The ABCs of Educational Testing: Demystifying the Tools That Shape Our Schools

About W. James Popham

W. James Popham professor emeritus at University of California Graduate School of Education and Information Studies has spent the bulk of his educational career as a teacher. His first teaching assignment for example was in a small eastern Oregon high school where he taught English and social studies while serving as yearbook advisor class sponsor and unpaid tennis coach. That recompense meshed ideally with the quality of his coaching. Most of Dr. Pophams teaching career took place at UCLA where for nearly 30 years he taught courses in instructional methods for prospective teachers as well as courses in evaluation and measurement for graduate students. At UCLA he won several distinguished teaching awards. In January 2000 he was recognized by UCLA Today as one of UCLAs top 20 professors of the 20th century. (He notes that the 20th century was a full-length century unlike the current abbreviated one.) In 1992 he took early retirement from UCLA upon learning that emeritus professors received free parking. Because at UCLA he was acutely aware of the perishability of professors who failed to publish he spent his non-teaching hours affixing words to paper. The result: 30 books 200 journal articles 50 research reports and 175 papers presented before research societies. Although not noted in his official vita while at UCLA he also authored 1426 grocery lists. His most recent books are Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know 6th Ed. (2010) and Assessment for Educational Leaders (2006) Allyn & Bacon; The Truth About Testing (2001) Test Better Teach Better (2003) Transformative Assessment (2008) and Instruction that Measures Up (2009) ASCD; Americas Failing Schools (2005) and Mastering Assessment (2006) Routledge; and Unlearned Lessons (2009) Harvard Education Press. He encourages purchase of these books because he regards their semi-annual royalties as psychologically reassuring. In 1978 Dr. Popham was elected to the presidency of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). He was also the founding editor of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis a quarterly journal published by AERA. A Fellow of the Association he has attended each years AERA meeting since his first in 1958. He is inordinately compulsive. In 1968 Dr. Popham established IOX Assessment Associates an R&D group that formerly created statewide student achievement tests for a dozen states. He has personally passed all of those tests largely because of his unlimited access to the tests answer keys. In 2002 the National Council on Measurement in Education presented him with its Award for Career Contributions to Educational Measurement. In 2006 he was awarded a Certificate of Recognition by the National Association of Test Directors. In 2009 he was appointed to be a board member of the National Assessment Governing Board. Dr. Pophams complete 44-page single-spaced vita can be requested. It is really dull reading. School Leadership Briefing Interview