Essentials of Standardized Achievement Testing


Book Description

B> This book examines standardized achievement testing in critical terms with the notion that students should be tested in ways that benefit them and their learning. This book seeks to increase readers' understanding of standardized testing so that they will become intelligent consumers, and is organized around the central issues of interpretation, usage, and consequences of testing. Focused on issues, and based on the most current research and practice. This material offers educators, administrators and policy makers information critical to success in today's classroom.Market: K-12 Faculty and Administrators, Parent Teacher Coordinators.




The Myth of Achievement Tests


Book Description

Achievement tests play an important role in modern societies. They are used to evaluate schools, to assign students to tracks within schools, and to identify weaknesses in student knowledge. The GED is an achievement test used to grant the status of high school graduate to anyone who passes it. GED recipients currently account for 12 percent of all high school credentials issued each year in the United States. But do achievement tests predict success in life? The Myth of Achievement Tests shows that achievement tests like the GED fail to measure important life skills. James J. Heckman, John Eric Humphries, Tim Kautz, and a group of scholars offer an in-depth exploration of how the GED came to be used throughout the United States and why our reliance on it is dangerous. Drawing on decades of research, the authors show that, while GED recipients score as well on achievement tests as high school graduates who do not enroll in college, high school graduates vastly outperform GED recipients in terms of their earnings, employment opportunities, educational attainment, and health. The authors show that the differences in success between GED recipients and high school graduates are driven by character skills. Achievement tests like the GED do not adequately capture character skills like conscientiousness, perseverance, sociability, and curiosity. These skills are important in predicting a variety of life outcomes. They can be measured, and they can be taught. Using the GED as a case study, the authors explore what achievement tests miss and show the dangers of an educational system based on them. They call for a return to an emphasis on character in our schools, our systems of accountability, and our national dialogue. Contributors Eric Grodsky, University of Wisconsin–Madison Andrew Halpern-Manners, Indiana University Bloomington Paul A. LaFontaine, Federal Communications Commission Janice H. Laurence, Temple University Lois M. Quinn, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Pedro L. Rodríguez, Institute of Advanced Studies in Administration John Robert Warren, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities




Testing in American Schools


Book Description




Understanding Achievement Tests


Book Description

Current information about tests and testing procedures is provided for school district staff, particularly in districts without specially trained testing directors. Practical information is given about selecting and administering tests and about reporting results effectively. This guide opens with a discussion of the basic principles of testing. The various types of district-level tests are described, and different types of test scores are presented. The advantages and limitations of certain types of tests and scores are reviewed. The viewpoints of measurement experts on important issues in testing are expressed in the following chapters: (1) "Common Misuses of Standardized Tests" (Eric Gardner); (2) "Preparing Students To Take Standardized Achievement Tests" (William A. Mehrens); (3) "Matching Your Curriculum and Standardized Tests" (Jane C. Conoley); (4) "Using Customized Standardized Tests" (Paul L. Williams); (5) "Interpreting Test Scores for Compensatory Education Students" (Gary Echternacht); and (6) "Working with the Press" (Allan Hartman). Four additional discussions are appended: "Finding Information about Standardized Tests' (Lawrence M. Rudner and Kathryn Dorko); Organizations That Provide Test Information" (Ronald T. C. Boyd); "Putting Test Scores in Perspective: Communicating a Complete Report Card for Your Schools" (M. Kevin Matter); and "Major Achievement Tests and Their Characteristics" (Northwest Regional Education Laboratory). Names and addresses of major test publishers, and a glossary of testing terms are also included. (SLD)




The Case Against Standardized Testing


Book Description

Kohn's central message is that standardized tests are "not a force of nature but a force of politics--and political decisions can be questioned, challenged, and ultimately reversed."




Assessment Literacy for Educators in a Hurry


Book Description

What is assessment literacy? It’s a handful of fundamental understandings about the testing concepts and procedures that influence educational decisions. And it just might be the most cost-effective means of real school improvement. With characteristic humor and aplomb, assessment expert W. James Popham strips away the psychometrician-speak and condenses the complexities of educational testing to six practical and action-oriented understandings about validity, reliability, fairness, score reporting, formative assessment, and affective assessment. This book is for busy educators at the classroom and leadership levels who want • Tests that are worth the valuable time they take to administer. • Tests that accurately measure what student have learned. • Tests that fairly reflect teacher and school effectiveness. • Tests that provide the instructionally useful data that will help students learn faster and better. Assessment Literacy for Educators in a Hurry is the fastest route to acquiring the measurement moxie necessary to understand and advocate for better assessment practices and build a case for stopping ineffective and harmful ones. In just a few hours’ time, you can pick up the knowledge you need to do a whole lot of good—for your students, yourself, and our schools.







Filling in The Blanks


Book Description

Filling in the Blanks is a book dedicated to helping policymakers, researchers, academics and teachers, better understand standardized testing and the Black-White achievement gap. This book provides a wealth of background information, as well as the most recent findings, about testing and measurement concepts essential to understanding standardized tests. The book then reviews theories and research that has been conducted which explain the differences in performance between Black and White test takers on many standardized tests. Most notably, Filling in the Blanks presents several new theories that address why Black students do not perform as well as their White counterparts. These theories present very novel and innovative perspectives to understanding these test performance differences. The book ends with a host of recommendations that are intended to address the concerns and questions of several stakeholder groups.




Defending Standardized Testing


Book Description

Everyone invested in the success of American education, from parents to policymakers, are affected by or concerned about educational testing. The education reform movement of the past 15 years has focused on raising academic standards. Some standards advocates attach a testing mechanism to gauge the extent to which high standards are actually accomplished. On the other hand, some critics view the push for standards and testing as precisely what ails American education. They view testing generally as an impediment to reform, an antiquated technology that reflects an antiquated view of teaching, learning, and social organization, and perpetuates inequality. At the same time, the testing profession has produced advances in the format, accuracy, dependability, and utility of tests. Never before has obtaining such an abundance of accurate and useful information about student learning been possible. And, never before has the American public been in such agreement about the value of testing for measuring student performance, monitoring the performance of educational systems, gauging the success of reforms, and accountability. acknowledge the benefits of testing. Many of these measurement specialists also believe that those benefits have been insufficiently articulated in the public discussions of testing. Although much has been written over the past decade on standardized testing policy, little has been published by measurement specialists who support the use of external, high-stakes standardized testing. Most of the published material has been written by those opposed to such testing. The contributing authors of this volume are both accomplished researchers and practitioners who are respected and admired worldwide. They bring to the project an abundance of experience working with standardized tests. standardized testing situation, arguments, and strategies; explain and refute many of the common criticisms of standardized testing; document the public support for, and the realized benefits of, standardized testing; acknowledge the genuine limitations of, and suggest improvements to, testing practices; provide guidance for structuring and administering large-scale testing programs in light of public preferences and the "No Child Left Behind Act" requirements; and present a defense of standardized testing and a practical vision for its promise and future. Defending Standardized Testing minimizes the use of technical jargon so as to appeal to all who have a stake in American educational reform - parents, policy makers, school board members, teachers, administrators, and measurement specialists.




The Kansas Silent Reading Test


Book Description