No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

This study reports validity evidence for a large-scale and "low-stakes" performance assessment involving 905 Grade 8 students. A subsample of 198 students was used to study the relationship of performance measures with conventional achievement and affective measures. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the eight math performance tasks were unidimensional. Generalizability and dependability coefficients were .72 and .68, respectively. Also provided is other empirical validity evidence. Performance scores produced large and significant correlations with the achievement variables. Gender differences were significant for the total performance score as well as for the two components: concepts, procedures, and relationships, and applications and problem solving. Results are related to theory and practice. R4sum6Cette 6tude fait 6tat de la validit6 d'une 6valuation de performance a grande 6chelle et a ,, enjeux faibles ,, men6e aupr6s de 905 616ves de huiti6me ann6e. Un sous-6chantiUon de 198 616ves a servia 6tudier le rapport des mesures de performance avec les r6alisations traditionnelles et les mesures affectives. L'analyse du facteur de confirmation indique que huit taches de performance en math6matiques sont unidimensionnelles. Les coefficients de g6n6ralisation et de fiabilit6 sont de l'ordre de 0,72 et 0,68, respectivelnent. L'6tude pr6sente aussi d'autres preuves de validit6 empirique. Les 6valuations de performance permettent d'6tablir des corr61ations importantes et significatives avec les variables des r6alisations. Les diff6rences entre les sexes sont significatives en ce qui concerne l'6valuation de la performance globale et des deux composantes : les concepts, les proc6dures et les rapports ainsi que les applications et la r6solution de probl6mes. Les r6sultats sont li6s ~ la th6orie et ~l la pratique.

How do Canadian school leaders interpret data to inform their decisions? How do they reason with probability concepts? These are the questions we are investigating in the first year of this longitudinal bilingual project conducted in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario. Our theoretical framework is inspired by the semiotic perspective of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) which suggests that interpretation is a triadic process integrated in a social context that puts in relation a sign, an object, and an interpretant. To this end, we conducted two individual interviews in which we asked 10 English-speaking school leaders and 9 French-speaking school leaders some questions about data presented in a tabular form (mock data on class level student performance and school level health data), line graph (PISA 2018 report on reading scores from 2009 to 2018) and box plots (mock data on student performance in reading in different countries). Our preliminary results reveal that principal’s reason abductively when it comes to interpreting statistics and want to know the context or the story behind the numbers before making any decisions. Also, they prefer to interpreting data collaboratively with their colleagues and feel more comfortable with data grouped in tables and line graphs. They considered themselves "data-driven" but not statisticians and use verbal terms rather than ratios or percentages (e.g., high probability, high likelihood, high odds) to express probabilistic ideas. In the next years, we will study how their professional experiences influence their conceptions of causality and how they reason about sampling and representativeness.

Teacher effectiveness has long been identified as critical to student success and, more recently, supporting students attaining the skills and dispositions required to be successful in the early 21st century. To do so requires that teachers engage in professional learning characterized as a shift away from conventional models of evaluation and judgment. Accordingly, school and system leaders must create "policies and environments designed to actively support teacher professional growth" (Bakkenes, Vermunt, & Webbels, 2010). This paper reports on the Alberta Teacher Growth, Supervision, and Evaluation (TGSE) Policy (Government of Alberta, 1998) through the eyes of teachers, school leaders, and superintendents. The study sought to answer the following two questions: (1) To what extent, and in what ways, do teachers, principals, and superintendents perceive that ongoing supervision by the principal provides teachers with the guidance and support they need to be successful? and, (2) To what degree, and in what ways, does the TGSE policy provide a foundation to inform future effective policy and implementation of teacher growth, supervision, and evaluation? Results affirm international findings that although a majority of principals consider themselves as instructional leaders, only about one third actually act accordingly (OECD, 2016).