Testing Student Learning, Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness

by Evers, Williamson F.; Walberg, Herbert J.

• ISBN13: 9780817929824
• ISBN10: 0817929827
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-05-01
• Publisher: Hoover Institution Press

Summary

More than ever, parents want to know how their children are achieving and how their children's school ranks compared to others. And even though education experts and some testing experts may disagree, Congress, state legislators, and citizens are increasingly insistent that objective testing and accountability are needed to measure the results of teaching. This book takes a hard look at the professional, technical, and public policy issues surrounding student achievement and teacher effectiveness-the controversial issues that often divide educators from parents and their elected representatives. The book shows how defective tests and standards and a lack of accountability cause American students to fall behind those of other countries-despite our schools' receiving nearly the world's highest levels of per-student spending. The book takes on common objections to testing, reveals why they are false, and shows how tests can help even in a child's earliest years. The book also presents several specific constructive uses for tests, including diagnosing children's learning difficulties and procedures for solving them, measuring the impact of curriculum on specific aspects of achievement, and assessing teachers' strengths and weaknesses. The book tells what's wrong-and right-with the NAEP Science and Mathematics Tests and the TIMSS Observational Study. And, in two detailed case studies, authors describe how one state's accountability system failed whereas another state's has worked well. This book ultimately shows that test results can clearly inform educators and students of progress or lack thereof, evaluate the degree to which programs and practices are working, and ultimately play a vital role in improving American schools.

Author Biography

Williamson M. Evers is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of the Institution's Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. He specializes in research on education policy - especially as it pertains to curriculum, teaching, testing, and accountability from kindergarten through high school. From July to December 2003, he served as senior adviser for education to Administrator L. Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Herbert J. Walberg is a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of its Task Force on K–12 Education, is University Scholar and emeritus professor of education and psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research focuses on educational productivity and human accomplishments.

Table of Contents

Introduction and Overview	vii
Williamson M. Evers and Herbert J. Walberg
Part One: Setting the Stage	1	(78)
1. Examinations for Educational Productivity	3	(24)
Herbert J. Walberg
2. Why Testing Experts Hate Testing	27	(52)
Richard P. Phelps
Part Two: Constructive Uses of Tests	79	(116)
3. Early Reading Assessment	81	(46)
Barbara R. Foorman, Jack M. Fletcher, and David J. Francis
4. Science and Mathematics Testing: What's Right and Wrong with the NAEP and the TIMSS?	127	(34)
Stan Metzenberg
5. Telling Lessons from the TIMMS Videotape	161	(34)
Alan R. Siegel
Part Three: Constructive Tests for Accountability	195	(48)
6. Portfolio Assessment and Education Reform	197	(24)
Brian Stecher
7. Using Performance Assessment for Accountability Purposes	221	(22)
William A. Mehrens
Part Four: State Testing Policies	243	(80)
8. Learning from Kentucky's Failed Accountability System	245	(58)
George K. Cunningham
9. Accountability Works in Texas	303	(20)
Darvin M. Winick and Sandy Kress
Appendix: Conference Agenda	323	(2)
Contributors	325	(6)
Index	331