A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a predetermined, standard manner.
Educational Testing Service (ETS), founded in 1947, is the world's largest private nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization. It is headquartered in Lawrence Township, New Jersey, but has a Princeton address.
Educational assessment or educational evaluation is the systematic process of documenting and using empirical data on the knowledge, skill, attitudes, aptitude and beliefs to refine programs and improve student learning. Assessment data can be obtained from directly examining student work to assess the achievement of learning outcomes or can be based on data from which one can make inferences about learning. Assessment is often used interchangeably with test, but not limited to tests. Assessment can focus on the individual learner, the learning community, a course, an academic program, the institution, or the educational system as a whole. The word 'assessment' came into use in an educational context after the Second World War.
Educational evaluation is the evaluation process of characterizing and appraising some aspect/s of an educational process.
William Burton Michael, a student of J. P. Guilford, earned his Ph.D. in quantitative psychometric methods from the University of Southern California. He started his teaching career at Princeton University, and in 1952 joined the faculty at University of Southern California, where he received a joint appointment as an associate professor in psychology and education and as the director of the USC Testing Bureau. Michael authored over 500 publications on test construction, measurement and evaluation, and personality assessment. He also co-chaired a joint committee of the American Psychological Association (APA), American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) that published Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, which is the national and international standard of professional guidelines for testing and measurement in research and practice. One of his most widely read books is entitled "Handbook in research and evaluation : a collection of principles, methods, and strategies useful in the planning, design, and evaluation of studies in education and the behavioral sciences".
The American Educational Research Association is a professional organization representing education researchers in the United States and around the world. AERA's mission is to advance knowledge about education and promote the use of research in educational practice.
Ralph W. Tyler (1902–1994) was an American educator who worked in the field of assessment and evaluation. He served on or advised a number of bodies that set guidelines for the expenditure of federal funds and influenced the underlying policy of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Tyler chaired the committee that developed the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). He has been called by some as "the father of educational evaluation and assessment".
Michael John Scriven is a British-born Australian polymath and academic philosopher, best known for his contributions to the theory and practice of evaluation.
Linda Darling-Hammond is an American academic who is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She was also the President and CEO of the Learning Policy Institute. She is author or editor of more than 25 books and more than 500 articles on education policy and practice. Her work focuses on school restructuring, teacher education, and educational equity. She was education advisor to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign and was reportedly among candidates for United States Secretary of Education in the Obama administration.
Edmund Wyatt Gordon, is a professor of psychology, "had a tremendous influence on contemporary thinking in psychology, education and social policy and the implications of his work for the schooling of lower status youth and children of color in America".
Geoffrey D. Borman is an American quantitative methodologist and policy analyst. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1997 and is currently the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Director of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s federally funded Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training Program, and a Senior Researcher with the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
Eva L. Baker is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, the former acting dean of the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies and current Director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST).
Andrew Calvin "Andy" Porter, Ph.D. is the former Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and also serves as Penn GSE's George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education. Porter is an educational psychologist and psychometrician who has made significant contributions to education policy and has published widely on educational assessment and accountability, teacher decisions on content and how curriculum policy effects those decisions, opportunities for students to learn and achievement indicators, measuring content and standards alignment, teacher professional development, educational research methodology, and leadership assessment. Porter's current work centers on the VAL-ED project, a research-based evaluation tool that measures the effectiveness of school leaders by providing a detailed assessment of a principal's performance funded by the US Department of Education/IES. Porter also works on two projects funded by the National Science Foundation that focus on the effects of teacher professional development on improving teaching and learning.
Penelope L. Peterson is an American educational psychologist and academic administrator. Peterson was named Dean of Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy in September 1997 and previously served as University Distinguished Professor of Education at Michigan State University and Sears-Bascom Professor of Education at University of Wisconsin–Madison. She also served as president of the American Education Research Association (1996–1997).
Deborah Loewenberg Ball is an educational researcher noted for her work in mathematics instruction and the mathematical preparation of teachers. From 2017 to 2018 she serves as president of the American Educational Research Association. She served as dean of the School of Education at the University of Michigan from 2005 to 2016, and she currently works as William H. Payne Collegiate Professor of education. Ball directs TeachingWorks, a major project at the University of Michigan to redesign the way that teachers are prepared for practice, and to build materials and tools that will serve the field of teacher education broadly. In a sometimes divisive field, Ball has a reputation of being respected by both mathematicians and educators. She is also an extremely well respected mentor to junior faculty members and to graduate students.
Teacher quality assessment commonly includes reviews of qualifications, tests of teacher knowledge, observations of practice, and measurements of student learning gains. Assessments of teacher quality are currently used for policymaking, employment and tenure decisions, teacher evaluations, merit pay awards, and as data to inform the professional growth of teachers.
Marcia C. Linn is a professor of development and cognition specializing in education in mathematics, science, and technology in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley. Since 1970 she has made significant contributions to the understanding of how computers and technology can be used to support learning and teaching in mathematics and science. Her CV includes an extensive list of presentations and published books, articles, and peer reviewed papers in science education and education technology.
Shaun R. Harper is an American scholar on racial equity in the United States. He is a Provost Professor in the Rossier School of Education and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. In 2022, he was appointed University Professor, a distinction bestowed only to 26 of 4,700 USC full-time faculty. Dr. Harper also is the Clifford and Betty Allen Chair in Urban Leadership, founder and executive director of the USC Race and Equity Center, a past president of the American Educational Research Association, a past president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and a 2020-21 editor-at-large of TIME magazine. He spent a decade at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a tenured professor and founding executive director of the Center for the Study of Race & Equity in Education. He was previously a member of President Barack Obama's My Brother's Keeper Alliance Advisory Council.
Alan Henry Schoenfeld is an American mathematics education researcher and designer. He is the Elizabeth and Edward Conner Professor of Education and Affiliated Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Randy Elliot Bennett is an American educational researcher who specializes in educational assessment. He is currently the Norman O. Frederiksen Chair in Assessment Innovation at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, NJ. His research and writing focus on bringing together advances in cognitive science, technology, and measurement to improve teaching and learning. He received the ETS Senior Scientist Award in 1996, the ETS Career Achievement Award in 2005, the Teachers College, Columbia University Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016, Fellow status in the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 2017, the National Council on Measurement in Education's (NCME) Bradley Hanson Award for Contributions to Educational Measurement in 2019, the E. F. Lindquist Award from AERA and ACT in 2020, and elected membership in the National Academy of Education in 2022. Randy Bennett was elected President of both the International Association for Educational Assessment (IAEA), a worldwide organization primarily constituted of governmental and NGO measurement organizations, and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), whose members are employed in universities, testing organizations, state and federal education departments, and school districts.
