Social Justice and Educational Measurement


Book Description

Social Justice and Educational Measurement addresses foundational concerns at the interface of standardized testing and social justice in American schools. Following John Rawls’s philosophical methods, Stein builds and justifies an ethical framework for guiding practices involving educational measurement. This framework demonstrates that educational measurement can both inhibit and ensure just educational arrangements. It also clarifies a principled distinction between efficiency-oriented testing and justice-oriented testing. Through analysis of several historical case studies that exemplify ethical issues related to testing, this book explores and propounds speculative design principles and arguments in favour of radically democratic school reforms, which address how the future of testing might be shaped to ensure justice for all. These case studies cover the widespread use of IQ-style testing in schools during the early decades of the 20th century; the founding of the Educational Testing Service; and the recent history of test-based accountability associated with No Child Left Behind. Social Justice and Educational Measurement will be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in education, testing and assessment, and the philosophy of education. It will also be of interest to policymakers and educational administrators.




Systemic Racism and Educational Measurement


Book Description

Systemic Racism and Educational Measurement provides a theoretical and historical reckoning with racism and oppression produced through educational measurement and research methodology. As scholars and professionals in the testing, measurement, and assessment of human learning and performance work to exorcise race sciences, white supremacy, and other injustices from the field’s research and practice, new insights are needed into their root causes. This book is the first to posit that the theory of the White Racial Frame was and continues to be applied to the foundations, process, dissemination, and use of educational measurement, leading to instruments, findings, and decisions that perpetuate the racialized social structure of our nation. Even among well-meaning stakeholders who aim to improve humanity and address inequities, the White Racial Frame shapes the field’s research questions, the methods utilized, the data valued, the interpretations made, and the language used throughout. Students and scholars of educational measurement, testing, and psychometrics will find invaluable clarifications of terminology, concepts, and theories integral to understanding systemic barriers in the field; explications of educational measurement’s core purposes and its influence by the White Racial Frame; and a series of alternate frames, theories, and epistemologies intended to guide educational measurement toward anti-racism and increased fairness.










Fairness in Educational and Psychological Testing: Examining Theoretical, Research, Practice, and Policy Implications of the 2014 Standards


Book Description

This book examines scholarship, best practice methodologies, and examples of policy and practice from various professional fields in education and psychology to illuminate the elevated emphasis on test fairness in the 2014 Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Together, the chapters provide a survey of critical and current issues with a view to broadening and contextualizing the fairness guidelines for different types of tests, test takers, and testing contexts. Researchers and practitioners from school psychology, clinical/counseling psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, and education will find the content useful in thinking more acutely about fairness in testing in their work. The book also has chapters that address implications for policy makers, and, in some cases, the public. These discussions are offered as a starting point for future scholarship on the theoretical, empirical, and applied aspects of fairness in testing particularly given the ever-increasing importance of addressing equity in testing.




Rethinking Mathematics


Book Description

In this unique collection, more than 30 articles show how to weave social justice issues throughout the mathematics curriculum, as well as how to integrate mathematics into other curricular areas. Rethinking Mathematics offers teaching ideas, lesson plans, and reflections by practitioners and mathematics educators. This is real-world math-math that helps students analyze problems as they gain essential academic skills. This book offers hope and guidance for teachers to enliven and strengthen their math teaching. It will deepen students' understanding of society and help prepare them to be critical, active participants in a democracy. Blending theory and practice, this is the only resource of its kind.




Educational Assessment in a Changing World


Book Description

This timely book takes stock of the wide range of developments in society, education and assessment and offers conclusions and strategies that are necessary for the future of educational assessment. Drawing on examples from the UK, Europe and USA, the book will dissect cultural, political, psychological and ideological ideas on society, education and assessment and foreground pressing issues relating to artificial intelligence, social justice and climate change. Acknowledging its predominantly Western perspective and providing context on the evolution of educational assessment, the book will bridge the gap between theory and practice to progress debate and discourse on creating a culture of assessment fit for the future and rethinking strategies for the path ahead. Ultimately, the book will provide insights and key takeaways for the field of educational assessment along with an evidence-based agenda that will be relevant for education professionals, the assessment industry and policymakers interested in higher education, international and comparative education and testing.




Educational Justice


Book Description

This book presents a novel perspective on education as a social right. Literature on this topic has focused on inclusion as the universal concept whereby access to education is examined. As a moral principle, this concept opens new challenges in different ways if we take a deeper view into diverse contexts. What education? For what? For whom? Are we thinking about education because it will bring social justice in the future, or are we thinking of education as a just practice in the present? This book brings fresh theoretical and empirical perspectives on those questions, moving beyond a pure inclusion paradigm to a broader and context-oriented notion of educational justice. The chapters engage with theories of educational justice to present these challenges at the institutional level of educational policy, at the practical level of schooling practices, and in the production of ideas around childhood and education, for instance, notions of normalcy at schools. Although the featured works are related to the Chilean educational system, they opens questions about education in general. They embrace rural and urban contexts, different educational levels (from preschool to university), and university and vocational education. This book will be rewarding reading for educational scholars, those interested in theories of social and educational justice, and anyone interested in contemporary perspectives on education, childhood and youth, inclusion, and justice.




Is Assessment Fair?


Book Description

Fairness in educational assessment has become a major talking point and allegations that assessments are unfair are commonplace on social media and in the press. But what does fairness mean in practice and how can we evaluate it? This book offers a timely and necessary investigation, exploring the concept through the lenses of: measurement theory, social justice, the law and philosophy in order to put forward a template for fairness in educational assessment. Drawing on international examples from the UK, US, Australia and South East Asia, this book offers a commentary on fairness that is highly relevant to the changing context of assessment today. If you have a professional or academic interest in educational assessment, are a education policymakers or are just interested in working to make assessment fair, then this book is for you!




Measurement Theory and Applications for the Social Sciences


Book Description

Which types of validity evidence should be considered when determining whether a scale is appropriate for a given measurement situation? What about reliability evidence? Using clear explanations illustrated by examples from across the social and behavioral sciences, this engaging text prepares students to make effective decisions about the selection, administration, scoring, interpretation, and development of measurement instruments. Coverage includes the essential measurement topics of scale development, item writing and analysis, and reliability and validity, as well as more advanced topics such as exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, item response theory, diagnostic classification models, test bias and fairness, standard setting, and equating. End-of-chapter exercises (with answers) emphasize both computations and conceptual understanding to encourage readers to think critically about the material. ÿ