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Parents, educators, and the community have viewed assessments as biased. In fact, the article from this week’s reading, “Uncovering Implicit Bias in Assessment, Feedback, and Grading,” indicated that current assessment practices in the educational system could bring about inequality among different populations. According to the article, when implicit bias is evident, it could unfairly influence local and national policies that could result in a racial achievement gap.

As you review this week’s readings about bias pertaining to assessments, respond to the following:

• Reflect on your own biases and determine how you as an educator could select and create tests that are fair and inclusive of your student population.  
  • Is it even possible to make assessments inclusive? 
• What would be your recommendations to educators, administrators, policymakers, etc. in reducing implicit biases in the current and future assessments?

Overview

For this assignment, you will create a mini literature review. The literature review should consist of a total of 5–7 articles related to your research topic. These articles should be the same articles you included in your previous assignments: Annotated Bibliography and Literature Synthesis Matrix.

Requirements

Write a 6–8 page paper in which you:

1. Identify 2–3 common themes in the literature.
2. Contrast the findings and results of the literature.
3. Identify gaps in the literature.
4. Summarize the literature as it relates to your topic.
5. Include 5–7 peer-reviewed quantitative or qualitative articles related to your topic in the reference page.

Provide an outline of your literature review and identify the themes that you analyzed. Critique your literature review and explain how it did or did not align with your research topic and question. Is there anything you could improve upon in a future draft of your literature review?

Identify and obtain a copy of a published research article, or another research report, on a topic of interest to you. Based on the various guidelines and suggestions presented in Chapter 14 of Introduction to Educational Research, (i.e., conventions of style, conventions of format, and guidelines for presenting the results of analyses), write a brief critique of the research report, highlighting those aspects of the written report that the author(s) did well and those aspects that you believe could be improved.

Overview

• For this assignment, you will create an annotated bibliography. Creating an annotated bibliography calls for the application of a variety of intellectual skills: concise exposition, succinct analysis, and informed library research. Below, you will find a sample annotation from annotated bibliographies:

  Sample SWS Annotation

  1. Brett Snyder. 2009. December Premium Air Traffic Down More Than 13 Percent. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/december-premium-air-traffic-down-more-than-13-percent/

  In this news segment, Snyder informs why air traffic numbers are down and reasons they will continue. There were countries that took big hits partly because of the lack of demand for premium travel. It was also reported that there was a significant impact to the economy. Snyder’s report was timely, significant, and informative. An experienced airline analyst and air travel blogger, Snyder provides valuable information and assistance on air travel.

  The annotation above both summarizes the report in the citation. This paragraph provides a brief summary of Snyder’s segment in the news report, covering the main points of premium air travel.

  Requirements

  Create an annotated bibliography for the five sources you identified and evaluated in Week 7, in which you:

  • Cite the book, article, or document using the appropriate style.
  • Write a concise annotation that summarizes the central theme and scope of the book or article. Include one or more sentences that (a) evaluate the authority or background of the author, (b) comment on the intended audience, (c) compare or contrast this work with another you have cited, or (d) explain how this work illuminates your bibliography topic.
  • Identify whether the article is credible and useful.
  • Ensure each source includes four parts: author or organization, publication date, title, and how to find it. If you have trouble finding these details, then re-evaluate the credibility of your source. If needed, include page number as a fifth part.

  The Annotated bibliography must be double-spaced, 12-point font. All references must be cited using SWS (Strayer Writing Standards) style.

  This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

  The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:

  • Evaluate resources for credibility and relevancy to contribute to a research project

Post your research topic and research question. Explain how you will collect either qualitative or quantitative data for your study. Provide a thorough explanation of how you will collect either qualitative or quantitative data for your study using examples from your readings.

Begin your post with your research topic and potential research question or problem. Search for one quality article about your topic that you would include in your literature review. Identify at least two features or characteristics from the article and explain why you labeled the article as quality.
 

Critically analyzing sources is an important component of the research process. When evaluating a source, there are many factors that contribute to its usefulness, reliability, and appropriateness for your research. The CRAAP Test is a checklist you can use when evaluating a web resource (or any resource). The test provides a list of questions to ask yourself when deciding whether or not a source is reliable and credible enough to use in your academic research paper. CRAAP stands for:

• Currency: How current is your source?
• Relevancy: Will this source suit your needs?
• Authority: Who wrote the information and published it online?
• Accuracy: How reliable, truthful, and correct is the information?
• Purpose: Why does the information exist?

Requirements

Complete the attached CRAAP Test Worksheet [DOCX]:

• Select five sources related to your research topic.
• Use the CRAAP Test Worksheet to help you evaluate the sources.
• Be sure to include five sources and complete an entry for each source

Post your research topic and 2–3 potential research questions. Briefly summarize how you will conduct your research. Will you be conducting a qualitative study or a quantitative study? Support your methodology choice