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This chapter discusses some of the criticisms of standardized assessments by doing a document analysis of mainly Mexico's and Argentina's ministries of education's web sites and exploring the theoretical work of diverse authors, mainly critical pedagogues and culturalists. This chapter argues that the process of assessment using standardized tests is a highly political and even commercial process, but the challenge to compete globally, still perform locally, collaborate in solidarity, and decide collectively whose knowledge is of most worth is still before us. As exemplified in Mexico's test ENLACE, standardized tests tend to show a negative bias against minorities and tendency to highlight certain values and knowledge. Countries should seek for as many partnership opportunities with teachers and communities to be able to assess learning collectively and even consider not adopting policies passively, as opposed to having an international organization or policy dictating what is worth knowing and testing. This way, assessment will still help countries compete globally, still perform locally, and collaborate in solidarity.

Over the last 40 years, K-12 education has seen a continuous and significant increase in the amount of mandated standardized testing. This rise in standardized testing has led many in the field to question the extent to which these tests are affecting students, teachers and schools. The purpose of this paper is to explore the results of a social studies standardized test, specifically, the Florida Civics End-of-Course assessment.

Researchers used population data for seventh grade students and aggregated countywide proficiency rates from 2013–2016 for comparative statistical measures. Descriptive statistics and regression analyses were utilized to identify emerging trends using mean proficiency percentages when accounting for race, gender and socioeconomic status.

Initial findings indicated disparity within each subgroup (R²=0.511 (2013–2014), 0.500 (2014–2015) and 0.456 (2015–2016)). Following an analysis of the results, the conclusion and implications discuss the influence of standardized testing in social studies education.

This is a large-scale project that has never been done.

Scholars who advocate for equity-oriented educational practices have argued that the accountability era in the USA, now in place for two decades, has failed in its intended goal to improve student performance for traditionally marginalized student populations. This study aims to use a sociocultural lens to trace how a century-old conceptualization of reading – that discrete skills comprise comprehension and that multiple-choice questions can measure mastery of those skills – predominates today’s standardized reading tests.

This essay draws on the authors’ collective experiences as literacy educators, school leaders and researchers.

The authors critique two beliefs rooted in Eurocentric thinking borne from a long-held conceptualization of reading – that logical reasoning and the right background knowledge can promote achievement on standardized tests. The authors link the critique to their lived experiences and situate test design features in the broader sociopolitical educational landscape. Then, by presenting examples from an urban public high school, the authors encourage educational leaders to revisit the potential of authentic assessments as complex and meaningful activities that foster the critical thinking necessary for participating in democracy.

Committing to authentic assessments takes the work characteristic of transformative school leadership, especially serving diverse student populations: A clear and ambitious vision that centers social justice and cultural relevance, frequent, shared opportunities for professional growth and shared norms for instructional practice and student growth.

This essay encourages educational leaders, researchers and policymakers to revisit the potential of authentic assessments as tasks that can surpass external measures in informing teachers about how students’ develop their literacy in school.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of a new general education program at Qatar University (QU) in achieving English writing and critical thinking outcomes.

Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP) test was used as direct assessment tool to identify the extent to which QU students are making progress with respect to general education outcomes, and how well QU students perform compared to US students on general education outcomes that are measured by the CAAP test.

Findings show evidence that students make progress in English and critical thinking during their QU educational careers. However, QU students lag well behind their US counterparts in writing skills, but they performed relatively better in critical thinking and essay writing.

The sample of students tested was limited to students who met certain criteria. Therefore, the sample was neither representative nor random and does not reflect the performance of the entire student body. English is a second language for most QU students, and cultural differences as well as students’ high school preparation and quality of faculty at QU add to the complexity of the study.

Research finding may have implication on the general education program curriculum plan, assessment process, assessment plan and tools. It may also trigger comprehensive review of courses addressing writing and critical thinking skills. Moreover, the findings will have impact on institutional total approach and support to retain and enhance some of the cornerstone skills that general education program promise to achieve. The pilot study, results and findings can have implications on similar GCC general educations programs that focus on English writing and critical thinking skills.

This original pilot study indicates a need for improvement of internal assessment processes and reconsideration of general education program courses contributing to skills examined. It also provides evidence on students’ performance on two important generic skills, both are important for QU and its stakeholders. The study’s findings are of broad interest to assess the efficacy of internal assessment at international institutions using an internationally available standardized test.

The purpose of this paper is to examine academic performance measures commonly used in personnel selection contexts and associated gender‐based differences in these measures. This work specifically examines the extent to which gender‐based group differences exist in these data that may influence employment outcomes differentially for men and women.

Drawing on data available from academic institutions with a sample of nearly 4,000 prospective applicants, gender‐based group differences were evaluated in academic performance measures commonly used in personnel selection. Group differences were evaluated with a commonly used metric of a d‐value to reflect the magnitude of these differences.

Women and men yield differential scores on standardized vs non‐standardized assessments. Women consistently scored lower on standardized assessments yet scored highest on academic performance outcomes. Women are more likely to experience adverse impact when standardized assessments are used in selection decisions; however men are more likely to have adverse impact when academic performance is used.

Organizations may inadvertently create entry barriers depending on the assessment and the format used and whether or not group differences exist in measures.

Academic performance measures are frequently used in personnel selection, yet have received little attention in selection research and this study seeks to address this gap.

The purpose of this paper is to present the full range of choices that academic institutions presently have for attending to educational results.

The approach takes the form of a systematic comparison of the eight models currently available to colleges and universities for attending to educational results, relative to four necessary organizational purposes: individual student improvement, individual student accountability, organizational improvement, and organizational accountability.

This is a time of innovation, not of standardization. As new choices become available, the standard for accountability for educational results continues to rise.

The choices, ranging from established practices to expected alternatives to unexpected innovations, differ significantly in their capacities.

The purpose of this case study is to describe a simulation-based assessment designed to assure student readiness for a first full-time clinical experience in an entry-level Doctor of Physical Therapy program that transitioned to mixed-mode instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A cohort of 40 second-year physical therapy students whose content delivery mode, assessment methods and curricular sequence deviated from the curricular plan participated in a new assessment using standardized patients. The assessment was developed to preferentially address the knowledge, skills, abilities and professional behaviors (KSAs) that were typically assessed with other methods before the pandemic.

The assessment was useful in identifying students who required additional learning experiences to meet expected levels of competence before transition to a first full-time clinical experience. It also identified KSAs that needed to be strengthened within the entire cohort of students.

This case study provides an example of feasible implementation of an assessment of student readiness for clinical education that may guide future development of standardized assessments in health profession education (HPE) programs that have or plan to transition to mixed-mode content delivery.

This case study highlights the need and process for developing and implementing additional assessments in HPE programs when planned changes or unexpected variations in curriculum delivery occur. This evidence-based assessment preferentially addresses the affective domain of learning and includes competency standards that have recently been developed for physical therapy education in the USA.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the rationale, technical framework, content creation workflow and evaluation for a multilingual massive open online course (MOOC) to facilitate information literacy (IL) considering cultural aspects.

A good practice analysis built the basis for the technical and content framework. The evaluation approach consisted of three phases: first, the students were asked to fill out a short self-assessment questionnaire and a shortened adapted version of a standardized IL test. Second, they completed the full version of the IL MOOC. Third, they were asked to fill out the full version of a standardized IL test and a user experience questionnaire.

The results show that first the designed workflow was suitable in practice and led to the implementation of a full-grown MOOC. Second, the implementation itself provides implications for future projects developing multilingual educational resources. Third, the evaluation results show that participants achieved significantly higher results in a standardized IL test after attending the MOOC as mandatory coursework. Variations between the different student groups in the participating countries were observed. Fourth, self-motivation to complete the MOOC showed to be a challenge for students asked to attend the MOOC as nonmandatory out-of-classroom task. It seems that multilingual facilitation alone is not sufficient to increase active MOOC participation.

This paper presents an innovative approach of developing multilingual IL teaching resources and is one of the first works to evaluate the impact of an IL MOOC on learners' experience and learning outcomes in an international evaluation study.

India is in the process to achieve an important place in $2,000bn global food trade. In order to achieve this goal, there is a need to develop a food safety system which is well written down in line with international practices that are highly coordinated based on self-compliance to assure consumer protection. Accordingly, many organizations undergo assessment of their food safety system to verify compliance internally as well as externally. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight on the critical factors and benefits by evaluating the food safety assessment practices.

A questionnaire-based survey is conducted among 96 Indian food business operators and regulators involved in assessment practices to obtain critical factors for the assessment of food safety practices. The questionnaire captures indicators for motivations or challenges and benefits of food safety assessment to identify critical factors using exploratory factor analysis. Model for the food safety assessment practices was developed based on multiple regression analysis by determining the impact of factors on the benefits of food safety assessment.

This paper identifies four factors responsible for assessing food safety practices, namely, business-centric approach, legislative needs, technical practices and organization resentment as a combination of reasons and challenges along with two benefits risk: protection and organization reinforcement. The regression analysis indicates that the organization reinforcement gets positively impacted by business and technical practices and negatively by organization resentment. Risk protection has a significant relationship with legislative needs.

This is the first attempt to systematically explore the factors around the assessment of food safety practices in India. This study provides inputs for the practical application of managers and regulators.