This book covers the narratives of three authors who have different educational backgrounds, academic experiences, and fields of study. It interrogates and discusses the topic of educational assessment in different education systems, which represent eastern and western cultures and political contexts. The book provides recommendations for developing teachers' assessment literacy in teacher education and professional development programs. It also serves as a springboard for futher inquiry into the subject.

This book covers the narratives of three authors who have different educational backgrounds, academic experiences, and fields of study. It interrogates and discusses the topic of educational assessment in different education systems, which represent eastern and western cultures and political contexts. The book provides recommendations for developing teachers’ assessment literacy in teacher education and professional development programs. It also serves as a springboard for futher inquiry into the subject.

Second language assessment is ubiquitous. It has found its way from education into questions about access to professions and migration. This volume focuses on the main debates and research advances in second language assessment in the last fifty years or so, showing the influence of linguistics, politics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and psychometrics. There are four parts which, when taken together, address the principles and practices of second language assessment while considering its impact on society. Read separately, each part addresses a different aspect of the field. Part I deals with the conceptual foundations of second language assessment with chapters on the purposes of assessment, and standards and frameworks, as well as matters of scoring, quality assurance, and test validation. Part II addresses the theory and practice of assessing different second language skills including aspects like intercultural competence and fluency. Part III examines the challenges and opportunities of second language assessment in a range of contexts. In addition to chapters on second language assessment on a national scale, there are chapters on learning-oriented assessment, as well as the uses of second language assessment in the workplace and for migration. Part IV examines a selection of important issues in the field that deserve attention. These include the alignment of language examinations to external frameworks, the increasing use of technology to both deliver and score second language tests, the responsibilities associated with assessing test takers with special needs, the concept of 'voice' in second language assessment, and assessment literacy for teachers and other test and score users.

There is convincing evidence that carefully applied classroom assessments can promote student learning and academic self-regulation. These assessments include, but are not limited to, conversations with students, diagnostic test items, and co-created rubrics used to guide feedback for students themselves and their peers. Writing with the practical constraints of teaching in mind, Andrade and Heritage present a concise resource to help pre- and in-service teachers maximize the positive impacts of classroom assessment on teaching. Using Formative Assessment to Enhance Learning, Achievement, and Academic Self-Regulation translates work from leading specialists and explains how to use assessment to improve learning by linking learning theory to formative assessment processes. Sections on goal setting, progress monitoring, interpreting feedback, and revision of goal setting make this a timely addition to assessment courses.

Given the academic benefits of assessment-driven teaching, and the growing accountability context of educational systems around the world, there is a rapidly developing need to educate teachers in effectively using assessments to promote, monitor, and report on student learning. However, assessment has historically been a neglected area in teacher education programmes, and empirical research has consistently shown assessment as an area of challenge for many teachers. While there is an increased focus across teacher education and professional literature on enhancing the assessment capacity of educators, there remains little empirical research on innovative and data-based strategies to effectively achieve this goal. The purpose of this text is to consolidate existing research on assessment education and to provoke innovative and effective approaches to educating teachers and teachers-in-training about assessment. Given the dearth of relevant research, this text also considers the matter of retention and extension of initial assessment learning into teaching careers. Combined, the articles in this text provide a foundation for novel thinking about developing teachers’ assessment capacity from pre-service to in-service contexts. This book was originally published as a special issue of Assessment in Education.

The field of language testing and assessment has recognized the importance and underlying theoretical and practical underpinnings of language assessment literacy (LAL), an area that is gradually coming to prominence. This book addresses issues that promote the concept of LAL for language research, teaching, and learning, covering a range of topics. It brings together 14 chapters based on high-stakes and classroom-based studies authored by academics, professionals and researchers in the field. The text examines diverse issues through a multifaceted approach, presenting high-quality contributions that fill a gap in a research area that has long been in need of theoretical and empirical attention.

Language teachers the world over inevitably need to engage in assessing their students’ language ability for various purposes – diagnostic, progress, achievement, etc. Because language assessment is a major task for language teachers, language teaching programs should provide pre-service teachers with opportunities to problematize assessment in the foreign or second language classroom. Educating pre-service teachers for assessment should lead to positive consequences on their in-service work. In this book, the author provides a research-based approach to plan, design, implement, and evaluate a language assessment course for pre-service teachers. The following are some of the central issues addressed in the book: • A conceptualization of Language Assessment Literacy (LAL) –the central construct in the book– and its relationship with language teachers’ professional development. • A theoretically and empirically driven approach for planning and designing a language assessment course. • A hands-on approach to teaching language assessment to pre-service language teachers. • Suggestions for teaching the design of assessments for the four language skills. • Suggestions for language teacher educators to discuss and derive ideas for assessment in their language teaching programs. • Real sample items and tasks for teaching and assessing pre-service teachers’ LAL. The author constantly invites teacher educators to reflect upon the theory, research, and practice presented in the book. In doing so, he encourages these stakeholders to plan and teach language assessment courses that foster the LAL of pre-service teachers’, an overlooked stakeholder group in LAL discussions.

What is assessment literacy? It’s a handful of fundamental understandings about the testing concepts and procedures that influence educational decisions. And it just might be the most cost-effective means of real school improvement. With characteristic humor and aplomb, assessment expert W. James Popham strips away the psychometrician-speak and condenses the complexities of educational testing to six practical and action-oriented understandings about validity, reliability, fairness, score reporting, formative assessment, and affective assessment. This book is for busy educators at the classroom and leadership levels who want • Tests that are worth the valuable time they take to administer. • Tests that accurately measure what student have learned. • Tests that fairly reflect teacher and school effectiveness. • Tests that provide the instructionally useful data that will help students learn faster and better. Assessment Literacy for Educators in a Hurry is the fastest route to acquiring the measurement moxie necessary to understand and advocate for better assessment practices and build a case for stopping ineffective and harmful ones. In just a few hours’ time, you can pick up the knowledge you need to do a whole lot of good—for your students, yourself, and our schools.

In an age where the quality of teacher education programs has been called into question, it is more important than ever that teachers have a fundamental understanding of the principles of human learning, motivation, and development. Theory to Practice: Educational Psychology for Teachers and Teaching is a series for those who teach educational psychology in teacher education programs. At a time when educational psychology is at risk of becoming marginalized, it is imperative that we, as educators, "walk our talk" in serving as models of what effective instruction looks like. Each volume in the series draws upon the latest research to help instructors model fundamental principles of learning, motivation, and development to best prepare their students for the diverse, multidimensional, uncertain, and socially-embedded environments in which these future educators will teach. The inaugural volume, Teaching on Assessment, is centered on the role of assessment in teaching and learning. Each chapter translates current research on critical topics in assessment for educational psychology instructors and teacher educators to consider in their teaching of future teachers. Written for practitioners, the aim is to present contemporary issues and ideas that would help teachers engage in meaningful assessment practice. This volume is important not only because of the dwindling presence of assessment-related instructional content in teacher preparation programs, but also because the policy changes in the last two decades have transformed the meaning and use of assessment in K-12 classrooms.

Focuses on the development of reading, writing, speaking and listening for children from birth to eight years.