Educational Assessment of Students

A highly-respected book in its field,The Educational Assessment of Students 4/e is the most thorough discussion of traditional and alternative assessments of any text--explaining, giving practical real-world examples, discussing pros and cons, and showing how to construct virtually all of the choices teachers can make in classroom assessment. Theories and research findings abound; the author examines why, when, and how teachers should use assessment in the classroom. Topics include: the bases for assessment in the classroom, crafting and using classroom assessments, and interpreting and using standardized tests. With its extensive and valuable appendix set, this book is a must-have desk reference for teachers and others involved in the field of education.

Anthony J. Nitko is an adjunct professor, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Arizona, and professor emeritus and former chairperson of the Department of Psychology in Education at the University of Pittsburgh.

The goal ofEducational Assessment of Students,Fourth Edition, continues to be to help teachers and those in training to teach to improve teaching through better assessment of students. It focuses directly on the professional practices of elementary and secondary schoolteachers. This edition features very strong emphasis on classroom assessment, complete coverage of the basics as well as advanced topics, and practical advice and examples of how good and poor classroom assessment affect students' learning. It is a core text written for a first course in educational testing and constructing classroom assessments, and it serves equally as the textbook for an undergraduate course or a first graduate course in educational assessment. No formal course work in statistics or college mathematics is necessary to understand the text. The book provides complete coverage of educational assessment, including developing plans that integrate teaching and assessment; crafting objective, performance, and portfolio assessments; evaluating students and discussing evaluations with parents; and interpreting state-mandated tests and standardized achievement tests. It is important in a first course that students receive a balanced treatment of the topics. Since the book is a comprehensive treatment of traditional and alternative assessments, I give examples, discuss the pros and cons, and give guidance for crafting every assessment technique that I introduce. Research is cited that supports or refutes assessment and teaching practices. The book treats teachers and those in training to teach as professionals. It recognizes that teachers' experiences and judgments are necessary for proper and valid use of educational assessment. I do not hesitate to point out teachers' and school administrators' erroneous judgments and assessment abuses, however, where good lessons can be learned from them. To ensure that the text material is in keeping with the competencies and standards held to be important by the profession, each chapter is keyed to the American Federation of Teachers, the National Council on Measurement in Education, and the National Education AssociationStandards for Teacher Competence in Educational Assessment of Students(reproduced in Appendix A). NEW AND REVISED CONTENT In preparing this edition, a special effort was made to make it easy for the reader to apply the material to classroom practice through clear explanations, many practical examples and illustrations, checklists, and step-by-step, how-to instructions. Among the material new to this edition are enhanced practical examples to serve as models for teachers, new material on how to evaluate students' writing, illustrations of how to align classroom assessments with state standards, additional concept maps to help students see the relationships among ideas, and improved guidance on developing and using performance assessments, projects, and portfolios. Each chapter was reorganized and content is more accessible. As with previous editions, I have written the text from the viewpoint that assessment is part of good teaching practice that helps the teacher improve students' learning. Special Features The following special features highlight the practicality of this text: Examplesof how to craft classroom assessments and what they typically look like, Checklistswith succinct tips for evaluating the quality of each type of assessment taught in the book, Strategiesfor assessing higher-order thinking that serve as models and descriptions for developing problem-solving and critical-thinking assessments, Chapter overviewsthat engage the readers' interest through posing key questions the chapter addresses as well as describing how the chapter is organized, Chapterlearning targets<