The examination of US education policy reveals a troubling trend where strategic scholars prioritize personal agendas over objective analysis. This opportunistic behavior is fueled by wealthy foundations, political entities, and sensationalist media, leading to a degradation of information. The book highlights the detrimental impact of these dynamics on education, illustrating how policy formation becomes compromised and ultimately harms the system.
The Standardized Testing Primer provides non-specialists with a thorough overview of this controversial and complicated topic. It eschews the statistical details of scaling, scoring, and measurement that are widely available in textbooks and at testing organization Web sites, and instead describes standardized testing’s social and political roles and its practical uses – who tests, when, where, and why. Topics an historical background of testing’s practical uses in psychology, education, and the workplace; the varied structures of educational testing programs and systems across countries; the mechanics of test development and quality assurance; and current trends in test development and administration. A glossary and bibliography are also provided. The Standardized Testing Primer is an ideal text for teaching this subject to undergraduate and graduate students.