Rebuilding Public Confidence in Educational Assessment

Rebuilding Public Confidence in Educational Assessment
Author: Mary Richardson
Publisher: UCL Press
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2022-05-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1787357244

Educational assessment is important. But in the twenty-first century it is easy to feel that schooling and other phases of education are shaped entirely by certain assessments, and that assessment is only about exam results. The idea that test grades can accurately describe the aims and outcomes of education is unfair and reductive. Yet it is a pervasive and persuasive discourse. This book is about such discourses - the stories we tell each other - and how they impact public trust and confidence in educational assessment. It explains the roots and nature of assessment discourses, and proposes a restructuring of the debates in order to rebuild public confidence. It aims to challenge dominant assessment discourses and demands a more nuanced, informed debate about what happens in and beyond schools, and how this influences public thinking. Questioning the status quo needs buy-in from policymakers, teachers, parents and students, and from the broader public: from journalists, you, me, our friends and our children. Using examples from international settings to explore the nature of trust in assessment discourses, Rebuilding Public Confidence in Educational Assessment shows how these discourses can be reframed so that all aspects of the assessment system - policymaking, school planning, home practice with students - can be undertaken with confidence.

Educational Assessment and Inclusive Education

Educational Assessment and Inclusive Education
Author: Christian Ydesen
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2023-01-18
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3031190041

This book brings together policymaker and practitioner knowledge, experiences, and perspectives on the interaction between the assessment and inclusion agenda to the fore. The book’s analysis is built on comparative qualitative data from five different countries on four continents: Argentina, China, Denmark, England, and Israel. These countries have been chosen for their distinctive, and even contrasting, education policies, sociocultural and economic circumstances, and variations in performance across supranational and national standardised student assessments. In addressing these specific contexts, the book provides insights into the pitfalls and synergies which emerge as key stakeholders attempt to mediate these two educational concerns in both policy and practice.

Becoming a Teacher: Issues in Secondary Education 6e

Becoming a Teacher: Issues in Secondary Education 6e
Author: Simon Gibbons
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (UK)
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2023-03-27
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0335251676

“[E]ssential reading for anyone learning to be a teacher… This book will continue to be a core text on our ITE programmes.” Rachele Newman. Director of Initial Teacher Education, University of Southampton, UK “A comprehensive ‘must have’ for every new teacher entering the profession: a wide variety of short chapters, packed full of key, research-evidenced ideas, brilliantly articulated by a team of expert authors… Fantastic!” Mark Winterbottom, Professor of Education, University of Cambridge, UK “The beauty of the book is that the authors do not attempt to simplify teaching, instead they celebrate and explore the complexities of being a teacher.” Stefanie Sullivan, Deputy Head of School, Director of Initial Teacher Education, University of Nottingham, UK This timely new edition remains the ultimate guide for students in the core areas of teaching policy, assessment and curriculum planning, while also covering the relevant issues facing educators and students today. Grounded in contemporary research and empirical evidence, Becoming a Teacher provides a critical yet accessible exploration of the complexities involved in starting a career in secondary education. New chapters include topics such as wellbeing and mental health, social justice, decolonising the curricula and how to develop teacher identity when starting a career. Themes such as digital pedagogy now run through the core of the book, reflecting the future of our education system. The book: -Supports students with a blend of theory and practical solutions -Integrates a wide range of issues, contexts and perspectives -Guides and encourages readers to reflect on their own learning and teaching -Covers practical classroom implementations, theoretical and empirical research, social and cultural dimensions and much more Benefitting from the expertise of top academics in the education field while leaving room for the reader to engage with their own critical reflection, this book is essential for PGCE and Education students to gain a thorough understanding of the many facets of education as well as their own role as a teacher. Simon Gibbons is Senior Lecturer in English Education and Director of Teacher Education at King’s College London, UK. He is a former chair of the National Association for the Teaching of English. Richard Brock is a Lecturer in Science Education at King’s College London, UK. He taught secondary physics for many years in greater London and has also taught English in Japan and worked in special education. Melissa Glackin is Senior Lecturer in Science Education and the Director of the MA in STEM Education at King’s College London, UK. Elizabeth Rushton is Head of Department of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment at the Institute of Education, University College London, UK. She previously led the Geography PGCE at King’s College London after having worked as a geography teacher and as Director of Evaluation for an education charity. Emma Towers is a Teaching Fellow in Education Policy at King’s College London, UK. Before moving into higher education, she worked as a primary school teacher in London schools.

Education for All?

Education for All?
Author: Cathie Jo Martin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 291
Release: 2023-09-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1009419633

The Public Understanding of Assessment

The Public Understanding of Assessment
Author: John Gardner
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2017-10-02
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1317282000

Assessment of educational achievement, whether by traditional examinations or by teachers in schools, attracts considerable public interest, particularly when it is associated with ‘high stakes’ outcomes such as university entry or selection for employment. When the individual’s results do not chime with their or their teachers’ expectations, doubts creep in about the process of assessment that has arrived at this result. However, educational assessment is made up of many layers of complexity, which are not always clear to the general public, including teachers, students, and parents, and which are not easily understood outside of the expert assessment community. These layers may be organized in highly co-dependent relationships that include reliability, validity, human judgment, and errors, and the uses and interpretations of the various types of assessment. No-one could reasonably argue that the principles and complexities of educational assessment should be core learning in public education, but there is a growing realization that trust in the UK assessment system is under some threat as the media and others sensationalize or politicize any problems that arise each year. This book offers the first comprehensive overview of how the general public is considered to perceive and understand a wide variety of aspects of educational assessment, and how this understanding may be improved. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Oxford Review of Education.

Educational Assessment

Educational Assessment
Author: Robert J. Wright
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Total Pages: 771
Release: 2007-12-21
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1544304005

Grounded in the real world of public schools and students, this engaging, insightful, and highly readable text introduces the inner-workings of K–12 educational assessment. There has never been a time when it is more important for educators to have an understanding of testing and assessments. Accountability is now a fact of life for all public school educators, and testing is at the core of all educational assessment programs. It is no longer prudent or even possible for educators to ignore this national zeitgeist. Educational Assessment: Tests and Measurements in the Age of Accountability addresses all of the constructs central to understanding the design, construction and evaluation of educational measures. It goes on to provide students with insight into the link between today′s high-stakes testing mandates and the traditions of the past 125 years of "scientific" measurement in the United States. It addresses the problem of understanding and correctly interpreting test scores on local, statewide, national, and international assessments. It also addresses how certain issues such as institutionalized cheating, test preparation, and individual differences among students and their families influence test score outcomes. Key Features Covers traditional topics in an approachable and understandable way: Reliability, validity, performance assessments, standardized achievement tests, and many more topics are included. Analyzes and interprets "hot-button" issues of today′s complex measurement concerns: The score-gap, high-stakes testing, grade retention, drop-out crises, "academic redshirting,", diversity, family influence, and educational technology, are examined. Relates theory to practice: Each chapter includes relevant real-life examples and case studies to demonstrate how the technical-measurement principles impact those involved. Addresses the needs of diverse students: Issues related to students with special needs and the testing of English Language Learners are discussed. Intended Audience: Educational Assessment: Tests and Measurements in the Age of Accountability has been written to meet the needs of students in graduate programs of special education, reading, school counseling, school social work, curriculum supervision, or administration. Providing grounding in all aspects of measurement, this book is perfect for undergraduate and graduate courses such as Educational Tests and Measurements, Assessment in Education, and Student Assessment.

Assessment in Support of Instruction and Learning

Assessment in Support of Instruction and Learning
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 77
Release: 2003-10-17
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0309089786

Assessment in Support of Instruction and Learning is the summary of a National Research Council workshop convened to examine the gap between external and classroom assessment. This report discusses issues associated with designing an assessment system that meets the demands of public accountability and, at the same time, improves the quality of the education that students receive day by day. This report focuses on assessment that addresses both accountability and learning.

Policy Perspectives on Educational Testing

Policy Perspectives on Educational Testing
Author: Bernard R. Gifford
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 492
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9401122261

America faces a crisis in education and its accompanying effects on the nation's economic and social life. Educators and policy makers need to document the extent of this crisis, to gauge its potential impact, and to develop educational strategies that would boost achievement; this has turned the spotlight on educational assessment - the procedures, practices, and tools that educators use to measure the progress of students, both as individuals and groups. This book deals with a range of issues within the field of educational assessment, with an emphasis on those issues that have sparked the public policy debate in recent years. Much of this volume concerns itself with the impact of testing on various subgroups of the population - blacks, Hispanics, young children, and children considered to be of `below average' ability. Taken together, the contributions to this volume represent a broad range of views on differential test performance. (This book is part of the subseries of books based on the Ford Foundation's National Commission on Testing and Public Policy. Previous titles in this program include Gifford & Wing/Test in Defense, Gifford & O'Connor/Changing Assessments, Gifford/Test Policy and the Politics of Opportunity Allocation, and Gifford/Test Policy and Test Performance.)

Educational Assessment

Educational Assessment
Author: Robert J. Wright
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 665
Release: 2008
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1412949173

Educational Tests and Measurements in the Age of Accountability is a core text for use in a first level graduate course in educational measurement and testing. In addition to covering the topics traditionally found in core textbooks for this course, this text also provides coverage of contemporary topics (including national testing programs, international achievement comparisons, the value added assessment of schools and teachers, and the public policy debate on selective admissions vs. affirmative minority enrollment).