Charlie DePascale

25% More

There’s only so many wings you can pile on your plate at the Super Bowl party. There’s only so much trash you can squeeze into each $2 trash bag from the transfer station after the party. There’s only so much you can fit into a school year. We need to make choices.

Call Off the Recovery Effort

When the results of NAEP testing underway now are released next year, at least as important as actual student performance will be the way that those results are framed. My initial plea for something other than the recovery of learning lost to the pandemic.

Let’s Do Lunch

Of the many, many things that I learned from Rich Hill, first at Advanced Systems and later at the Center for Assessment, the most important may have been this: Take a break for lunch.

The Content of Their Character

We have reached the point where MLK Day may be the least controversial of all of the federal holidays. I wouldn’t have predicted that back in 1981, and I’ll take it as a positive sign. Even if there is still much more work to be done.

The Year Is The Only Thing That’s New

It’s a new year and we have resolved to make it a good one. But what is really “new” about the new year, and what can we learn from the New Year’s Resolution process to make better use of large-scale assessment results.

My Assessment Christmas List

My Christmas offering to you this year is my vision for the components of the oft-mentioned, but never seen balanced assessment system. Something tangible for all of us to believe in before we are no longer able to hear the bell. Merry Christmas!

State Testing: Next Steps

We have asked and answered the big questions. We know the task that’s in front of us. As this year comes to an end and a new one is about to begin, we can continue to take baby steps toward the future of state testing or …

State Testing: Finding a Better Way

Having focused in previous posts on what we need from state testing and why we do testing the way that we do, it’s time to turn our attention this week to finding a better way to do this thing we do.

What Do We Want From State Testing?

If there’s one thing the last 25 years have taught us, it’s that you can’t always get what you want from state testing. As the Stones said, however, if you try sometimes, well, you’ll find you get what you need. Let’s give it a try.

The First Thanksgiving – Myths & “Myths”

For years, the story of the “First Thanksgiving” was used to support a particular narrative. Reframing American history, however, doesn’t mean that there are not important lessons to be learned from the simple story of that gathering in the fall of 1621.