The Robert L. Linn Distinguished Address: A Call for Fundamentally Altering the Way We Build and Evaluate Educational Tests

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

American students are being educated less well these days than they should be. A major reason for this calamity is that we are currently using the wrong tests to make many of our most important educational decisions. It will be contended that three primary purposes exist for educational tests, namely, comparison, instruction, and evaluation. Given the 2014 joint Standards’ proclamation that assessment validity must be based on the appropriateness of a score-based interpretation for a specific purpose, it will be argued that the most direct escape from today’s unsound used of educational assessments is to adopt a purpose-preoccupied approach to the building and evaluation of assessments used in our schools. The recommended strategy will be characterized as purposeful educational testing.

Sub Unit

• Division D - Measurement and Research Methodology

Chair

• Eva L. Baker, University of California - Los Angeles

Presenter

• W. James Popham, University of California - Los Angeles

Discussants

• David C. Berliner, Arizona State University

• Derek C. Briggs, University of Colorado, Boulder