Geneva Haertel

The project will develop and validate domain-specific assessments for students in their first two years of college that require them to apply basic content knowledge in a field in complex expert ways. The goal is to measure how well students can reason using content knowledge versus learning the narrow procedural/technical skills often measured by current assessments. By determining whether students understand why and when to apply knowledge, procedures, and strategies unique to a domain, ...

The No Child Left Behind Act requires that students with disabilities be included in state assessments and accountability. However, the use of accommodations, modifications, and alternate assessments to permit the inclusion of students with disabilities has given rise to a number of issues related to fairness and test validity. Recently, researchers have begun to explore whether tests can be designed from the outset to be more accessible and valid for a wider range of students; this approa...