This highly acclaimed volume in the Defending Public Schools series is now available in paperback from Teachers College Press.
Educational standards and assessment practices are the engine driving the historic changes public schools are experiencing today. This dynamic collection of essays presents an overview of the origins and development of standards-based educational reform (SBER) and assessment; a description of SBER's essential elements; and a critical analysis of the means and ends of what is perhaps the most important reform effort U.S. schools have ever experienced.
Contents and Contributors
The Nature and Limits of Standards-Based Reform and Assessment, Sandra Mathison and E. Wayne Ross • Part I: History, Context, and the Future of Educational Standards and Assessment • A Short History of Educational Assessment and Standards-Based Educational Reform, Sandra Mathison • Standards-Based Education: Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right, W. James Popham • The Costs of Overemphasizing Achievement, Alfie Kohn • International Comparisons: Worth the Cost?, Gerald W. Bracey • Assessment, Accountability, and the Impossible Dream, Linda Mabry • Authentic Accountability: An Alternative to High-Stakes Testing, Ken Jones • Evaluation of Schools and Education: Bad Practice, Limited Knowledge, Sandra Mathison and Marco A. Muñoz • Part II: Perspectives on Standards and Assessment • Teachers Working with Standards and State Testing, Sandra Mathison and Melissa Freeman • "Parental Involvement": In Defense of What Kind of Vision for "Public" School? Melissa Freeman • Leaving No Child Left Behind: Accountability Reform and Students with Disabilities, Margaret J. McLaughlin and Katherine M. Nagle • The Accumulation of Disadvantage: The Consequences of Testing for Poor and Minority Children, Sandra Mathison • Educational Leaders and Assessment-Based Reform, William A. Firestone • The Mismeasure and Abuse of Our Children: Why School Officials Must Resist State and National Standardized Testing Reforms, William C. Cala