What's the difference between a norm-referenced and a criterion-referenced test? If newspapers say only 50% of kids are reading at grade level, should you be worried? When does getting kids ready to take tests cross the line into cheating?

In today's educational climate, teachers have a lot of questions about where standards and tests come from, what they mean, and how they're used. Sandra Wilde packs this handy reference guide with clear and concise explanations of this convoluted, and increasingly important, world. She not only defines technical terms, she makes sense of the ethics and politics involved.

What's more, Wilde provides the ammunition to challenge policies relating to testing and standards that aren't benefiting students. In a series of mini-essays on relevant topics, she gives you the information you need to:

• see if your state's standards and tests have been well developed
• know how passing scores for state tests are set
• determine whether schools are using unethical practices to raise test scores
• check whether your local newspaper describes test results accurately.

Dip into Wilde's brief encyclopedia to demystify the lingo. Or read it straight through as a quick primer on the concepts and issues of testing and standards. Then understand why every educator and policy maker should be aware of their impact in real classrooms.

Sandra Wilde, Ph.D., is the author of numerous Heinemann professional books including Quantity & Quality and Funner Grammar as well as the firsthand classroom resource Strategic Spelling. She is widely recognized for her expertise in developmental spelling and her advocacy of holistic approaches to spelling and phonics. She is Professor of Curriculum and Teaching at Hunter College, City University of New York. She is best known for her work in invented spelling, phonics and miscue analysis. She specializes in showing teachers how kids' invented spellings and miscues can help us work with them in more sophisticated and learner-centered ways. Looking at what kids do as they read and write is at the heart of Sandra's presentations and workshops. She can do lively keynote presentations that highlight the interesting things that we can learn by paying close attention to students' invented spellings and miscues, as well as workshops of varying lengths that focus on student-centered teaching of spelling and phonics. She has recently begun offering workshops that focus on understanding students' miscues as a guide to appropriate instruction, particularly for struggling readers. She lives in New York City. Sandra is quoted in this Huffington Post article about trends in grammar instruction in the Common Core era.