Kill the Messenger
Kill the Messenger

Author: Richard Phelps

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-09-04

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 1351510185

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In response to public demand, federal legislation now requires testing of most students in the United States in reading and mathematics in grades three through eight. Many educators, parents, and policymakers who have paid little attention to testing policy issues in the past need to have better information on the topic than has generally been available. Kill the Messenger, now in paperback, fills this gap.This is perhaps the most thorough and authoritative work in defense of educational testing ever written. Phelps points out that much research conducted by education insiders on the topic is based on ideological preference or profound self-interest. It is not surprising that they arrive at emphatically anti-testing conclusions. Much, if not most, of this hostile research is passed on to the public by journalists as if it were neutral, objective, and independent. Kill the Messenger explains and refutes many of the common criticisms of testing; describes testing opponents' strategies, through case studies of Texas and the SAT; illustrates the profound media bias against testing; acknowledges testing's limitations, and suggests how it can be improved; and finally, outlines the consequences of losing the ""war on standardized testing.

The Public Understanding of Assessment
The Public Understanding of Assessment

Author: John Gardner

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-02

Total Pages: 235

ISBN-13: 1317282000

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Assessment of educational achievement, whether by traditional examinations or by teachers in schools, attracts considerable public interest, particularly when it is associated with ‘high stakes’ outcomes such as university entry or selection for employment. When the individual’s results do not chime with their or their teachers’ expectations, doubts creep in about the process of assessment that has arrived at this result. However, educational assessment is made up of many layers of complexity, which are not always clear to the general public, including teachers, students, and parents, and which are not easily understood outside of the expert assessment community. These layers may be organized in highly co-dependent relationships that include reliability, validity, human judgment, and errors, and the uses and interpretations of the various types of assessment. No-one could reasonably argue that the principles and complexities of educational assessment should be core learning in public education, but there is a growing realization that trust in the UK assessment system is under some threat as the media and others sensationalize or politicize any problems that arise each year. This book offers the first comprehensive overview of how the general public is considered to perceive and understand a wide variety of aspects of educational assessment, and how this understanding may be improved. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Oxford Review of Education.

EBOOK: COMPETENCE-BASED ASSESSMENT
EBOOK: COMPETENCE-BASED ASSESSMENT

Author: Alison Wolf

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)

Published: 1995-01-16

Total Pages: 177

ISBN-13: 0335233198

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Competence-based assessment is the cornerstone of the UK Government's reforms of vocational training and of non-academic full-time education post-16. Australia has adopted similar policies, and there is considerable interest in the notion of 'competence' in both Europe and North America. Alison Wolf describes the main characteristics of the competence-based approach as it has emerged in the UK, and traces its origins in American experimental programmes of the 1970s. The arguments for the approach are discussed in detail. Many of these arguments derive from the demonstrable limitations of more conventional assessment, especially in predicting work performance. She then analyses the theoretical assumptions which competence-based assessment shares with the criterion-referenced movement as a whole, distinguishing clearly between those claims which can be sustained and those which cannot. She also synthesizes the growing body of evidence on implementation. Many lessons have now been learned about whether and how one can establish a workable, robust and reliable competence-based system. It has become evident both that the preconditions for success are often missing, and that, if they are ignored, competence-based 'reforms' may have largely negative consequences. The final chapter reviews the prospects for competence-based awards, and offers some conclusions on what is essential to a competence-based approach.

Evaluation Models
Evaluation Models

Author: D.L. Stufflebeam

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2000-11-30

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 0792378849

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Organized in three sections, the first includes a historical perspective on the growth of evaluation theory and practice; the second section includes articles on the major schools of thought about evaluation; the final section describes and discusses the standards for program evaluation.