Assessing the Nation's Report Card: Challenges and Choices for NAEP - Softcover

Chester E. Finn (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1682537250 ISBN 13: 9781682537251

Publisher: Harvard Education Press, 2022

Synopsis

Assessing the Nation’s Report Card examines the history of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and outlines plans for improving and modernizing the organization.

Educational policy analyst Chester E. Finn, Jr. imparts a rare inside analysis of the evolution of the NAEP program at key moments in its history, and provides a firsthand perspective of crucial decisions and core goals that have helped shape it. The result is a revealing survey of the US’s most influential source of data on K–12 achievement.

Assessing the Nation’s Report Card offers readers an in-depth understanding and appreciation of NAEP as well as an examination of its shortcomings, its controversies, and its current issues. The book explores why NAEP is considered the gold standard of educational assessments yet is much lesser known than other types of standardized testing.

Finn underscores the promise of applying the results in addressing achievement gaps, boosting federal accountability, and driving education reform and policy. He also discloses how the data are collected and what the results can and cannot tell us.

For more than 50 years, this ambitious federal testing program has informed the decisions of policy makers and educational leaders as they advocate for educational improvements in the US. Acknowledging the nation’s evolving need for actionable information about students and schools, Finn provides an assured and rare overview of the existing program and proposes possibilities for the future.

About this title

About the Author

Chester E. Finn, Jr., is a distinguished senior fellow and president emeritus at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, and a senior fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution.

From the Back Cover

Assessing the Nation's Report Card examines the history of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and outlines potential plans for improving and modernizing the program. The book deftly explores why NAEP is considered the gold standard of educational assessments yet is less widely known than other standardized testing.

For more than 50 years, this ambitious federal testing program has informed the decisions of policy makers and educational leaders as they advocate for educational improvements in the United States. Acknowledging the nation's evolving need for actionable information about students and schools, Chester E. Finn, Jr. provides an assured overview of the existing program and proposes possibilities for the future.

"If you want to know how 'The Nation's Report Card' became the most reliable gauge of what and whether American children are learning, this book is a must read. Checker Finn knows the history better than anyone because he was present at NAEP's founding and has been its most persistent and thoughtful advocate ever since."--Lamar Alexander, former US Secretary of Education

"Finn's vision of the future of NAEP is nuanced--balancing the technological possibilities of modern assessment with the many limits that now shape NAEP. This is a powerful book written by a master of exposition and analysis informed by a long personal history with 'The Nation's Report Card.'" --Mark Schneider, director, Institute of Education Sciences

"Finn makes the very dense topic of NAEP easy and enjoyable to read while also preserving the critical place it holds for our country's future." --David Driscoll, former Massachusetts Commissioner of Education and former chair of the National Assessment Governing Board

Chester E. Finn, Jr. is a distinguished senior fellow and president emeritus at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard Education Press
• Publication date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1682537250
• ISBN 13: 9781682537251
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 276