Charlie DePascale

We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby!

It’s Saturday morning. The weekend lies before me. We might take the yacht up the river and allow ourselves to be enraptured by the foliage as it envelops us, or head over to the club for some golf, tennis, or one of the other myriad activities that well-to-do white folks engage in before ski season.Continue reading “We’ve Come A Long Way, Baby!”

Render Unto Caesar What Is Caesar’s

How do you innovate in large-scale state testing while continuing to meet federal assessment and accountability requirements? That, essentially, was the question addressed by the Center for Assessment team and state leaders in the final session of the Center’s virtual Reidy Interactive Lecture Series (RILS). Specifically, the session featured interviews with leaders in states currentlyContinue reading “Render Unto Caesar What Is Caesar’s”

Stuck In The Middle With You

Clowns to the left of me! Jokers to the right! Here I am stuck in the middle with you. Read the headlines, listen to podcasts, or chat in line while waiting to show your vaccine card and you might come away with the impression that everything in education revolves around assessment. The root of everythingContinue reading “Stuck In The Middle With You”

On a Whim and a Prayer

You win a multi-year contract for a new, innovative state assessment program. You spend the next six months staffing up, getting the project infrastructure in place, and working with the state to begin the initial design and development process. A new governor takes office and the assessment program and your contract are canceled immediately. MuchContinue reading “On a Whim and a Prayer”

Another Term Bites The Dust

Florida Man Steals $33,000 Worth of Rare Coins, Cashes Them in for $29.30 Florida Man Fire Bombs Garage That Impounded His Car, Hits His Own Vehicle Florida Man Bastardizes The Term Progress Monitoring We have come to expect, even look forward to, the zany “news” stories that begin with the two-word phrase, “Florida Man.” AtContinue reading “Another Term Bites The Dust”

Ready for RILS!

On Wednesday, I will be presenting at the opening session of the Center for Assessment’s 2021 Reidy Interactive Lecture Series, RILS. My presentation, A Brief History of Innovation: Bursting the Bubble, and the focus of this year’s conference on Design Innovation feel particularly appropriate for the annual conference named in honor of Ed Reidy. ForContinue reading “Ready for RILS!”

Do You Love Your Assessment?

As we mark the start of a new school year, the Jewish new year, and a new year of educational assessment, I ask: Do you love your assessment program? If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from watching too many Hallmark movies this summer, it’s that you need to have that special connection, a spark,Continue reading “Do You Love Your Assessment?”

Before Taylor There Was Barry

As you all know all too well, I am a fan of Taylor Swift. I have been hooked since the fall of 2006 after listening to her eponymous initial CD on repeat while driving home to Maine from a conference in Philadelphia. At that point, however, I had nearly half a century of music underContinue reading “Before Taylor There Was Barry”

Ed Reform – The Song That Doesn’t End

This is the song that doesn’t end Yes, it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it Not knowing what it was. And they’ll continue singing it forever just because [repeat ad infinitum] Well, folks weren’t too receptive of my attempt to invoke Friedrich Nietzsche in a recent post on Education ReformContinue reading “Ed Reform – The Song That Doesn’t End”

A Changing Nation, A Changing Framework

The US Census and NAEP, two of my favorite topics to write about, have been in the news recently because of changes. Last week, data from the 2020 Census was released summarizing changes to the racial/ethnic makeup of the United States across the last several Census counts. Earlier this month, NAEP also made news, albeitContinue reading “A Changing Nation, A Changing Framework”