Education Council

ABSTRACT After 25 years with small to moderate gains in performance in mathematics, scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) main assessment declined between 2013 and 2015 in Grades 4 and 8. Previous research has suggested the decline may be linked to the implementation of the Common Core state standards. In this article, the decline in the NAEP composite score is shown to be driven primarily by losses in the content strands of Geometry and of Data Analysis, Statistics, and Probability. A gain in fractions achievement is also evident in an item-level examination of the NAEP results, but not in reported NAEP scores. These effects are discussed with respect to the CCSS, the rationale for evaluating national progress, and a potential redesign of the NAEP assessment.

Comparative education programme is one of the compulsory courses that must be offered and passed in the faculty of education before graduation. The Comparative education programme is also offered as a Masters’ programme and PhD programme in many Universities across the World. The teaching and learning of Comparative education programme is facing many problems in the Nigerian higher institutions. This paper identified: inadequate funding, inadequate instructional materials, shortage of lecturers, inadequate infrastructural facilities, poor research, strike actions, brain-drain, corruption, over-population and poor curriculum development. To address this problems, the following were recommended: the government should increase the funding of Comparative education programmes, employ more qualified lecturers in Comparative education, provide adequate infrastructural facilities, adequate instructional materials, ensure periodic and effective curriculum development for Comparative education programme and Comparative education research and effective staff development for Comparative education lecturers in all higher institutions in Nigeria.

Educational Measurement: Issues and PracticeVolume 39, Issue 3 p. 22-23 Article Impacts of COVID-19 on the Law School Admission Test Josiah Evans, Josiah Evans Law School Admission CouncilSearch for more papers by this authorLily Knezevich, Lily Knezevich Law School Admission CouncilSearch for more papers by this author Josiah Evans, Josiah Evans Law School Admission CouncilSearch for more papers by this authorLily Knezevich, Lily Knezevich Law School Admission CouncilSearch for more papers by this author First published: 28 July 2020 https://doi.org/10.1111/emip.12367Citations: 1Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article.Citing Literature Volume39, Issue3Fall 2020Pages 22-23 RelatedInformation

This article reviews John Wood’s Truth in Fiction: Rethinking its Logic (Springer 2018).

The aim of cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs) is to provide students and educators with individually tailored diagnostic results for students’ mastery levels of a group of fine-grained skills, or attributes. The field of variable-length cognitive diagnostic computerized adaptive testing (CD-CAT) aims to deliver diagnostic assessments that accurately classify students using the fewest number of items possible. A crucial element of a CD-CAT is the Q-matrix, a 1-0 matrix mapping the skills required by each item. This paper describes a simulation study that systematically explored factors affecting the accuracy and average length of a variable-length CD-CAT, including composition of the Q-matrix, correlation among skills, item selection rule, and CDM. It was found that higher density Q-matrices (i.e., Q-matrices in which individual items tap many skills) yield longer and less accurate tests than lower density Q-matrices (i.e., Q-matrices in which individual items tap fewer skills). The two item selection rules examined—mutual information and modified posterior Kullback-Leibler information—performed very similarly. Higher correlation among skills tended to increase average test lengths and decrease accuracy noticeably when the Q-matrices were high density.

In this study, we describe what factors influence the observed score correlation between an (external) anchor test and a total test. We show that the anchor to full‐test observed score correlation is based on two components: the true score correlation between the anchor and total test, and the reliability of the anchor test. Findings using an analytical approach suggest that making an anchor test a miditest does not generally maximize the anchor to total test correlation. Results are discussed in the context of what conditions maximize the correlations between the anchor and total test.

The Netherlands was one of the first countries in Europe to formulate a coordinated national policy on migrant integration, in the early 1980s. In the 2000s, it was again among the first to make a sharp assimilationist turn away from the multicultural model. Much of the extensive ethnic monitoring structure set up in the 1980s and 1990s still exists, but the positivist belief in the role of scientific research as a tool for societal engineering in this area has clearly declined. Formal research-policy dialogue structures have been largely dismantled, and dialogues that continue to exist have become strongly politicised and mediatised. Knowledge use has become more selective and largely instrumental, mainly dictated be the needs of politicians. The analysis in this chapter also suggests that the combined politicisation and mediatisation of research-policy dialogues on migrant integration may have created a new boundary, one between mediatised and non-mediatised research-policy dialogues. Consequently, the old boundary between the two worlds of research and policy may have lost some of its relevance. At the same time, the growing apart of policymakers and the academic world has also facilitated the development of a more varied, and therefore much richer research landscape.

In Canada, small rural and remote communities continue to struggle to access equitable and affordable high speed internet connections that address local priorities and needs. The First Nations Education Council (FNEC) is working with their community partners across Quebec to plan and operate a First Nation owned and managed fibre network to deliver broadband connections throughout each community. Public and private partnerships were established by FNEC to fund and construct the regional and local networks connecting these rural and remote communities. The paper describes the history of this development along with its future goals. Sharing infrastructure and network support services with all the other service providers (health, education, administration, justice, policing, homes, etc.) in each of these communities helps to sustain the ongoing operation and maintenance of the network.

In this special issue , “First Mile” refers to broadband infrastructure development that puts the needs of local communities first and ahead of the needs of private sector telecommunication corporations. This approach is one that prioritizes community-led solutions that seek to create local economic and social opportunities and to minimize the digital divide between rural and urban users (see: McMahon, O’Donnell, Smith, Walmark, Beaton, & Simmons, 2011). Around the world, broadband infrastructure and networks are rapidly being developed in communities marginalized in the network society. The relationships, structures and agreements put into place at this early development stage will shape how broadband systems are created and managed in the future. First Mile strategies include developing locally owned and managed telecommunication structures and networks. This special issue profiles First Mile projects and efforts that are as innovative, unique and vibrant as the communities from which they emerge. Further, this issue highlights some of the challenges facing First Mile initiatives. Several contributions in this issue deal with Canadian cases and others with remote and rural contexts around the world.