Measuring Up

Deconstructs the complexities of achievement testing for the educational layman. Education Week 20080521 Every parent who uses league tables as a basis for placing his or her child in a school, whether in the U.S. or anywhere else, should read this book. -- Lee Harvey Times Higher Education Supplement 20080828 Test scores are objective, scientific, and easy to understand--so what's the problem? It turns out that there are a lot of problems and that we would do well to try and understand them better. Daniel Koretz's Measuring Up is an excellent place to start. The book is hard to classify. It is too sophisticated to be called a primer. There are no equations, so it can't be a measurement book. (Also, it is entertaining to read.) It says good things about testing and test use and takes apart some arguments of testing opponents, so it can't be an anti-testing book. But, it raises profound challenges to the interpretation of score trends on high-stakes tests, to the meaning of achievement trend and gap reports in terms of percent proficient, to the interpretation of crossnational achievement comparisons, and to popular assumptions about testing of students in special populations (including some assumptions written into law). So, it can't be a protesting book, either...He does a great service by clarifying measurement principles in the context of widespread testing uses and misuses. -- Edward Haertel Science 20090102