Reflections on Allen and West’s paper: ‘Religious schools in London: school admissions,religious composition and selectivity’

This paper is a reflection upon the research findings of Rebecca Allen and Anne West in relation to religious schools in London. While welcoming this contribution to the systematic study of faith schools (a neglected area of empirical inquiry), the paper argues that the use of ‘religious schools’ as a unitary category is problematic for the analysis. It also suggests that certain historical and cultural contextual knowledge is required when analysing the characteristics of different categories of religious schools. This response is intended to be helpful for future researchers into the different types of faith school.     

Performance and duration differences between online and paper–pencil tests

Digital technologies have been used for measurement purposes and whether the test medium influences the user is an important issue. The aim of this study is to investigate students?? performances and duration differences between online and paper?Cpencil tests. An online testing tool was developed and administered in order to determine the differences between the traditional paper?Cpencil tests and online tests concerning students?? performances and the duration on tests. This tool enables to add questions that utilize an online database and which are in the form of multiple choice (with 5 or 4 options), true?Cfalse, matching, filling in the blanks, with multiple answers, with short answers, with long answers, and it also enables to prepare tests and to turn them into paper?Cpencil test mode. Performance test was applied with both online and paper?Cpencil modes on junior students at one of the universities in Turkey. Besides, the online testing tool developed within the context of the study was evaluated by instructors with respect to usability, relevance to the purpose and design. Instructor and student questionnaires are developed to determine the opinions on the online testing tool and online tests. Results showed that there was no significant differences between the performances on online and paper?Cpencil tests. On the other hand, the time they spent on the online test has been longer than the time they spent on paper?Cpencil test. Students found the online testing tool easy to use and stated that online test medium is more comfortable than paper?Cpencil tests. However, they complained about external noises, tiredness, and focusing problems regarding the online examination mediums. Generally, instructors have also appreciated the online testing tool??s design and they agree on the fact that it serves for its purposes.     

PISA 2012: how do results for the paper and computer tests compare?

The Programme for International Assessment (PISA) is an important cross-national study of 15-year olds academic achievement. Although it has traditionally been conducted using paper-and-pencil tests, the vast majority of countries will use computer-based assessment from 2015. In this paper, we consider how cross-country comparisons of children’s skills differ between paper and computer versions of the PISA mathematics test. Using data from PISA 2012, where more than 200,000 children from 32 economies completed both paper and computer versions of the mathematics assessment, we find important and interesting differences between the two sets of results. This includes a substantial drop of more than 50 PISA test points (half a standard deviation) in the average performance of children from Shanghai-China. Moreover, by considering children’s responses to particular test items, we show how differences are unlikely to be solely due to the interactive nature of certain computer test questions. The paper concludes with a discussion of what the findings imply for interpretation of PISA results in 2015 and beyond.