Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The right kinds of tests, correctly applied, can help every teacher become a better teacher. But unless you know the nuts and bolts of effective test design and application, you may be collecting the wrong data; misinterpreting data; and drawing off-base conclusions about what students know and can do, what to teach next, and how effective your instruction has been.
In Test Better, Teach Better, assessment expert W. James Popham explores the links between assessment and instruction and provides a jargon-free look at classroom and large-scale test construction, interpretation, and application. Featuring sample items, testing tips, and recommended resources, this crash course in instructionally focused assessment includes
* The four types of instructional decisions that testing will illuminate.
* What you really need to know about measurement concepts like validity, reliability, and bias.
* The advantages and disadvantages of various test formats and experience-based rules for creating great items in each.
* The benefits of assessing student affect and guidelines for doing it in your own classroom.
In addition, Popham offers practical advice for dealing with today's myriad testing targets and explains how standards-based achievement tests currently don't (but could) provide both accountability evidence and useful instructional information.
Synopsis
If you're frustrated by standardized tests that don't give you the information you need to help students achieve in the classroom, then here's a book that explains how to create and use tests to guide everyday teaching practices.
A renowned expert on assessment provides you with a "crash course" on the basic principles of testing:
How tests can tell you what to teach and how to teach it.
What to put on a test and why, including the rules for choosing and writing good test items.
The measurement concepts every educator must know in order to design tests that meet tough accountability standards.
How to avoid "teaching to the test" and five common mistakes in test writing.
Sample test items, tips, and steps guide you in collecting the right testing data, interpreting it, and making sound judgments about whether your instructional practices are achieving the results you want.
Table of Contents
The links between testing and teaching -- How tests can clarify the curriculum -- Too many testing targets -- Validity, reliability, and bias -- An introduction to test-building -- Selected-response items -- Constructed-response items -- The value of affective assessment -- Uses and misuses of standardized achievement tests -- Instructionally supportive standards-based tests -- Classroom evidence of instructional impact -- Epilogue: an illustration of instructionally focused testing.