Testwise : R&L Education : 9781610480123 : 1610480120 : 16 Jan 2011 : "In a time when the nation is facing the complexities of participatory democracy at every turn, Testwise: Understanding Educational Assessment is a most welcome touchstone. In her focus on historical and cultural contexts as they reveal the origin and development of assessment principles. Nora Vivian Odendahl has given us a stunning volume. Operating with an insider's knowledge of test development, Dr. Odendahl takes us from civil service examinations used during the Han dynasty in China to contemporary theories of cognition used to map the mind. Always and everywhere, she keeps readers firmly grounded in enduring educational issues: tensions between enforcing accountability and promoting opportunity; the requirements of large-scale testing versus the needs of individual students; and the demands of learning as they intersect with the promise of educational equality. A more timely and valuable book cannot be imagined