What Every Parent Should Know About School Tests

Product Details

Paperback: 289 pages
Publisher: Allyn & Bacon
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0205305954
ISBN-13: 978-0205305957
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches

Description

School tests now influence what teachers teach, how educators are evaluated, and whether children are successful in school.

W. James Popham has written the book every parent needs to read. It explains what the tests your kids are taking really mean--and don't mean--about your children and their education.

In this easy-to-read-and-understand book, you'll learn the pros and cons of different kinds of tests and other educational assessments. How you can decide when tests are being used effectively and when they're not. How both classroom tests and standardized tests are used and misused in judging your children and their school. More importantly, Dr. Popham teaches you to use this knowledge to communicate effectively with teachers and administrators so you can make a real difference in your child's education.

You'll also learn about:
• The proper use and misuse of standardized tests
• Which classroom tests help your child and which ones don't
• What information (and assumptions) teachers use in grading your child
• How you can evaluate teachers
• The pressure to improve test scores - and its consequences

Each chapter closes with a brief summary, follow-up activities, and a list of resources - books, articles, videotapes - you can (tactfully) bring to the attention of your child's teacher or school administrator.

Review

"Popham has produced another practitioner-oriented winner on testing, but this time it's for parents... A must read for all parents who want to understand the real meaning of their children's test scores." — Ronald A. Berk, Professor of Biostatistics and Measurement, Johns Hopkins University"In an era when tests are being used as instruments, rather than indicators, of educational reform and the lives of children can be profoundly altered by their performance on a single external test, it is essential that every parent become knowledgeable about testing practices in their children's schools. What kinds of tests are used in schools? For what purposes? What interpretations are being made? What can happen to a child as a result of their test score? What determines the quality of a test? ... Testing! Testing! What Every Parent should Know About School Tests provides sound and lucid answers to every one of these questions and many more. By reading this book, parents can become knowledgeable advocates for reliable testing policies in their children's schools and can protect their children from the rampant abuses that result from misguided testing practices. I commend it to every concerned parent!"