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Standardized testing in the United States has been increasing at a rapid pace in the last twenty-five years. The market for tests has not only been expanding rapidly, but has also been changing sharply in structure into a fractured marketplace. Indeed, one of the main features of this book is that the market for standardized testing is highly fractured - with segments of the market facing monopoly conditions, others facing oligopoly conditions and still others where near free-market conditions exist.
One of the main premises of the book is that the structures of markets have strong implications for how those markets perform. While this notion is widely accepted among economists, it is not widely appreciated in educational research. A second motivation for the book is that very little scholarly attention has been focused on the standardized testing industry. This topic - the structure of the testing industry and implications for the quality of tests and test use - affects how we evaluate the learning of students, the effectiveness of teaching, the quality of schools and the educational health of the nation. Of particular concern to the authors is one vital aspect of test quality: test validity.
This book is the most current and authoritative review and analysis of the market for standardized testing.
Sommario
1 Introduction.- 2 The Testing Industry.- The Major Companies.- The Medium-Sized Companies.- Small Publishers.- The Secondary Industry.- Military Testing.- Other Players.- The Fractured Market.- 3 The Extent of the Marketplace for Tests.- Direct Indicators of Growth in Educational Testing.- Indirect Indicators of Growth in Educational Testing.- The Extent of Standardized Testing in the Employment Sector.- The Expanding Marketplace for Testing.- 4 Social Investment in Educational Testing.- Costs and Benefits: What Are We Talking About?.- The Cost Structure of Educational Testing.- An Estimated Testing Cost Function.- Comparing Costs and Benefits at the Margin.- The Benefits of Testing.- 5 Forces Behind the Testing Marketplace.- Dissatisfaction and Reform.- Legislation.- The Focus on Outcomes of Schooling.- Bureaucratization of Education.- New Forces.- 6 Spin-Offs from the Testing Industry.- The Computer Connection.- Test Preparation and Coaching.- Honesty Testing.- 7 Test Quality and the Fractured Marketplace for Testing.- Quality in Testing.- The Lake Wobegon Phenomenon.- The Marketing of Tests and Related Services.- The RFP Process.- Computer-Based Test Interpretation.- Test Preparation and Coaching.- Minor Mold or Major Blight?.- 8 Mending the Fractured Marketplace.- Fractures in the Testing Marketplace.- Recent Proposals for New National Tests.- Strategies for Mending the Fractured Marketplace.- Conclusion.- References.- Appendices.- 1 Estimation of Number of Students Tested in State-Mandated Testing Programs.- 2 Consumer Price Index Adjustments for Inflation.- 3 Calculation of Standardized Growth Expectations (SGEs).
Riassunto
Standardized testing in the United States has been increasing at a rapid pace. One of the main features of this book is that the market for standardized testing is highly fractured - with segments of the market facing monopoly conditions, others facing oligopoly conditions and still others where near free-market conditions exist.
