Educational Assessment of Students (3rd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: UGH! Sorry, but one of the worst textbooks...
Review: I really hate to write detrimental things about books I do not like, but this is a required book in some class at my University...and frankly, I don't know why. To be honest, I think part of it was the way the book was used in the classroom, and how the professors made us jump from one topic to another without gaining a full understanding of the first one! Just in case someone thinks I am just a student who could not hack the topic, my BS and MS are in Neuroscience, and I took statistics twice before this...once in neurostatistics and once in epidemiology. Try and read some of the journals in Neuroscience some time...Believe me they are much worse, or should be much worse then a social science document such as this.

I object to authors who write to impress their peers rather than write to explain their topic areas in such a way so that a student coming from another field can begin to understand what is going on fairly soon after reading the textbook, or parts of the textbook. I really do not care if the audience the authors/author are trying to reach are college students or graduate students, if the writing is such that the material does not make sense without total explanations from the teacher, then something is wrong. Most of the fifty some odd people in both classes who I talked to about it agreed that both the book and the classes were boring, unstimulating, and that they were having a difficult time comprehending the material presented. Since most of these people were and are teachers or those who work in educational research, it obviously wasn't me or them. I think the idea is supposed to be to make curricula accessible to all students. Since I am a Deaf person, and have had my fill of professors who definitely did not try to make their classes accessible, I tend to hold the writers of textbooks up to a high standard. None of the students in the class were 'learning-disabled' but this book did an awfully good job of making feel as if we were. All of us tried to sell this book back rather than keep it in our shelves which at a graduate level is unusual, but because they are bring a new edition out the books were unresaleable. I am looking for a more coherent text for my own personal use on education assessment...it won't be this one. Karen Sadler, Science Education, University of Pittsburgh

Rating:
Summary: Must have reference book
Review: This book is a "must-have" resource for anyone who has an interest in testing and assessment. I am a psychometrican, and it is a widely used resource among our psychometrics staff, as well as, with our measurement consultants and assessment specialists. It provides a comprehensive background into test reliability and validity. In addition, it presents many helpful tools for constructing all types of items. The checklists are especially beneficial, as well as, the chapter on interpreting score reports. Because the book is so comprehensive, it may best be used as guidebook and/ or reference book, rather than a book that one would read from cover to cover in the hopes to digest it all. I cannot say how many times I have referred back to this book in both my educational and professional life. I believe that it is written on a level that is relatively easy to follow, and the numerous examples that he provides help to illustrate the material. It is the most comprehensive book of it's kind in the field of educational assessment. I am also a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, and many students that I worked with during my doctoral study there also hold an opinion similar to mine. If the book is used in the way that it is intended to be used, it will probably be one of the most used reference books in your educational assessment library.

Rating:
Summary: Must have reference book
Review: This book is a "must-have" resource for anyone who has an interest in testing and assessment. I am a psychometrican, and it is a widely used resource among our psychometrics staff, as well as, with our measurement consultants and assessment specialists. It provides a comprehensive background into test reliability and validity. In addition, it presents many helpful tools for constructing all types of items. The checklists are especially beneficial, as well as, the chapter on interpreting score reports. Because the book is so comprehensive, it may best be used as guidebook and/ or reference book, rather than a book that one would read from cover to cover in the hopes to digest it all. I cannot say how many times I have referred back to this book in both my educational and professional life. I believe that it is written on a level that is relatively easy to follow, and the numerous examples that he provides help to illustrate the material. It is the most comprehensive book of it's kind in the field of educational assessment. I am also a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, and many students that I worked with during my doctoral study there also hold an opinion similar to mine. If the book is used in the way that it is intended to be used, it will probably be one of the most used reference books in your educational assessment library.