The Truth About Testing: An Educator's Call to Action (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

With public and political demand for educational accountability never higher, educators are under enormous pressure to raise students' scores on standardized achievement tests. Policymakers are backing large-scale, high-stakes testing programs as the best way to determine which schools are failing and which schools are succeeding, and the only way to ensure the quality of students' schooling.

Nonsense, says distinguished educator and author W. James Popham.

In The Truth About Testing: An Educator's Call to Action, Popham explores both the absurdity and the serious destructive consequences of today's testing programs. He uses actual items drawn from current standardized achievement tests to show what these tests really measure and why they should never be used to evaluate school quality or teacher ability.

But, Popham insists, there's a way out of this measurement mess. And it's up to educators to take the first steps. Throughout this commonsense and conversational resource, the author appeals to educators to build their own assessment literacy, spread the word about harmful testing, and reexamine how they use test data in the classroom. He provides advice for distinguishing between sound and unsound large-scale tests, guidelines to help teachers maximize the instructional benefits properly constructed classroom tests can bring, and evidence-gathering strategies for teachers and administrators trying to survive and thrive in an accountability-driven environment.

The book closes with a series of action items for educators interested in ending the score-boosting game, halting the erosion of educational quality, and establishing the kind of testing that can improve student learning.

Product Details

• Paperback: 167 pages
• Publisher: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Deve (November 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871205238
• ISBN-13: 978-0871205230
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #417,498 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth About Testing by W. James Popham, January 6, 2002

By	Ann Reichmann (Carlinville, IL USA) - See all my reviews

If education is in trouble -- here is the Savior. Popham has finally addressed, spelled out and suggested the cures for the present ill-advised and unrealistic push for standardized testing which leaves students,teachers and schools imprisoned by impossible and educationally unsound and biased testing. Popham says it all when he tells us that test developers must think instructionally, realistically and honestly. Popham makes the reader understand the tragic consequences of allowing non-involved, classroom illiterate test-makers to control the educational consequences of millions of students, teachers and public school administrators. Hasn't the mess in medicine taught us the sad lesson of allowing the uninformed to take over the decisions and the physical health of our people, which has led to less yet more expensive healing? Popham makes clear why the lists of hundreds and hundreds of "standards" are impossible to test accurately and how they keep true education from occurring since teachers can't even teach all the standards let alone anything that makes each student realize his/her own uniqueness. Every state legislator that EVER gave his vote or support to standardized testing as it is formatted today, should read Popham's book and somehow find a way and the time to join the effort to return teaching to the classroom instead of leaving it in a test-making corporation's board room. Our students have become the victims of people who can't teach but think they know how. Read this book and pass it on!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must" for any educator who needs to effectively evaluate, December 10, 2001

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Educator and author James Popham's The Truth About Testing takes a critical look at the standardized achievement tests used in America's schools today. The qualities that these tests <i>really</i> measure are not necessarily what the people who tout them claim, and their exaggerated importance in rating the school systems could have severe and destructive consequences on the future of the children who are learning how to do well on certain tests - and not necessarily how to perform the mathematical, scientific, and critical thinking skills they will need when they graduate. educator and author Popham also presents a common sense and practical alternatives to how test data should be used in the classroom, and evidence-gathering strategies that teachers and administrators can use to create a thriving, accountability-driven educational institution. Articulate, instructive, and well-thought-out, The Truth About Testing is a "must" for any educator who needs to effectively evaluate just how well his or her students are really doing.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth About Testing by W. James Popham, January 6, 2002

By	Ann Reichmann (Carlinville, IL USA) - See all my reviews

If education is in trouble -- here is the Savior. Popham has finally addressed, spelled out and suggested the cures for the present ill-advised and unrealistic push for standardized testing which leaves students,teachers and schools imprisoned by impossible and educationally unsound and biased testing. Popham says it all when he tells us that test developers must think instructionally, realistically and honestly. Popham makes the reader understand the tragic consequences of allowing non-involved, classroom illiterate test-makers to control the educational consequences of millions of students, teachers and public school administrators. Hasn't the mess in medicine taught us the sad lesson of allowing the uninformed to take over the decisions and the physical health of our people, which has led to less yet more expensive healing? Popham makes clear why the lists of hundreds and hundreds of "standards" are impossible to test accurately and how they keep true education from occurring since teachers can't even teach all the standards let alone anything that makes each student realize his/her own uniqueness. Every state legislator that EVER gave his vote or support to standardized testing as it is formatted today, should read Popham's book and somehow find a way and the time to join the effort to return teaching to the classroom instead of leaving it in a test-making corporation's board room. Our students have become the victims of people who can't teach but think they know how. Read this book and pass it on!