The Perfect Test by Ron Dietel
In The News, Testing Friday, April 1st, 2011
Is there a perfect test? A test so well developed that it can do all those things that policymakers want it to do: higher test scores, teacher evaluation, and assisting teachers to help students learn in the classroom?
Test developers Grant and Jennifer Wilson think so, and they have developed what they believe are the perfect tests, described in a new novel by UCLA author Ron Dietel. The innovative performance assessments even help the U.S. become number one in the world in math and science. But one day, Jennifer discovers a secret list of student names who are exceptions to the high-stakes consequences of the test. So secret that someone is willing to kill for it.
The Perfect Test has just been published. Further information is available on Dietel’s web site. All royalties are being donated to the non-profit education organizations, Education Writers Association and Learning Matters.
Sounds like a really interesting book! I wonder who the exceptions will be to the perfect test. My guess will be some students who are way out there with unusual parts of the “multiple intelligences” that cannot be easily quantified. We have a great tendency in our society to emphasize that which can be easliy measured, and ignore that which is immeasurable.
Thanks for your comment Brian. I can’t give away too much of the story, but you are on the right track, sort of. Hope you will read it and let me know what you think.
Best, Ron Dietel