The Multiple‐Use of Accountability Assessments: Implications for the Process of Validation

Implications of the multiple‐use of accountability assessments for the process of validation are examined. Multiple‐use refers to the simultaneous use of results from a single administration of an assessment for its intended use and for one or more additional uses. A theoretical discussion of the issues for validation which emerge from multiple‐use is provided focusing on the increased stakes that result from multiple‐use and the need to consider the interactions that may take place between multiple‐uses. To further explore this practice, an empirical study of the multiple‐use of the Education Quality and Accountability Office Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics, a mandatory assessment administered in Ontario, Canada, is presented. Drawing on data gathered in an in‐depth case study, practices associated with two of the multiple‐uses of this assessment are considered and evidence of ways these two uses interact is presented. Given these interactions, the limitations of an argument‐based approach to validation for this instance of multiple‐use are demonstrated. Some ways that the process of validation might better address the practice of multiple‐use are suggested and areas for further investigation of this frequently occurring practice are discussed.     

The Model Size Effect in SEM: Inflated Goodness-of-Fit Statistics Are Due to the Size of the Covariance Matrix

The size of a model has been shown to critically affect the goodness of approximation of the model fit statistic T to the asymptotic chi-square distribution in finite samples. It is not clear, however, whether this “model size effect” is a function of the number of manifest variables, the number of free parameters, or both. It is demonstrated by means of 2 Monte Carlo computer simulation studies that neither the number of free parameters to be estimated nor the model degrees of freedom systematically affect the T statistic when the number of manifest variables is held constant. Increasing the number of manifest variables, however, is associated with a severe bias. These results imply that model fit drastically depends on the size of the covariance matrix and that future studies involving goodness-of-fit statistics should always consider the number of manifest variables, but can safely neglect the influence of particular model specifications.     

实验分步计分制对高校学生实验心理的促进作用

根据学生一贯重视分数的心理特点,通过分析问卷调查结果,探讨了实验分步计分的成绩考核方法对学生实验心理及实际操作能力的影响,结果显示,长期以来评分制度的不合理导致当前学生技能性实验操作的信心不足及实际操作能力低下,合理的实验成绩评价体系的运用则可以调整学生的实验学习心态,使学生在心理上重视自身实验操作技能的培养和实验效率,促进其实际操作能力的增强和创造力的发展。     

群体大小和人格类型对当代大学生人际交往的影响

大学阶段是大学生心理逐渐完善发展的阶段,对于大学生来说,人际交往能力变得越来越重要,离开学校,走向社会,这是每个大学生都必须经历的过程。本文在对大学生人际交往情况进行问卷调查的基础上,以数据为基础,对当代大学生人际交往状况进行了研究和分析,明确了群体大小和人格类型对当代大学生人际交往的影响。     

缩小学校规模:美国教育改革的新动向

缩小学校规模是美国为了提高基础教育质量所采取的新举措之一。本文主要分析了推动小型学校走向前台的教育和社会诱因，揭示出小型学校的教育特色以及小型学校在实施和推行的过程中所遭遇到的诸多困扰。     

消除测量深孔尺寸误差和形状误差的方法

在精度要求较高而且较深的内孔尺寸测量中,往往存在尺寸上的误差,通过采用百分表轴向方向尺寸测量和径向方向尺寸测量重合法,可有效消除测量时的深孔尺寸误差和形状误差,保证工件加工质量。     

群体性事件深度报道话语分析——以瓮安6·28事件深度报道为例

对＂瓮安事件＂深度报道话语分析发现：群体性事件深度报道的消息来源主要来自官方;媒体报道的主题拘束于官方话语框架,虽然部分媒体试图有所超越;媒体报道文本中隐含着较明显的官方意识形态;官方意识形态和专家意见在一定程度上掩盖或代替了民众的声音。     

Making Sense of What Students Know: Examining the Referents, Relationships and Modes Students Displayed in Response to a Decimal Task

Written tasks that request an explanation can offer detailed information concerning students' knowledge to the classroom teacher. The examination of students' written responses for the mathematical systems that are employed (referents), the connections that are displayed (relationships) and the communication methods that are utilized (modes) provides evidence that suggests how the student is making sense of a problem. The purpose of this article is to describe the constructs of referents, relationships and modes and to illustrate how these constructs may be reflected in students' written responses to a decimal task that requests an explanation. This article will also examine sets of responses from two classrooms using the proposed framework to illustrate the type of information that teachers may acquire through the application of this framework. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

基于平衡计分卡的高校学生资助评价体系构建研究

为推动高校贫困学生资助体系科学化,提出了构建高校平衡计分卡学生资助体系的设计原理、主要特点、战略地图、关键指标、实施要项等,并进行了可行性、必要性分析。     

The Effect of Propensity Score Matching Method on the Quantity and Quality of Matches

Often program administrators are interested in knowing how students benefit from participation in programs compared to students who do not participate. Such comparisons may be sullied by the fact that participants self-select into programs, resulting in differences between groups prior to programming. By controlling for researcher-identified–self-selection variables, propensity score matching enables researchers to create comparable matched groups. However, when employing propensity score matching, researchers are faced with a plethora of matching options. In the current study, we compared the quantity and quality of matches obtained when applying common matching techniques to real data. The methods produced matches of varying quantity and quality. Moreover, group comparisons on the outcome led to different conclusions depending on the matching method employed.     

不同体质群大学生运动风险评估模式对耐力跑成绩的影响

基于追求耐力跑水平提高的同时避免运动风险事件发生,以南京森林警察学院为例,综合分析一年级大学生体质健康测试结果,采取风险评估与处方训练相结合的模式对不同体质群大学生进行干预,根据干预后大学生1 000m耐力跑水平的变化,分析构建体质分级风险评估模式下促进警校大学生体质健康发展的相关问题.     

The Withdrawal of Non-traditional Students: Developing an explanatory model

In the past decade there has been a dramatic growth in UK student numbers, with students from non-traditional and under-represented groups being encouraged to participate in higher education. However, levels of withdrawal in those higher education institutions that have a greater proportion of non-traditional students have also been increasing. Higher education institutions have introduced various strategies in an effort to cope with this problem, but unfortunately current models offer little in the way of explaining the causes of (and little justification for the strategies used to reduce) withdrawal. It is proposed that in attending to the explanations of withdrawal, consideration must be given to discovering the underlying characteristics of the teaching and learning environment and the manner in which a student's perceptions and expectations of that environment may impact on their decision to withdraw. An ethnographical study using grounded theory is used to capture these underlying characteristics. This study provides an explanation of the teaching and learning environment as it relates to the student's beliefs, the actions between the student and staff and the intentions of the institution. The results of this initial study are presented. These results represent a preliminary 'grounded' model of the teaching and learning environment of the Technology Faculty at Southampton Institute.     

Comments on Neil Dorans's NCME Career Award Address:The Contestant Perspective on Taking Tests: Emanations From the Statue Within

Neil Dorans has made a career of advocating for the examinee. He continues to do so in his NCME career award address, providing a thought‐provoking commentary on some current trends in educational measurement that could potentially affect the integrity of test scores. Concerns expressed in the address call attention to a conundrum that faces today's measurement practitioners, namely, that technology‐driven assessment, while very appealing, is prone to less controlled conditions of measurement. The commentary given here focuses on the message and implications of Neil Dorans's career award address. It discusses some specific points of note, elaborates on the conundrum, gives a view of the future, and makes a call for a dialogue among test developers and measurement practitioners on how to compensate for the loss in controlled conditions of measurement associated with the use of technology.     

中国中小学生尊严量表的编制报告

尊严是指个体所具有的、应该被自己、他人所尊重、且不容侵犯的属性.尊严素养在人际互动中形成并表现,是积极心理健康教育的重要方面.本研究以690名中小学生为被试,通过理论构建、探索性和验证性因素分析编制了由16个题项组成的中国中小学生尊严量表.量表包括尊严观、尊严感两个分量表,每个分量表包括自尊、他尊和尊他3个因子.统计结果表明,量表具有较好的信效度,可以用于大规模测评和相关研究.     

Articulating the validity evidence for a science alternate assessment

Students with the most significant cognitive disabilities (SCD) are the 1% of the total student population who have a disability or multiple disabilities that significantly impact intellectual functioning and adaptive behaviors and who require individualized instruction and substantial supports. Historically, these students have received little instruction in science and the science assessments they have participated in have not included age‐appropriate science content. Guided by a theory of action for a new assessment system, an eight‐state consortium developed multidimensional alternate content standards and alternate assessments in science for students in three grade bands (3–5, 6–8, 9–12) that are linked to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013 ) and A Framework for K‐12 Science Education (Framework; National Research Council, 2012 ). The great variability within the population of students with SCD necessitates variability in the assessment content, which creates inherent challenges in establishing technical quality. To address this issue, a primary feature of this assessment system is the use of hypothetical cognitive models to provide a structure for variability in assessed content. System features and subsequent validity studies were guided by a theory of action that explains how the proposed claims about score interpretation and use depend on specific assumptions about the assessment, as well as precursors to the assessment. This paper describes evidence for the main claim that test scores represent what students know and can do. We present validity evidence for the assumptions about the assessment and its precursors, related to this main claim. The assessment was administered to over 21,000 students in eight states in 2015–2016. We present selected evidence from system components, procedural evidence, and validity studies. We evaluate the validity argument and demonstrate how it supports the claim about score interpretation and use.     

The Effect of Conflict Resolution Training on Turkish Elementary School Students: A Quasi-Experimental Investigation

This study investigated the effect of conflict resolution training on Turkish elementary school students' conflict resolution strategies. The participants were 54 fourth grade students. A pre-test, post-test, follow-up control group quasi-experimental design was used. Two 4th grade classes were selected out of three eligible 4th grade classes on the basis of Conflict Scenario Written Measure (Johnson, Johnson, & Dudley, 1992) and randomly assigned as control and experimental group. The experimental group consisted of 28 students (17 boys, 11 girls) and the control group consisted of 26 students (15 boys, 11 girls). Those in experimental group received 45 minutes of conflict resolution training twice a week, for four weeks. The results indicated that treatment was effective in changing the conflict resolution strategies used by the experimental group subjects in three different hypothetical situations and this effect was maintained six months after the treatment.     

The National Environmental Literacy Project: A Baseline Study of Middle Grade Students in the United States

The authors discuss environmental literacy in the United States and present a brief summary of the results of a major national study designed to attain a baseline measure of environmental literacy among middle school students in the United States The authors include events that led up to the study and desctibe future directions for environmental literacy assessment.     

论音乐治疗对培养中学生心理健康的作用

鉴于音乐治疗功能和当代中学生心理健康教育的重要性的现状,本研究主要探讨音乐治疗对中学生心理健康的教育。通过对中学生心理健康的分析,在多元智能理论的指导下,结合音乐治疗理论,积极开展音乐治疗在中学生心理健康教育中的运用与实施,改善中学生的身心健康。