that candidates are only numbers. If the basic reason for assessing students is to find out how well they are doing, for all but more rule-bound achievements assessors have to know something about examinees' wider intellectual and perhaps ethical or aesthetic horizons. And for that, assuming, rightly, that they lack extensive written evidence of this, they need personal contact with those being tested. This all points to school-based, rather than nation-wide, assessments.
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Pub Date: |
2013-00-00 |
Pub Type(s): |
Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive |
Peer Reviewed: |
Yes |
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Descriptors:
Standard Setting (Scoring); Criterion Referenced Tests; Benchmarking; Student Evaluation; College Bound Students; Student Placement; Racial Segregation; Politics; Social Environment; Educational History; Attitudes; Foreign Countries
Abstract:
Criterion-referenced assessments have become more common around the world, with performance standards being set to differentiate different levels of student performance. However, use of standard setting methods developed in the United States may be complicated by factors related to the political and educational contexts within another country. In this article, experience gained from conducting several standard setting studies in South Africa is shared. The legacy of the apartheid era, in which segregation and discrimination were institutionalized, affects the attitudes of South Africans toward assessment and placing students into performance levels. These issues played out as panelists were asked to make judgments related to students' likely performance in higher education. Although the instantiation of panelists' reluctance to label students may be different in South Africa compared to the United States or other countries, lessons can be learned about how the effects of these beliefs and anxieties may be addressed during standard setting activities. (Contains 1 figure, 3 tables and 2 footnotes.)
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Pub Date: |
2013-00-00 |
Pub Type(s): |
Reports - Descriptive |
Peer Reviewed: |
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Descriptors:
State Standards; Educational Change; Workbooks; Professional Development; Accountability; Academic Achievement; School Districts; Educational Improvement; Program Implementation; Focus Groups; Feedback (Response); Teachers; College Preparation; Career Readiness; College Bound Students; Leaders; Leadership; Evidence; Stakeholders
Abstract:
Educators face significant changes today that affect their daily work lives. Chief among those changes is the national expectation that every student will graduate from high school, college and career ready. Common core state standards adopted in 46 states, as well as college- and career-ready standards established in other states, define what students are expected to know and be able to do to enter and to succeed in 21st century postsecondary education or in careers. Changes such as new educator effectiveness systems, student assessments, and accountability for student success are also underway in education systems. Such changes affect what educators do daily. Now, with the demand for more effective professional learning to prepare and support educators to meet new expectations, state and school systems leaders can seize ideal opportunities for reevaluating their current policies and practices related to professional learning. By strengthening policies and practices, education leaders increase the leverage effective professional learning exerts on the achievement of higher standards for student and educator performance. This workbook provides states and local school districts with guidance to conduct a review of existing policies related to professional learning. The review process includes discovery, analysis, recommendations for possible policy revision, and follow-up. Appendices include: (1) Initiation Phase Tools; (2) Discovery Phase Tools; (3) Analysis Phase Tools; (4) Recommendations Phase Tools; (5) Reporting Phase Tools; and (6) Follow-Up Phase Tools.
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Author(s): |
N/A |
Source: |
What Works Clearinghouse |
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Pub Date: |
2013-02-00 |
Pub Type(s): |
Reports - Evaluative |
Peer Reviewed: |
Yes |
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Descriptors:
High School Seniors; College Bound Students; Coaching (Performance); Intervention; College Applicants; Program Evaluation; Program Effectiveness; Scores; Grade 10; Academic Achievement; Control Groups; Enrollment; Evidence
Abstract:
"Late Interventions Matter Too--The Case of College Coaching in New Hampshire" examined whether providing college application coaching to high school seniors increased postsecondary enrollment. The program was aimed at students who were considering applying to college but who had made little or no progress in the application process, and who had a tenth grade test score high enough to warrant applying to college. Study authors randomly assigned approximately 950 students from 12 New Hampshire high schools to receive the coaching program or be in the control group. The coaching program was implemented by volunteer college students, and provided in-person assistance with completing college application and financial aid forms, money to cover application fees, and a $100 cash incentive to participants for completing the college application process. Overall, students receiving the intervention had postsecondary enrollment rates that were four percentage points higher than students in the control group (43% versus 39%), but this difference was not statistically significant. However, study authors reported a statistically significant interaction between student gender and program participation: Women who participated in the program enrolled in postsecondary education at a rate that was 12 percentage points higher than women in the control condition (63% versus 51%). For men, the enrollment rates were essentially equal in the intervention and the control conditions. The portion of the study that estimates the impact of the coaching program on college enrollment meets What Works Clearinghouse evidence standards without reservations because it is a randomized controlled trial with no attrition. A more thorough review (forthcoming) will determine whether the follow-up findings for enrollment and the analyses of the impact of the program on enrollment for first-generation college students meet WWC evidence standards.
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Pub Date: |
2013-02-09 |
Pub Type(s): |
Reports - Evaluative |
Peer Reviewed: |
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Descriptors:
Vocational Education; Longitudinal Studies; Educational Trends; Career Education; Academic Education; Career Readiness; College Readiness; General Education; Labor Market; College Bound Students; High School Graduates; Mathematics Achievement; Credits; Politics of Education
Abstract:
This report examines change and stability across two decades in the sociodemographic characteristics, educational experiences, and postsecondary outcomes of high school graduates with different occupational coursetaking patterns. Occupational coursetaking is part of the broader field of career and technical education (CTE), which also includes general labor market preparation and family and consumer sciences education courses. Historically, CTE and occupational studies provided low-achieving or academically disengaged students with courses that prepared them for immediate entry into the labor market. However, the expansion of new types of career education within magnet schools, career academies, and traditional high schools, and the increasingly accepted perspective that all students can benefit from training that improves their workplace skills, suggests that the older dichotomies between college-bound academic education and work-oriented occupational preparation are less salient. To examine whether this is the case, this report uses descriptive statistics to analyze changes across three high school cohorts--the graduating classes of 1982, 1992, and 2004--and compares their involvement in CTE and occupational courses, their academic coursetaking and achievement outcomes, and their initial postsecondary school and work experiences. Nationally representative data come from a series of secondary longitudinal studies conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics: High School and Beyond Study of 1980 Sophomores, the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988, and the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. Results show that CTE, as measured by occupational coursetaking, has moved from being a clearly delineated vocational track for graduates headed to jobs immediately after high school to an exploratory program for an increasing proportion of both academic and general curriculum graduates. This shift from "track to field" involves smaller groups of graduates intensively studying an occupational area and larger groups of graduates earning a few occupational credits. It also coincides with shifts toward more academic coursetaking, improved academic achievement in math, and more involvement in postsecondary education for those with more involvement in occupational preparation. The following are appended: (1) Technical Notes; (2) Standard Errors for Main Tables; (3) Fixed-effects Regression Analysis of Mathematics Achievement and Occupational Coursetaking: 1992 and 2004; and (4) CSSC Codes and Titles for Coursetaking Subjects and Areas. [This report was prepared as a background report for the National Assessment of Career and Technical Education (NACTE) and submitted to the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Under Secretary, Policy and Program Studies Service. The report was funded under ED Contract No. ED-04-CO-0030/0002: Analytic, Evaluation, and Policy Support for the Policy and Program Studies Service.] (Contains 76 tables, 6 figures, 2 exhibits, and 11 footnotes.)
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