Just imagine if half the politicians, administrators, and journalists in this country, so many of whom confuse higher test scores with better schooling, were to read this book. In friendly, accessible prose, Harris, Smith, and Harris examine-and explode-each of the assumptions that underlies standardized testing. The more you learn about the tests themselves, as well as how the results are interpreted and used, the more skeptical you become. And The Myths of Standardized Tests is an excellent way to learn, regardless of whether you're an educator who's already knowledgeable . . . or a test-score-citing official who clearly needs to start from scratch. -- Alfie Kohn, author of The Schools Our Children Deserve and Feel-Bad Education
Reader-friendly, this book explains what parents and teachers and concerned citizens need to know to work for the survival of public education for democracy. -- Susan Ohanian, educator, activist, and author of What Happened to Recess and Why Are Our Children Struggling in Kindergarten?
This book is true like a plumb line. With clarity and insight, it drops us right into the heart of the most central emergency we have in public education today-the unrelenting obsession with standardized testing. The authors are extremely well-informed, easy to read, and not afraid to take a stand. What a breath of fresh air! -- Ken Jones, University of Southern Maine
This book takes this thorny topic of standardized testing and covers everything in a sophisticated, nuanced, and lively way. The best on the subject I've yet to come across. -- Deborah Meier, NYU Steinhardt
In the era of No Child Left Behind, the number of books decrying the reliance on standardized testing has ballooned....Here, Harris (executive director, Assn. for Educational Communications & Technology), Bruce Smith (former editor in chief, Phi DeltaKappan), and award-winning elementary school teacher Joan Harris intersperse their own personal experiences with testing among the book's chapters, which detail their evidence on the failures of standardized tests. The final two chapters contain recommended alternative accountability schemes for evaluating the success of students and schools. The book also includes a glossary of terms and a resource guide that lists research centers and organizations that focus on the topic of improving schools and education policy. Thought-provoking reading for educators and parents. * Library Journal *
Question: How can a book about educational testing be a page-turner? Answer: When it's written by a trio of smart, test-savvy authors who make a reader want to learn everything treated in this engaging expose of standardized testing's foibles. Ultra-timely, this book should be mandatory reading for all educators-and everyone else! -- W James Popham, professor emeritus, University of California, Los Angeles
In the era of No Child Left Behind, the number of books decrying the reliance on standardized testing has ballooned....Here, Harris (executive director, Assn. for Educational Communications & Technology), Bruce Smith (former editor in chief, Phi Delta Kappan), and award-winning elementary school teacher Joan Harris intersperse their own personal experiences with testing among the book's chapters, which detail their evidence on the failures of standardized tests. The final two chapters contain recommended alternative accountability schemes for evaluating the success of students and schools. The book also includes a glossary of terms and a resource guide that lists research centers and organizations that focus on the topic of improving schools and education policy. Thought-provoking reading for educators and parents. * Library Journal *
The book explains, using a load of research, why high-stakes standardized tests are less objective than many people believe, why they don't adequately measure student achievement, how the results distort the validity of the assessment system, how these tests inadvertently lead young people to become superficial thinkers, and much more. The easy-to-read book does not only look at what's wrong with tests but also discusses what genuine accountability looks like. * The Washington Post *