Setting Performance Standards In Europe

This publication was awarded the Jacqueline Ross TOEFL Dissertation Award in 2009. Since its publication in 2001, the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) has been the most frequently-cited performance standard in language testing in Europe. To help test providers and users with score interpretation in relation to the CEFR levels, the Council of Europe published the 'Manual for relating language examinations to the CEFR'. Even though the linking process set out in the Manual is primarily based on judgements by trained participants, judgement-making in this context remains largely unexplored. The research presented in this book addresses this issue by employing quantitative and qualitative methods. Despite the judges' good understanding of how language ability progresses from lower to higher CEFR levels, it was found that describing test content and examinee performance was not without problems and decision-making was affected by a number of factors that were irrelevant to the judgement task. The results provide a better understanding of judgement-making during the CEFR linking process, which has important implications for examination providers and users of CEFR-aligned test scores.

This volume explores the process of aligning language tests with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).

The Coalition Agreement contained a commitment to establish an emissions performance standard (EPS) that will prevent coal-fired power stations unless sufficiently equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS). It is felt that the existing policy framework, including EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), the Renewables Obligation and the Carbon Capture and Storage demonstration programme are not sufficient to deliver the level of investment in new low-carbon generating capacity needed to meet emissions reduction targets. It is also felt that interactions and overlaps of an EPS with existing policies are not sufficiently understood and an independent review of regulations and market reforms in the electricity sector is called for. Emissions Performance Standards are seen to offer a more certain and predictable way to prevent locking in to high carbon infrastructure and that is in itself adequate justification for its implementation. There are, though, concerns that a poorly designed EPS could have a range of unintended consequences including: uncertainty for investors; prevention of adequate capacity to meet peak demand; driving investment elsewhere in Europe; and too great an impact on the electricity prices consumers have to pay

This book summarizes the international evidence on methodological issues in standard setting in education. By critically discussing the standard-setting practices implemented in the Nordic countries and by presenting new methodological approaches, it offers fresh perspectives on the current research. Standard setting targets crucial societal objectives by defining educational benchmarks at different achievement levels, and provides feedback to policy makers, schools and teachers about the strengths and weaknesses of a school system. Given that the consequences of standard setting can be dramatic, the quality of standard setting is a prime concern. If it fails, repercussions can be expected in terms of arbitrary evaluations of educational policy, wrong turns in school or teacher development or misplacement of individual students. Standard setting therefore needs to be accurate, reliable, valid, useful, and defensible. However, specific evidence on the benefits and limits of different approaches to standard setting is rare and scattered, and there is a particular lack with respect to standard setting in the Nordic countries, where the number of national tests is increasing and there are concerns about the time and effort spent on testing at schools without feedback being provided. Addressing this gap, the book offers a discussion on standard setting by respected experts as well as profound and innovative insights into fundamental aspects of standard setting including conclusions for future methodological and policy-related research.

Adopting a holistic and multidisciplinary approach, this expertly crafted book comprehensively maps out the complex multi-jurisdictional legal landscape pertaining to the EU’s circular energy system. Offering in-depth critical analysis, it identifies several areas of law and policy that require further scholarly inquiry to ensure the creation of an effective policy framework which can facilitate the move from a linear to a circular energy system.

Includes chapters on key aspects of second language assessment such as test construct, diagnosis, exam design, and the growing range of public policy, social and ethical issues. Each of the contributors is an expert in their area; some are established names while others are talented newcomers to the field. The chapters present new research or perspectives on traditional concerns such as test quality; fairness and bias; the testing of different language skills; the needs of different groups of examinees, including English language learners who need to take content tests in English; and the use of language assessments for gate-keeping purposes. The volume demonstrates how language assessment is informed by and engages with neighbouring areas of applied linguistics such as technology and language corpora. The book represents the best of current practice in second language assessment and, as a one volume reference, will be invaluable to students and researchers looking for material that extends their understanding of the field.

This book explains the EU’s climate policies in an accessible way, to demonstrate the step-by-step approach that has been used to develop these policies, and the ways in which they have been tested and further improved in the light of experience. The latest changes to the legislation are fully explained throughout. The chapters throughout this volume show that no single policy instrument can bring down greenhouse gas emissions. The challenge facing the EU, as for many countries that have made pledges under the Paris Agreement, is to put together a toolbox of policy instruments that is coherent, delivers emissions reductions, and is cost-effective. The book stands out by the fact it covers the EU’s emissions trading system, the energy sector and other economic sectors, including their development in the context of international climate policy. This accessible book will be of great relevance to students, scholars and policy makers alike. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9789276082569, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Climate change policy inevitably has two core components: the goals, and the means chosen to pursue those goals. Decisions on goals and means necessarily have distributional consequences. Any policy choice generates winners and losers. While this outcome cannot be avoided - even doing nothing leads to distributional consequences - policymakers can, through the choice, design and implementation of policies, shape to some extent the distribution of the burdens of mitigation and adaptation to climate change. In greater depth than any previous legal study in the field, this book deals with the way in which the European Union (EU) has dealt with climate change and with the distribution of the benefits and costs of climate change mitigation policies among affected parties. With extraordinary thoroughness the author assesses the legality of choices made (particularly concerning mitigation targets and timelines), and examines the role that legal principles can play in the adoption, interpretation, and judicial testing of distributional choices. His analysis of the tension between such choices and EU law is bolstered by an exploration of emerging legal principles which could provide additional guidance in this challenging and controversial area. Among the core issues dealt with are the following: relationship among mitigation, adaptation, and sustainable development; regulations as means to make distributional choices distributional choices between generations and the principle of intergenerational justice distributional choices concerning firms and individuals the participation of affected parties in distributional choices access to justice in EU courts to challenge violations of procedural environmental rights the role of legal principles in making, evaluating and testing distributional choices the principle of proportionality with its tests of appropriateness and necessity; the principle of equality; the precautionary principle; the principle of prevention; the polluter pays principle; A concluding chapter offers deeply informed recommendations regarding the design of EU climate change law, including a preliminary assessment of EU wide personal carbon trading. In its insightful illumination of how the inevitable trade-offs, weaknesses, inconsistencies and ambiguities in the way law deals with distributional choices renders them vulnerable to external pressures, this book will be of enormous value to regulators and policymakers concerned with effective, efficient, and fair climate change measures. As a critical assessment of existing EU climate change laws and policies, and as a systematic analysis of the problem of burden sharing, this book will also prove highly valuable to academics in environmental fields of study.