Pamela A. Moss (EDT), Diana C. Pullin (EDT), James Paul Gee (EDT), Edward H. Haertel (EDT), Lauren Jones Young (EDT) Assessment, Equity, and Opportunity to Learn

Annotation

Providing all students with a fair opportunity to learn (OTL) is perhaps the most pressing issue facing U.S. education. Moving beyond conventional notions of OTL - as access to content, often content tested; access to resources; or access to instructional processes - the authors reconceptualize OTL in terms of interaction among learners and elements of their learning environments. Drawing on socio-cultural, sociological, psychometric, and legal perspectives, this book provides historical critique, theory and principles, and concrete examples of practice through which learning, teaching, and assessment can be re-envisioned to support fair OTL for all students. It offers educators, researchers, and policy analysts new to socio-cultural perspectives an engaging introduction to fresh ideas for conceptualizing, enhancing, and assessing OTL; encourages those who already draw on socio-cultural resources to focus attention on OTL and assessment; and nurtures collaboration among members of discourse communities who have rarely engaged one another's work.