S-011 Understanding Today's Educational Testing
Daniel Koretz
Achievement testing is now a cornerstone of education policy. Testing is complex and is routinely misunderstood by educators, policymakers, and the media. This course provides the background students will need to understand test results and to use testing appropriately in their later work. It is designed for students with no statistical training, presents material conceptually rather than mathematically, and has no prerequisites. The course has three main goals. First, it provides a context for understanding assessment results. For example, we will explore data on group differences in performance, trends in achievement in the United States, and international differences in achievement. Second, the course covers the essential concepts of measurement, such as reliability, validity, and bias. Third, the course discusses the application of these principles to a variety of current issues in education policy, such as high-stakes testing and testing students with special needs. S-011 is not a methods course and is not intended for doctoral students who may need to use measurement in their research or evaluate test results using technical criteria. These students should instead take S-061, Methods of Educational Measurement. Doctoral students for whom a methods course in measurement is not appropriate are encouraged to enroll in S-011 with permission of the instructor. This course fulfills one of the requirements of the International Education Policy Program, and fulfills one of the School Leadership Program's school development strand requirements.
Visit the course Web site
(Some resources on the course Web site may require a Harvard PIN number)