The reader of this book will gain a greater understanding of contemporary equity issues in educational testing and assessment and to learn to examine these issues in the context of educational reform. The book focuses on the following four issues: (1) the growing prominence that educational testing and assessment are playing in American education; (2) the effect that current testing and assessment policies and practices are having upon minority and disadvantaged students and school systems; (3) the new and innovative approaches to testing and assessment and their prospects for promoting...

Achievement assessment has undergone a major shift, from what some call a culture of testing' to a culture of assessment'. Nowadays, a strong emphasis is placed on the integration of assessment and instruction, on assessing processes rather than just products, and on evaluating individual progress relative to each student's starting point.
This book addresses assessment issues in light of the present state of affairs. The first part discusses new alternatives in the assessment of achievement in various subject areas, focusing on agenda, practice, impact and evaluation of the assessment....

America faces a crisis in education and its accompanying effects on the nation's economic and social life. Educators and policy makers need to document the extent of this crisis, to gauge its potential impact, and to develop educational strategies that would boost achievement; this has turned the spotlight on educational assessment - the procedures, practices, and tools that educators use to measure the progress of students, both as individuals and groups.
This book deals with a range of issues within the field of educational assessment, with an emphasis on those issues that have sparked...

Measuring Up revisits vital issues of equity and assessment through the research efforts and insights of many of the nation's most prominent educators and assessment experts. As its most urgent purpose, the publication aims to sensitize readers to the unfairness and inappropriate uses of testing instruments which under optimal circumstances have the potential to benefit all students.
With America fervently espousing both national and state testing, the differential performance by race and social class raises the specter of tests as barriers to life milestones such as promotion,...

The purpose of Evaluating Corporate Training is to provide training professionals in business and industry, and students of human resources development, with an overview of current models and issues in educational evaluation. This book will provide students of educational evaluation, practitioners in training functions, their managers, and other HRD professionals with insights that will advance the profession and the clients it serves. The book is organized around three themes: context, models, and issues. The chapters in the context section are intended to provide the reader with an...

Every school district needs a system of sound superintendent performance evaluation. School district superintendents are and must be accountable to their school boards, communities, faculties, and students for delivering effective educational leadership. To assure that they are evaluated fairly, competently, and functionally, superintendents need to help their school boards plan and implement evaluation systems that adhere to the evaluation standards.
Superintendent Performance Evaluation outlines some of the problems and deficiencies in current evaluation practice and offers...

In an age that dictates accountability and verifiability of educational programs, institutions of higher education are called on to justify their programs. To meet these demands, there is a need for improved methods for the evaluation of teacher education programs. More importantly, there is a need for the development of methods and procedures to conduct continuous and on-going evaluation that can aid the process of program improvement. Many institutions have had difficulties in developing and implementing satisfactory systems for conducting needed evaluation. In recent years the standards...

Study the past, if you would divine the future. -CONFUCIUS A well written, organized, and concise survey is an important tool in any newly emerging field of study. This present text is the first of a new series that has been established to promote the publications of such survey books. A survey serves several needs. Virtually every new research area has its roots in several diverse areas and many of the initial fundamental results are dispersed across a wide range of journals, books, and conferences in many dif- ferent sub fields. A good survey should bring together these results. But just a...

Attempting fonnally to evaluate something involves the evaluator coming to grips with a number of abstract concepts such as value, merit, worth, growth, criteria, standards, objectives, needs, nonns, client, audience, validity, reliability, objectivity, practical significance, accountability, improvement, process, pro duct, fonnative, summative, costs, impact, infonnation, credibility, and - of course - with the tenn evaluation itself. To communicate with colleagues and clients, evaluators need to clarify what they mean when they use such tenns to denote important concepts central to their...

When George Bernard Shaw wrote his play, Pygmalion, he could hardly have foreseen the use of the concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy in debates about standardized testing in schools. Still less could he have foreseen that the validity of the concept would be examined many years later in Irish schools. While the primary purpose of the experimental study reported in this book was not to investigate the Pygmalion effect, it is inconceivable that a study of the effects of standardized testing, conceived in the 1960s and planned and executed in the 1970s, would not have been influenced by...