Measuring Up: Standards, Assessment, and School Reform Hardcover - 1995

From the rear cover

"If you want to know what the debates over performance assessment are really about...read this book! Rothman explains how assessment is related to new ideas about how studetns learn, about what is worth learning, and about who can be expected to learn 'the hard stuff.' He shows how the politics of education is also the politics of assessment... and what it will take for thoughtful people who are concerned about our educational future to build a common view of the possible."--Lauren B. Resnick, professor, University of Pittsburgh"The question that dismays all teachers and ought to concern every parent because of what it reveals about what school can do to a child's curiosity--'Will this be on the test?'--will never be answered again in the same way. Bob Rothman offers a rich and compelling account of the unfolding revolution in testing in America's schools."--Richard P. Mills, Vermont commissioner of education

From the jacket flap

In recent years, schools have been sweeping away traditional notions of how we know what students know. Testing is on the front lines of the education reform debate--by one estimate, the 41 million schoolchildren in America take 127 million tests annually--and the shift in student assessment is turning education itself upside down. In Measuring Up, Robert Rothman clearly and objectively explains the upheaval in thinking about testing that could dramatically transform American education.An award-winning journalist, Rothman cuts through a debate often characterized by misrepresentations and jargon to offer a highly accessible examination of the shift in thinking about testing. Through illustrative case studies of assessment programs in pioneering schools in Colorado, California, Vermont, and Kentucky, he goes inside the classrooms to see how change came about and what the new methods actually look like in practice. In their own words, teachers and administrators describe how changes in testing have affected teaching and learning and what the schools now expect of students.The author also reveals the myriad problems reformers are encountering, including research findings that show the difficulty of accurately measuring performance and opposition from parents and community members who consider the reforms misguided and even dangerous.Throughout the book, Rothman underscores that any change must begin with the And: what we want students to know and be able to do. Such changes demand a new way of knowing what students can achieve--and a system that enables them to achieve.

Media reviews

Citations

• Booklist, 04/15/1995, Page 1458
• Publishers Weekly, 03/20/1995, Page 53