Assessing Student Performance: Exploring the Purpose and Limits of Testing (Jossey Bass Education Series) [Paperback]

Grant P. Wiggins (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787950475 | ISBN-13: 978-0787950477 | Publication Date: September 17, 1999 | Edition: 1

Now in paperback!

"The most comprehensive and exhaustive treatise available on the imperative to change the ways we test and assess student performance...it will become a major reference work for supporters of student-centered assessment."

--Educational Leadership

"A 'must' book for the on-going debate on American school reform."

--Theodore R. Sizer, chairman, Coalition of Essential Schools

What is assessment and how does testing differ from it? Why are performance tests, by themselves, not an adequate system of student assessment? How might we better "test our tests" beyond current technical standards? And why won't increased national testing offer the accountability of schools we so sorely need? In Assessing Student Performance, Grant P. Wiggins explores these questions and clarifies the limits of testing in an assessment system. He analyzes problematic practices in test design and formats that prevent students from explaining their answers. By showing us that assessment is more than testing and intellectual performance is more than right answers, Wiggins leads us to new systems of assessment that more closely examine students' habits of mind and provide teachers and policy makers with more useful and credible feedback.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The most comprehensive and exhaustive treatise available on the imperative to change the ways we test and assess student performance...it will become a major reference work for supporters of student-centered assessment." --Educational Leadership

"A 'must' book for the on-going debate on American school reform." --Theodore R. Sizer, chairman, Coalition of Essential Schools

"In the current torrent of talk about testing, Grant Wiggins' book constitutes an essential contribution. Rooted in historical knowledge, punctuated by acute philosophical analyses, and mindful of policy issues, Wiggins lays out the rationale for authentic forms of assessment." --Howard Gardner, professor of education and co-director of Project Zero, Harvard University

From the Back Cover

"In the current torrent of talk about testing, Grant Wiggins' book constitutes an essential contribution. Rooted in historical knowledge, punctuated by acute philosophical analyses, and mindful of policy issues, Wiggins lays out the rationale for authentic forms of assessment."--Howard Gardner, professor of education and co-director of Project Zero, Harvard University --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (September 17, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787950475
• ISBN-13: 978-0787950477
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,240,100 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Grant Wiggins, EdD, is the President of Authentic Education in Hopewell, New Jersey. He earned his Ed.D. from Harvard University and his B. A. from St. John's College in Annapolis. Grant consults with schools, districts, state and national education departments on a variety of reform matters; organizes conferences and workshops; and
develops print materials and Web resources on curricular change.

Grant is perhaps best known for being the co-author, with Jay McTighe, of Understanding By Design, the award-winning and highly successful program and set of materials on curriculum design; and Schooling by Design. He is also currently a co-author to Pearson Publishing on more than a dozen textbook programs in which UbD is being infused. His work has been supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, and the National Science Foundation.

Over the past twenty five years, Grant has worked on some of the most influential reform initiatives in the world, including Ted Sizer's Coalition of Essential Schools, the International Baccalaureate Program, the Advanced Placement Program; and national school reform efforts in China and Thailand.

Grant is also widely known for his work in assessment reform. He is the author of Educative Assessment and Assessing Student Performance, both published by Jossey-Bass. And he was a lead consultant on many state assessment reform initiatives, such as the portfolio project in Vermont and the performance assessment consortia in New jersey and North Carolina.

His many articles have appeared in such journals as Educational Leadership and Phi Delta Kappan. His work is grounded in 14 years of secondary school teaching and coaching. Grant taught English and electives in philosophy, coached Varsity soccer, Cross Country, JV Baseball, and Track & Field. He also plays in the Hazbins, a rock band. He can be reached at [e-mail].

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A lot of opinions and generalizations, April 15, 1999

By A Customer

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This review is from: Assessing Student Performance: Exploring the Purpose and Limits of Testing (Jossey Bass Education Series) (Hardcover)

I had higher hopes for this book. The author fairly eloquently advances a bunch of opinions, but (1) how about backing it up with research about what testing methodologies "work" or what the impact of these methodologies are and (2) how about some sense of how a teacher could actually implement these methodologies that are more "free-form"? His examples of a Harvard University exam are nice, but perhaps a little daunting.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tremendously Thought-Provoking..., June 25, 2005

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Constant Reader (Gloucester MA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Assessing Student Performance: Exploring the Purpose and Limits of Testing (Jossey Bass Education Series) (Paperback)

(also a teacher...) This book is a provocative critique of the way that testing and assessment are currently handled in schools. Wiggins excels at teasing out the inherent, often invisible, contradictions between our stated goals as educators and what it is that we're really teaching and reinforcing in the way we go about testing. This book is best at provoking the reader to think more carefully about the place of assessment in the curriculum; for me, it's made me rethink how I plan my tests, what I could do differently to encourage students to learn and to allow them to display their strengths, and to question "the system" from a more informed standpoint. This is a book of advocacy, however, and as such it has flaws. Wiggins is better at attacking what we have now than suggesting how it might be changed *considering the conditions under which most of us teach.* He places the entire burden on teachers (he is extremely disparaging of teachers who talk about students as responsible for some part of their education; it's up to the teacher to motivate them) and his focus on constant reiteration fails to consider the top-performing students, I think, who actually do well with current assessments. You don't have to buy the whole package, however, to find new concepts, techniques and perspectives in this book that will provoke you to rethink some of the aspects of testing most of us take for granted, while giving you inspiration for applying some of these new ideas in the classroom in practical ways.