A Simple Equation to Predict a Subscore's Value

Subscores are often used to indicate test‐takers' relative strengths and weaknesses and so help focus remediation. But a subscore is not worth reporting if it is too unreliable to believe or if it contains no information that is not already contained in the total score. It is possible, through the use of a simple linear equation provided in this note, to determine if a particular subscore adds enough value to be worth reporting.     

When Can We Improve Subscores by Making Them Shorter?: The Case Against Subscores with Overlapping Items

Subscores can be of diagnostic value for tests that cover multiple underlying traits. Some items require knowledge or ability that spans more than a single trait. It is thus natural for such items to be included on more than a single subscore. Subscores only have value if they are reliable enough to justify conclusions drawn from them and if they contain information about the examinee that is distinct from what is in the total test score. In this study we show, for a broad range of conditions of item overlap on subscores, that the value of the subscore is always improved through the removal of such items.     

Guidelines for Interpreting and Reporting Subscores

Recent research has proposed a criterion to evaluate the reportability of subscores. This criterion is a value‐added ratio (VAR), where values greater than 1 suggest that the true subscore is better approximated by the observed subscore than by the total score. This research extends the existing literature by quantifying statistical significance and effect size for using VAR to provide practical guidelines for subscore interpretation and reporting. Findings indicate that subscores with VAR ≥ 1.1 are a minimum requirement for a meaningful contribution to a user's score interpretation; subscores with .9 < VAR < 1.1 are redundant with the total score and subscores with VAR ≤ .9 would be misleading to report. Additionally, we discuss what to do when subscores do not add value, yet must be reported, as well as when VAR ≥ 1.1 may be undesirable.     

‘Men Must be Educated and Women Must Do If: the National Federation (later Union) of Women Teachers and contemporary feminism 1910‐30

This article explores the feminist politics of the National Union of Women Teachers (NUWT) between 1910 and 1930. It argues that the Union was as much a part of contemporary feminism as educational trade unionism. The feminist teachers were conscious of the effect of the State on their lives and saw their enfranchisement as a way of obtaining a voice in the educational and political arena. The article explores their development as equal rights feminists in the 1920s and indicates the relevance of much of their educational and political views for modern feminists.     

A Conceptual Framework for Learning to Teach Secondary Mathematics: A Situative Perspective

This paper offers for discussion and critique a conceptual framework that applies a situative perspective on learning to the study of learning to teach mathematics. From this perspective, such learning occurs in many different situations -- mathematics and teacher preparation courses, pre-service field experiences, and schools of employment. By participating over time in these varied contexts, mathematics teachers refine their conceptions about their craft -- the big ideas of mathematics, mathematics-specific pedagogy, and sense of self as a mathematics teacher. This framework guides a research project that traces the learning trajectories of teachers from two reform-based teacher preparation programs into their early teaching careers. We provide two examples from this research to illustrate how this framework has helped us understand the process of learning to teach. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.