What Every Parent Needs to Know about Standardized Tests: How to Understand the Tests and Help Your Kids Score High! [Paperback]

Joseph Harris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2001

Everyone from school principals to teachers to parents nationwide is concerned about standardized testing. Standardized testing has become the bete noir of parents, students, faculty and administrators in relation to education today. Every year, millions of children must take state-mandated, standardized tests, the results of which can profoundly affect their futures, the standing of their schools and districts, even the career prospects of their teachers, and the administrators who run school systems. Parents are often at a loss in the face of these tests and how to help their children with them. This book will go a long way toward assuaging these apprehensions. What Every Parent Must Know About Standardized Tests will explain to parents clearly, simply, and in detail just what these tests are all about - what the tests are, what scores mean, how to interpret results, and how to compare different standardized tests. Written by an experienced psychologist who has researched the development of psychological tests and who teaches standardized testing issues at the university level, the book will give balanced, impartial, informed answers to parents' concerns in this controversial area.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Dr. Joseph Harris explains with great clarity, as he does in the classroom, the issues surrounding standardized tests so parents can understand these growing compulsory requirements of our modern times, what standardized tests measure, and more importantly, what they do not measure. This book should be required reading for educators as well as parents."­Martha T. Lovett, Ph.D., Dean, Graduate Studies & Special Programs, Converse College, Spartanburg, S.C.

You took them. Your parents probably took them. And now your children are taking them. Standardized tests have triggered fear and anxiety in a generation of parents and their children, not to mention among faculty and administrators. The results of these tests often profoundly affect children's futures, the standing of their schools and districts, even the careers of their teachers and administrators. Love them or hate them, there's simply no getting around the fact that standardized tests have become a mainstay in our educational system.

In his survival guide to putting standardized tests in perspective, psychologist Joseph Harris demystifies these worrisome exams and arms you with the knowledge you need to help your kids score high. What Every Parent Needs to Know About Standardized Tests explains, in plain English, what standardized testing is all about, clarifying the sometimes puzzling distinctions among assessment, achievement, and aptitude tests. Dr. Harris takes a close look at each of the commonly administered tests, explaining:

• What various test scores mean
• How to interpret test results
• How to compare results from different tests
• How to use test results to help optimize a child's learning experience
• What parents of gifted and special-needs children should know
• The differences between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced testing

Balanced, impartial, and informed, What Every Parent Needs to Know About Standardized Tests provides you with all the information and insight you need to help improve your child's testing experience.

About the Author

Joseph Harris, Jr. earned a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of South Carolina. He is a licensed and certified school psychologist, a member of the American Psychological Association and of the National Disaster Response Network. He has worked as a psychological researcher, school-based psychologist and director of special education, and has advised on test construction. He is currently adjunet professor at Converse College and owns Foothills Behavioral Consulting in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He is the author of three of the books in the Get Ready for Standardized Tests series. HOMETOWN: Moore, SC

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies (October 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071377581
• ISBN-13: 978-0071377584
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,281,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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