The purposes of this dissertation are to compare how different the resulting proficiency estimates are by using two scale maintenance approaches, the horizontal and vertical approaches, in supporting scale stability across grade within form, within grade across forms, and across grades and across forms, and to thus investigate under which conditions of within-grade variability patterns and exam...

BACKGROUND The accuracy and reproducibility of medical skills assessment is generally low. Rater training has little or no effect. Our knowledge in this field, however, relies on studies involving video ratings of overall clinical performances. We hypothesised that a rater training focussing on the frame of reference could improve accuracy in grading the curricular assessment of a highly standa...

Existing research that estimates principals’ effects on student achievement has employed value-added models that have only limited usefulness for actual performance evaluation systems. Principals’ effects are typically identified through school leadership changes, meaning that effectiveness data cannot be generated for all principals and that effects are comparable only within small groups of s...

Data on Secondary and Higher Secondary examination (science stream) results from Tripura (North-East India) schools are analyzed to measure the performance of students based on tests and also the performance measures of schools based on final results and continuous assessment processes are obtained. The result variation in terms of grade points in the Secondary and Higher Secondary examinations...

Texture and color appearance of froth is a discreet qualitative tool for evaluating the performance of flotation process. The structure of a froth developed on the flotation cell has a significant effect on the grade and recovery of copper concentrate. In this work, image analysis and neural networks have been implemented to model and control the performance of such a system. The result reveals...

We tried to show in Chapter 2 that “voting”, although being a familiar activity to almost everyone, raises many important and difficult questions that are closely connected to the subject of this book. Our main objective in this Chapter is similar. We all share the – more or less pleasant – experience of having received “grades” in order to evaluate our academic performances. The authors of thi...

Reinforcement grades higher than 75 ksi (520 MPa) are not allowed in members that form plastic hinges due to a lack of information on material characteristics and on the seismic performance of columns constructed with high-strength steel (HSS) reinforcement. This research investigated the performance of reinforced concrete columns containing Grade 80 (minimum yield strength of 80 ksi [550 MPa])...

There are some children who encounter unexpected reading difficulties in the fourth grade. This phenomenon has been described as late emerging reading disabilities (LERD). Using Grade 4 as a starting point, this study examined the reading development of 964 children between kindergarten and Grade 7. The results showed that 72.0% of children had typical reading performance in Grade 4, whereas th...

the neat bitumen, an oil refining by-product, has its own inherent weakness under long-time loading at low and high temperatures. these performance limitations of neat bitumen have led researchers to modify its physical andmechanical properties. according to several studies, polymers can be used to modify the properties of bitumen. due to much lower production costs and aiming to reduce environ...

determination a sequence of extracting ore is one of the most important problems in mine annual production scheduling. production scheduling affects mining performance especially in a poly-metallic open pit mine with considering the imposed operational and physical constraints mandated by high levels of reliability in relation to the obtained actual results. one of the important operational con...