Customer Reviews

Testing Student Learning, Evaluating Teaching Effectiveness (HOOVER INST PRESS PUBLICATION)

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This is a well-written book about the role of testing in American education. Several testing experts contributed a variety of chapters about types of testing, when should testing be used, how far to trust testing, and so on. The chapters are well researched and well documented. There are over 25 pages of footnotes.

One of the interesting points made in the book is about how it is reasonable for the public and the government to expect to be able to make informed decisions about education. Too often educators seem to feel taxpayers should just give schools money and then let the educators decided how to spend the money. No one would ever expect this for most services. You don't hop in a cab and ask the taxi driver where he wants to take you. You don't go to a doctor and ask where he would like to operate. And so it is very reasonable for taxpayers to want to know if the money is being spent well. The authors of this book explore how testing can be a good way to see if the American people are getting enough value for their money.

Richard Phelps explores why so many testing "experts" hate testing. He points out that well designed multiple-choice tests can quickly and cheaply give a good assessment of how students are doing in mastering a subject. Badly designed multiple-choice tests should be tossed out, but not multiple-choice tests in general. A well designed multiple-choice test can require higher-order thinking.

There was a good chapter on how testing can help catch students who are having problems reading. There was another chapter about some strengths and weaknesses of some science tests. There was a fascinating chapter about videos of Japanese teachers teaching math. Another chapter was on the problems with portfolio assessment, for example one problem is how it is so subjective. Every teacher has their own evaluation, and it is hard to compare students.

The last section of the book was on accountability. One chapter was on the problems with how Kentucky has implemented their programs. The last chapter was about the strengths of how Texas has implemented accountability.

If you are interested in testing and education, this is a good book to check out.

This is a product of a conservative think tank, so if you want to hear from people who think of NCLB as a great idea these are your folks. At the least I would recommend you talk to your local teachers and ask how this testing regimen has changed what and how they teach. And keep in mind that many who would align themselves with the Hoover position think that public education is a bad idea on its face, and have an interest in insisting that it is failing in any circumstance. Yes, we should all demand excellence of our schools and their teachers. (We might, by the way, put the same expectations on our children to do the work...)But this book starts from the premise that excellence results from testing, and mentions little about the corruption that allowed demonstration projects based on testing to appear successful, without actually being so. (See this Bill Moyers transcript, [...]