Social Justice And Educational Measurement

Social Justice and Educational Measurement addresses foundational concerns at the interface of standardized testing and social justice in American schools. Following John Rawls’s philosophical methods, Stein builds and justifies an ethical framework for guiding practices involving educational measurement. This framework demonstrates that educational measurement can both inhibit and ensure just educational arrangements. It also clarifies a principled distinction between efficiency-oriented testing and justice-oriented testing. Through analysis of several historical case studies that exemplify ethical issues related to testing, this book explores and propounds speculative design principles and arguments in favour of radically democratic school reforms, which address how the future of testing might be shaped to ensure justice for all. These case studies cover the widespread use of IQ-style testing in schools during the early decades of the 20th century; the founding of the Educational Testing Service; and the recent history of test-based accountability associated with No Child Left Behind. Social Justice and Educational Measurement will be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in education, testing and assessment, and the philosophy of education. It will also be of interest to policymakers and educational administrators.

Cultures of measurement are often considered to dominate educational practices, to the degree that, as Biesta (2010) has identified in Good Education in an Age of Measurement we no longer measure what we value, but rather we have become conditioned to value what is measured. A clear example of this occurs when institutions and staff "teach to the test" by emphasising narrow conceptions of learning and of knowledge, simply because the consequences of high-stakes assessments have important implications regarding funding, resources, and even tenure. This collection explores, via various philosophical means, how valuable educational practices can occur within and beyond cultures of measurement. What seems to be required is for practitioners in education to regain their relationship to the overall purposes of education, such as the furthering of justice and democracy for both individual students and societies as a whole. Such a reconnection has the potential to re-humanise curricular experiences for students, which may have become dehumanised through particular cultures of measurement. It is argued that certain legitimate measures can advance justice and democracy, and so careful attention must be assigned to their validity and value. This book was originally published as a special issue of Educational Philosophy and Theory.

Pt. 1. Conceptual foundations -- pt. 2. Towards assessment for social justice

Systemic Racism and Educational Measurement provides a theoretical and historical reckoning with racism and oppression produced through educational measurement and research methodology. As scholars and professionals in the testing, measurement, and assessment of human learning and performance work to exorcise race sciences, white supremacy, and other injustices from the field’s research and practice, new insights are needed into their root causes. This book is the first to posit that the theory of the White Racial Frame was and continues to be applied to the foundations, process, dissemination, and use of educational measurement, leading to instruments, findings, and decisions that perpetuate the racialized social structure of our nation. Even among well-meaning stakeholders who aim to improve humanity and address inequities, the White Racial Frame shapes the field’s research questions, the methods utilized, the data valued, the interpretations made, and the language used throughout. Students and scholars of educational measurement, testing, and psychometrics will find invaluable clarifications of terminology, concepts, and theories integral to understanding systemic barriers in the field; explications of educational measurement’s core purposes and its influence by the White Racial Frame; and a series of alternate frames, theories, and epistemologies intended to guide educational measurement toward anti-racism and increased fairness.

This compelling book introduces Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's capability approach and explores its significance for theory, policy and practice in education. The book looks particularly at questions concerning the education of children, gender equality, and higher education. Contributors hail from the UK, USA, Australia, Italy and Mexico.

In Grading Justice: Teacher-Activist Approaches to Assessment, new and seasoned teachers are invited to engage with socially-just approaches of assessment, including practices aimed at resisting and undoing grading and assessment altogether, to create more democratic grading practices and policies, foregrounding the transformative potential of communication within their courses. The contributions in this collection encourage readers to consider not only how educators might assess social justice work in and beyond the classroom, but also to imagine what a social justice approach to grading and assessment would mean for intervening into unjust modes of teaching and learning. Educators wishing to explore critical modes of grading and assessment, grounded in social justice, will find this book a timely and relevant pedagogical guide for their teaching and scholarship.

Assessment for Learning (AfL) has become an established idea within higher education, based on the evidence that assessment is one of the most powerful drivers of student learning and thus can be harnessed as a means to improve learning. Assessment for Social Justice looks at assessment in higher education through the lens of critical pedagogy and social justice, and offers new insights to both fields of enquiry. The starting premise, adopted from AfL, is that the way in which we form and practice assessment can and should influence the social justice outcomes of higher education. Looking at a number of different theories of social justice, Jan McArthur explores how alternative theories provide the foundations for different types of assessment practice. The theories explored include the works of John Rawls, Theodor Adorno, Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum, Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth. McArthur then explores different examples of assessment and how these embody, or constrain, alternative theories of social justice. She provides a theoretically rigorous understanding of assessment as a social practice, and as a vehicle both for and against social justice. Assessment for social justice is explored in two complementary ways - the justice of assessment within higher education, and assessments that promote greater social justice - and in doing so this book contributes to ongoing debates about the nature and purposes of higher education.

This book examines disproportionality in education, focusing on issues of social justice for diverse and marginalized students. It addresses disproportionality as an indicator of biased practices and uses social justice as the frame for conceptualizing disproportionality historically and as a means to improve educational practice. Chapters explore the historical issue of disproportionality in education; outcomes experienced by racially and ethnically diverse students and students with disabilities, including discipline, bullying, and academic achievement; and ways in which social justice can inform policy and practice to make a positive impact reducing disproportionality in education. Key areas of coverage include: Methodological and statistical concerns in disproportionality research in education. Reviews research and data on disproportionality in education (e.g., disciplinary exclusion, bullying, seclusion and restraint, corporal punishment, school-based arrests, and academic achievement). Social justice as a theoretical and legal driver for change in policy and practice. Educational assessment and intervention practices designed to address disproportionality in education. Disproportionality and Social Justice in Education is a must-have resource for researchers, professors, and graduate students as well as clinicians, practitioners, and policymakers across such disciplines as clinical child and school psychology, educational psychology and teaching and teacher education, social work and counselling, pediatrics and school nursing, educational policy and politics, public health, and all interrelated disciplines.