Books & publications

"Systemic Racism in 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 antiracism and increased fairness"--

An Age of Accountability highlights the role of test-based accountability as a policy framework in American education. Even after very clear disappointments no other policy framework has emerged to challenge its hegemony, and many Americans continue to believe that accountability remains a vital necessity, even if educators and policy scholars disagree.

An international team of authorities in the field of standard setting discuss what standard setting is and should be. Their accounts of a representative selection of jurisdictions (Chile, England, France, Georgia, Ireland, Queensland, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States) are accompanied by lively critical commentaries from other experts in this domain. Together, the editors challenge the notion that there is a single superior way of thinking about national examinations, and instead encourage educators and policymakers to engage with the multiple perspectives offered here, and to consider carefully the complex issues raised.

This book provides a unifying structure for the activities that fall under the process typically called standard setting on tests of proficiency. Standard setting refers to the methodology used to identify performance standards on tests of proficiency. The results from standard setting studies are critical for supporting the use of many types of tests. The process is frequently applied to educational, psychological, licensure/certification, and other types of tests and examination systems. The literature on procedures for standard setting is extensive, but the methodology for standard setting has evolved in a haphazard way over many decades without a unifying theory to support the evaluation of the methods and the validation of inferences made from the standards. This text provides a framework for going beyond specific standard setting methods to gain an understanding of the goals for the methods and how to evaluate whether the goals have been achieved. The unifying structure provided in this text considers policy that calls for the existence of performance standards, the relationship of proficiency test design to the policy, and tasks assigned to subject matter experts to help them convert the policy to estimates of locations on the reporting score scale for the test. Guidance is provided for how to connect the psychometric aspects of the standard setting process to the intentions of policy makers as expressed in policy statements. Further, the structure is used support validity arguments for inferences made when using standards. Examples are provided to show how the unifying structure can be used to evaluate and improve standard setting methodology.

Assessing the Nation's Report Card examines the history of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and outlines plans for improving and modernizing the organization. Educational policy analyst Chester E. Finn, Jr. imparts a rare inside analysis of the evolution of the NAEP program at key moments in its history, and provides a firsthand perspective of crucial decisions and core goals that have helped shape it. The result is a revealing survey of the US's most influential source of data on K-12 achievement. Assessing the Nation's Report Card offers readers an in-depth understanding and appreciation of NAEP as well as an examination of its shortcomings, its controversies, and its current issues. The book explores why NAEP is considered the gold standard of educational assessments yet is much lesser known than other types of standardized testing. Finn underscores the promise of applying the results in addressing achievement gaps, boosting federal accountability, and driving education reform and policy. He also discloses how the data are collected and what the results can and cannot tell us. For more than 50 years, this ambitious federal testing program has informed the decisions of policy makers and educational leaders as they advocate for educational improvements in the US. Acknowledging the nation's evolving need for actionable information about students and schools, Finn provides an assured and rare overview of the existing program and proposes possibilities for the future.

Educational Assessment in a Time of Reform provides background information on large-scale examination systems more generally and the South African examination specifically. It traces the reforms in the education system of South Africa since 1994 and provides a description of the advances in modern test theory that could be considered for future standard setting endeavours. At the heart of the book is the debate on whether the current standard of education in Africa is good enough . If not, then how can it be improved? The aim of this book is to provide a point of departure for discussions on standard-setting, quality assurance, equating of examinations and assessment approaches. From this point of departure recommendations for practices in general and the exit-level (Grade 12) examination results in particular can be made. This book is ideal reading for principals, teachers, academics and researchers in the fields of educational assessment, measurement, and evaluation.

The History of Educational Measurement collects essays on the most important topics in educational testing, measurement, and psychometrics. Authored by the field's top scholars, this book offers unique historical viewpoints, from origins to modern applications, of formal testing programs and mental measurement theories. Topics as varied as large-scale testing, validity, item-response theory, federal involvement, and notable assessment controversies complete a survey of the field's greatest challenges and most important achievements. Graduate students, researchers, industry professionals, and other stakeholders will find this volume relevant for years to come.

This book examines teachers’ conceptions and practices of assessment in Tanzania. Adopting a sociocultural perspective, it reveals how Tanzanian teachers understand the role of assessment in relation to their classroom practices, community and other factors. The book determines that although teachers in Tanzania generally consider assessment to be useful for evaluating and monitoring learning, improving student performance and for accountability, their assessment practices are rarely seen as directly supporting student learning; it is not that teachers do not know how to implement the mandated assessment reforms. Instead, they are reluctant to adopt and embrace the reforms because they consider them to be contradictory to their teaching roles, and overly burdensome, if not implausible, given the physical, economic and cultural contexts of teaching and learning. This book argues that improving traditional assessments, rather than radically transforming them, can be more effective for cultivating practices that suit the physical, political, economic and cultural contexts of Tanzanian schools. Highlighting the significance of sociocultural factors in educators’ professional practices, while also illustrating the major challenges in implementing global reform agendas in diverse contexts, it is a valuable resource for educators and scholars interested in development and educational reform in African contexts.

Presenting original studies and rich conceptual analyses, this volume reports on theoretical issues involved in the use of simulations and games in educational assessment. Chapters consider how technologies can be used to effectively assess, modify, and enhance learning and assessment in education and training. By highlighting theoretical issues arising from the use of games and simulations as assessment tools for selection and classification, training, and evaluation across educational and workplace contexts, the volume offers both broad conceptual views on assessment, as well as rich descriptions of various, context-specific applications. Through a focus that includes both quantitative and qualitative approaches, policy implications, meta-analysis, and constructs, the volume highlights commonalities and divergence in theoretical research being conducted in relation to K-12, post-secondary, and military education and assessment. In doing so, the collection enhances understanding of how games and simulations can intersect with the science of learning to improve educational outcomes. Given its rigorous and multidisciplinary approach, this book will prove an indispensable resource for researchers and scholars in the fields of educational assessment and evaluation, educational technology, military psychology, and educational psychology.

This edited volume presents a systematic analysis of conceptual, methodological and applied aspects related to the validation of educational tests used in Latin American countries. Inspired by international standards on educational measurement and evaluation, this book illustrates efforts that have been made in several countries to validate different types of educational assessments, including student learning assessments, measurements of non-cognitive aspects in students, teacher evaluations, and tests for certification and selection. It gathers the experience of validity studies from the main international assessments in Latin America (PISA, TIMSS, ERCE, and ICCS). Additionally, it shows the challenges that must be taken into account when evaluations are used to compare countries, groups or trends of achievement over time. The book builds on the premise that measurements in the educational field should not be used if there are no studies that support the validity of the interpretation of their scores, or the use made of such tests. It shows that, despite the recognition given to validity, relatively few educational measurement assessments have accumulated enough evidence to support their interpretation and use. In doing so, this volume increases awareness about the relevance of validity, especially when assessments are key component of educational policies.