cover image Measuring Up: Standards, Assessment, and School Reform

Measuring Up: Standards, Assessment, and School Reform

Robert Rothman. Jossey-Bass, $45 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-7879-0055-7

Prominent among the current educational reforms is the revamping of student assessment-a turning away from traditional testing as a means of evaluating student achievement. The revamped system focuses on ``what students should leave school knowing and being able to do,'' rather than on scores and percentiles, which, as the author points out, can often be misleading. This clear-sighted exploration of achievement testing in elementary and secondary schools by an editor at Education Week shows how the system has operated in specific school districts and takes note of opposition from certain school boards and voters who fear new approaches are ``misguided and potentially dangerous.'' Rothman delineates changes in learning that will be required of teachers and students for implementation of reform. The effort to redefine standards and codify what is expected of students is ongoing, but as Rothman concludes, ``the road to the twenty-first century begins with a new way of knowing what young people know.'' Primarily for educators and policymakers. (Apr.)