In response to an argument by Baird, Andrich, Hopfenbeck and Stobart (2017), Michael Kane states that there needs to be a better fit between educational assessment and learning theory. In line with this goal, Kane will examine how psychometric constraints might be loosened by relaxing some psychometric "rules" in some assessment…

A recent report from Michigan's Mackinac Center asserts that there is little or no relationship between student achievement and marginal increases to what the report characterizes as the already "high" levels of spending in that state. Yet the report never substantiates its assertion that present spending levels are high, on average, or…

Pundits and bureaucrats use the results from international tests, particularly the PISA, to make claims about the quality of the public education system in the United States and make policy recommendations. In this article I argue, with evidence, that the scores and rankings from PISA are not important and that they cannot give policy makers or…

Without a doubt, poverty has a negative influence on student achievement, especially when achievement is measured by state-mandated standardized tests. However, some bureaucrats, such as state commissioners of education and even state governors, continue to downplay the influence of poverty on student achievement. New Jersey's Governor Chris…

The stated mission of the Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders (CCBD) includes ''supporting the professional development and enhancing the expertise of those who work on behalf of children with challenging behavior and their families'' (http:// www.ccbd.net/About/OurMission). The stated goal of CCBD's journal "Behavioral…

High-stakes, standardized testing has become the central tool for educational reform and regulation in many industrialized nations in the world, and it has been implemented with particular intensity in the United States and the United Kingdom. Drawing on research on high-stakes testing and its effect on classroom practice and pedagogic discourse…

The author looks at critical dialogue surrounding the causes for the alarming high numbers of high school dropouts in states that use high stakes standardized testing mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, and investigates the perceived correlations between high stakes testing and high numbers of high school dropouts of minority students.

Homeschooling, one of the fastest growing educational alternatives, is enjoying increasing respect from educators and parents alike. This is partly because homeschooling children score as well and often better on standardized tests than their publicly schooled counterparts. However, the vast majority of homeschooled students come from the…

A gap in standardized achievement-test scores among different groups of students has existed since the inception of standardized testing. The gap between white and African-American schoolchildren was the primary impetus behind much of the social policy devoted to desegregating schools in the second half of the past century. Through a combination…