Measuring Up: Challenges Minorities Face in Educational Assessment (Evaluation in Education and Human Services Book 48)

__Measuring Up__ revisits vital issues of equity and assessment through the research efforts and insights of many of the nation's most prominent educators and assessment experts. As its most urgent purpose, the publication aims to sensitize readers to the unfairness and inappropriate uses of testing instruments which under optimal circumstances have the potential to benefit all students. With America fervently espousing both national and state testing, the differential performance by race and social class raises the specter of tests as barriers to life milestones such as promotion, graduation, and college admissions. In response to such punitive testing, the papers included here explore a host of models and practices that are currently being piloted both in America and abroad as educators grapple with the effects the assessment is having on minority and disadvantaged students and school systems. In the process, outcomes of innovative portfolio and authentic assessments are weighed against important standards and principles of validity and consequences. As the various authors probe the gap between African-American and White test scores, they raise important questions of resources, family background and educational opportunity. Beyond their value of their recommendations to educators, their papers help to identify causes of pupil deficiencies in ways that can be addressed by policymakers. To reinforce the emphasis on equity, several authors present a definitive defense of affirmative action as a critical counter-measure to the lack of fairness in school quality, family and social supports, and educational resources. Front Matter....Pages i-xvi Issuing the Challenge....Pages 1-11 Validity Standards and Principles on Equity in Educational Testing and Assessment....Pages 13-33 The Implications of Content Standards and Assessments for the Economically Disadvantaged, Minorities and Women....Pages 35-51 Finding One’s Voice: A Model for More Equitable Assessment....Pages 53-69 Advances in Portfolio Assessment with Applications to Urban School Populations....Pages 71-95 Fairness and Equity in Measuring Student Learning Using a Mathematics Performance Assessment: Results from the Quasar Project....Pages 97-120 Improving the Equity and Validity of Assessment-based Information Systems....Pages 121-136 Performance Assessment & Issues of Differential Impact: The British Experience- Lessons for America....Pages 137-165 The Case for Affirmative Action in Higher Education....Pages 167-194 Front Matter....Pages 195-195 Epilogue: Part1 Tests as Barriers to Access....Pages 197-207 Epilogue: Part 2 Educational Standards and Alternatives in Educational Reform....Pages 209-214 Epilogue: Part 3 Merit and Opportunity: Testing and Higher Education at the Vortex....Pages 215-224 Epilogue: Part 4 If You Want Equity, You Need Standards....Pages 225-227 Epilogue: Part 5 Response to Validity Standards and Principles on Equity (Robert Linn)....Pages 229-234 Epilogue: Part 6 At Risk and Unready? African American Children and Early Childhood Education....Pages 235-250 Back Matter....Pages 251-266 Measuring Up revisits vital issues of equity and assessment through the research efforts and insights of many of the nation's most prominent educators and assessment experts. As its most urgent purpose, the publication aims to sensitize readers to the unfairness and inappropriate uses of testing instruments which, under optimal circumstances, have the potential to benefit all students.

As the various authors probe the gap between African American and White test scores, they raise important questions of resources, family background and educational opportunity. To reinforce the emphasis on equity, several authors present a definitive defense of affirmative action as a critical counter-measure to the lack of fairness in school quality, family and social supports, and educational resources.