Charlie DePascale

Work the Problem

With the Olympics coming to an end, I began browsing through the rest of the Peacock app and came across the recently added 1995 film, Apollo 13. Since first renting the film at Blockbuster as soon as it went to VHS, I must have watched it two dozen times. For some reason, I feel aContinue reading “Work the Problem”

Parting Thoughts on Tokyo 2020

The medals have been earned and distributed and the flame has been extinguished, bringing an end to the 2020 Summer Olympics – an Olympics, it goes without saying at this point, like no other. Like every Olympics since I began watching the Games in the summer of 1972, however, Tokyo 2020 generated images, impressions, andContinue reading “Parting Thoughts on Tokyo 2020”

Enough Room Now For 49 Stars

You’re a grand old flag You’re a high-flying flag And forever in peace may you wave As the Olympics shift from the pool and the gym to the track, we are probably in a peak period for thinking about the flag. I’ll admit that aside from the Olympics, holidays like Memorial Day and Independence Day,Continue reading “Enough Room Now For 49 Stars”

Tell Me Something I Already Know

Gather round kids. We need to talk. Come on, there’s room for everybody. You three lurking in the back, join us. There are plenty of seats up front. (Sheesh, professors, y’know what I mean). Ahem, the gentleman with the pink tie and jeans in the front row, you can stop looking around the room andContinue reading “Tell Me Something I Already Know”

It Was A Privilege

The focus recently on opportunity-to-learn, equity, access to a high-quality education, etc. makes me think about my father. Today would have been his 89th birthday and his entire life was a testament to the importance of access to a quality education and to making the most of that access when it was presented to you.Continue reading “It Was A Privilege”

We Chose To Go To The Moon

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” President Kennedy, May 25, 1961 On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed and walked on the moon. After rejoining Michael Collins,Continue reading “We Chose To Go To The Moon”

If Only It Were As Simple As Rocket Science

Mark Schneider and Kumar Garg’s recent call for a SpaceX for assessment and the responses to it by Chester Finn and Anne Wicks, prominent among others, highlight the complexities of large-scale testing and the challenges associated with trying to improve K-12 assessment. Sadly, even if our fractured field were somehow able to address the manyContinue reading “If Only It Were As Simple As Rocket Science”

Bored on the Fourth of July

Large-scale state testing is boring. tedious, dull, monotonous, repetitious, repetitive, unimaginative, characterless, colorless, soulless, passionless, spiritless, uninteresting, unexciting, uninspiring, unstimulating, unoriginal, derivative, jejune, nondescript, anemic, sterile, bland, vanilla, wishy-washy, banal, lame, plodding, ponderous, pedestrian, stodgy, dreary, mechanical, stiff, leaden, wooden, mind-numbing, soul-destroying, wearisome, tired, tiring, tiresome, irksome, trying, frustrating, mundane, commonplace, workaday, unremarkable, routine, run-of-the-millContinue reading “Bored on the Fourth of July”

School’s Out for Summer

School’s out for summer School’s out forever School’s been blown to pieces 2020-2021. The school year like no other is complete and the question of the day is whether the pandemic changed school forever. Has the traditional model of public K-12 education that we all know and hold strong feelings about been blown to pieces?Continue reading “School’s Out for Summer”

Do It Anyway

I have discussed re-imagining assessment and offered cautions to the assessment/educational measurement community as we enter the next once-in-a-generation period of re-imagining and reinventing assessment, particularly large-scale testing. In this post, I synthesize those thoughts into a straightforward recommendation to the field: When we truly re-imagine assessment, in virtually all cases, we are doing soContinue reading “Do It Anyway”