Paul Deane

The purpose of this project is to create a generative artificial intelligence (gen-AI) enhanced authoring tool for scenario-based assessments (SBAs). SBAs place knowledge and skills into a scenario or practical context so that test-takers can be both observers of and active participants in their own performance, building on a body of IES funded investments in developing and validating SBAs.  This creates the opportunity for a reflective, metacognitive, and self-regulatory loop that enables ...

The research team will develop and validate an open-source, digital formative writing assessment dashboard for middle school language arts classrooms, exploiting advances in  automated writing evaluation and writing process analysis to identify actionable metrics that teachers can use to identify next steps in instruction. Current literature indicates that writing instruction is most effective when teachers use formative assessment techniques to track student performance while the students ...

This team developed and evaluated a new system of assessments aligned with current theoretical constructs and empirical findings pertaining to both reading comprehension and performance moderators; sensitive to changes in development in reading comprehension; emphasize strategic reading processes empirically supported in the literature; provide greater information for guiding instruction (especially for students struggling to reach proficiency); and are comprised of texts and tasks that repr...

Vocabulary development is a critical part of learning to read well, and appears to be a significant aspect of the gap between competent and struggling readers. Teaching vocabulary directly can help enhance vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. While the importance of vocabulary development may be apparent to researchers and practitioners, the state of the art in vocabulary assessment is still rather limited. The purpose of this project is to develop improved methods for measuring vo...