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Education Policy Analysis Archives
Volume 6 Number 10	May 22, 1998	ISSN 1068-2341

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A peer-reviewed scholarly electronic journal.  Editor:  Gene V Glass   Glass@ASU.EDU.  College of Education  Arizona State University,Tempe AZ 85287-2411  Copyright 1998, the EDUCATION POLICY ANALYSIS ARCHIVES.Permission is hereby granted to copy any article provided that EDUCATION POLICY ANALYSIS ARCHIVES is credited and copies are not sold.

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Educational Standards and the Problem of Error Noel Wilson School of Education The Flinders University of South Australia Abstract This study is about the categorisation of people in educational settings. It is clearly positioned from the perspective of the person categorised, and is particularly concerned with the violations involved when the error components of such categorisations are made invisible. Such categorisations are important. The study establishes the centrality of the measurement of educational standards to the production and control of the individual in society, and indicates the destabilising effect of doubts about the accuracy of such categorisations. Educational measurement is based on the notion of error, yet both the literature and practice of educational assessment trivialises that error. The study examines in detail how this trivialisation and obfuscation is accomplished. In particular the notion of validity is examined and is seen to be an advocacy for the examiner, for authority. The notion of invalidity has therefore been reconceptualised in a way that enables epistemological and ontological slides, and other contradictions and confusions to be highlighted, so that more genuine estimates of categorisation error might be specified.

Contents Part 1: Positioning Chapter 1: Positioning the study: content and methodology Chapter 2: Positioning the writer: experience Chapter 3: Positioning the writer: philosophy and value Part 2: Context Chapter 4: Power relations Chapter 5: Power relations in educational settings Chapter 6: Standards, myth and ideology Part 3: Tools of analysis Chapter 7: Four frames of reference Chapter 8: Equity, frames and hierarchy Chapter 9: Instrumentation Chapter 10: Comparability Chapter 11: Rank orders and standards Chapter 12: An inquiry into quality Part 4: Error analysed Chapter 13: Four faces of error Chapter 14: What do tests measure? Chapter 15: The psychometric fudge Chapter 16: Validity and reliability Part 5: Synthesis Chapter 17: Error and the reconceptualising of invalidity Part 6: Application Chapter 18: Competencies, the great pretender Chapter 19: National tests and university grades Part 7: Concluding statement Chapter 20: Out of the fog References       Acknowledgments I wish to acknowledge the help of staff and students at the Flinders Institiute for the Study of Teaching for their help, support, encouragement, stimulation and companionship over the past three years. In particular I want to acknowledge the support of my supervisor, John Smyth, for his courage for accepting me as a student in the first place, for his clear and incisive help when I asked for it, and sometimes when I didn't, and most importantly for showing me that there are still persons working in hierarchical systems who have been able to maintain their integrity in their search for truth and justice.     About the Author Noel Wilson is an ex-teacher, researcher, writer who has now officially retired and lives in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. He still writes stories and novels which search in vain for publishers. He is deliighted that his mind works better now at seventy than it did at forty. Every now and then he has a little foray back into the educational field. He is a long odds optimist because he believes that sooner or later schools will get better. And he'd be pleased to engage in dialogue about this thesis. For more specifics about the author, read Chapter 2. He can be reached at noelwilson26@hotmail.com.

Copyright 1998 by the Education Policy Analysis Archives The World Wide Web address for the Education Policy Analysis Archives is http://olam.ed.asu.edu/epaa General questions about appropriateness of topics or particular articles may be addressed to the Editor, Gene V Glass, glass@asu.edu or reach him at College of Education, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2411. (602-965-2692). The Book Review Editor is Walter E. Shepherd: shepherd@asu.edu . The Commentary Editor is Casey D. Cobb: casey@olam.ed.asu.edu . EPAA Editorial Board Michael W. Apple University of Wisconsin Greg Camilli Rutgers University John Covaleskie Northern Michigan University Andrew Coulson a_coulson@msn.com Alan Davis University of Colorado, Denver Sherman Dorn University of South Florida Mark E. Fetler California Commission on Teacher Credentialing Richard Garlikov hmwkhelp@scott.net Thomas F. Green Syracuse University Alison I. Griffith York University Arlen Gullickson Western Michigan University Ernest R. House University of Colorado Aimee Howley Marshall University Craig B. Howley Appalachia Educational Laboratory William Hunter University of Calgary Richard M. Jaeger University of North Carolina--Greensboro Daniel Kallós Umeå University Benjamin Levin University of Manitoba Thomas Mauhs-Pugh Green Mountain College Dewayne Matthews Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education William McInerney Purdue University Mary P. McKeown Arizona Board of Regents Les McLean University of Toronto Susan Bobbitt Nolen University of Washington Anne L. Pemberton apembert@pen.k12.va.us Hugh G. Petrie SUNY Buffalo Richard C. Richardson Arizona State University Anthony G. Rud Jr. Purdue University Dennis Sayers University of California at Davis Jay D. Scribner University of Texas at Austin Michael Scriven scriven@aol.com Robert E. Stake University of Illinois--UC Robert Stonehill U.S. Department of Education Robert T. Stout Arizona State University    archives   |   abstracts   |   editors   |   board   |   submit   |   comment   |   subscribe   |   search