Though based on the North American education system, Measuring Up's argument will transfer well to the UK sector, and prove an interesting read for any professional concerned with the role of testing and examination in pupils' learning.
Measuring up: what educational testing really tells us
Synopsis
In this book, Harvard Professor of Education, Daniel Koretz, argues that educational tests are not always the best judge of a school’s, teacher’s or pupil’s ability. Test scores can be misunderstood and misused, and the complexities of testing are routinely remain unscrutinised according to Koretz.
Although he accepts that tests can provide useful information, Koretz argues that they have been misused, and that high-stakes tests have created perverse incentives within the USA’s schooling system, and that some tests are inimical to the true aims of education.
Inspired by a popular Harvard course for students without an extensive mathematics background, Measuring Up demystifies educational testing. Koretz takes readers through the most fundamental issues that arise in educational testing and shows how they apply to some of the most controversial issues in education today. He walks readers through everyday examples to show what tests do well; what their limits are; how easily tests and scores can be oversold or misunderstood; and how they can be used sensibly to help discover how much pupils have learnt.