Suggests that members of the educational measurement community are at least in part responsible for the fact that many U.S. children are receiving a reduced quality education because of the increasing misuse of educational tests. Assessment personnel have failed to speak out against the use of tests to assess school quality. (SLD)

The importance of educational accountability and assessment literacy is recognized as a long-term challenge to the educational system. The complexities in becoming an assessment literate and provide an opportunity to the educators to display their effective learning is discussed.

Discusses the direction large-scale educational testing is heading, pointing out pitfalls in current and future use of such tests. The large-scale assessment community seems to be unconcerned about the central mission of education, the instruction of children. (SLD)

The concept of consequential validity wrongly links the idea of the consequences of test use with the idea of validity, widely held to be rooted in the accuracy of inferences drawn from examinees' test performances. The reification of consequential validity can distract from a needed clarity about test use consequences. (SLD)

This book is intended to help parents understand more about the tests their children take in school. The pros and cons of different types of tests are explained, and the proper use of standardized tests is discussed. Each chapter contains a brief summary of the topic, with follow-up activities and a list of resources a parent could bring to the…

Discusses which kinds of data educators should respect and which they should reject. Asserts that most state accountability tests fail to produce the kinds of data that will improve teaching and learning. Teachers can get the data they need from their own instructionally useful classroom assessments. (WFA)