Charlie DePascale

New Year’s Resolutions

Charlie DePascale “If the body be feeble, the mind will not be strong. The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and of all the exercises walking is best.” – Thomas Jefferson The third week of 2017 has come to an end, and my New Year’s Resolution to improve my fitness level is off toContinue reading “New Year’s Resolutions”

You Can’t Always Get What You Want – A Blog Year in Review

Charlie DePascale As I look back at the thirteen essays that I posted in 2016, it is clear that the dominant theme of the blog this year was that we need to acknowledge and accept our limitations. Specifically, across the essays there were three messages: As psychometricians, we need to embrace rather than run fromContinue reading “You Can’t Always Get What You Want – A Blog Year in Review”

Growing Pains

Charlie DePascale “To ensure greater flexibility in tracking individual students’ annual progress, growth models provide states with more options for a nuanced accountability system, while adhering to the core principles of No Child Left Behind.” — Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings It all seemed so simple in 2005 when states wanted to include growth inContinue reading “Growing Pains”

A Month of Goodbyes

Every baseball fan knows that October is a month to say goodbye – goodbye to another baseball season, goodbye to summer, and goodbye to another year. This year the Red Sox season ended rather abruptly on Columbus Day as the Sox were swept out of the playoffs by the Cleveland Indians. Whether the season endsContinue reading “A Month of Goodbyes”

And all the teachers are above average –

A case for a norm-referenced criterion Charlie DePascale, June 2014 This brief was written in response to questions about the use of norm-referenced criteria in teacher evaluation systems. Specifically, questions were raised about the fairness of systems in which the bottom ‘x’ percent of teachers were always identified as less effective regardless of their levelContinue reading “And all the teachers are above average –”

Citius, Altius, Fortius

Charlie DePascale We have barely recovered from the withdrawal symptoms that accompany the end of each Olympics games, and suddenly summer is over and another school year is upon us. As our attentions shifts back to designing new and improved school accountability systems under ESSA, this is a perfect time to reflect on lessonsContinue reading “Citius, Altius, Fortius”

One Small Step

Charlie DePascale Forty-seven years ago today, on July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to walk on the surface of the moon. Their successful Apollo XI mission fulfilled the challenge proposed by President John F. Kennedy in a 1961 speech to Congress that “this nation should commit itself to achievingContinue reading “One Small Step”

We hold these truths to be self-evident…

Charlie DePascale (assisted by the words of Thomas Jefferson) We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. When in the course of human events, significant resources are allocated to educationalContinue reading “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”

In the blink of an eye

Charlie DePascale Last month, I attended my 35th college reunion, where my classmates optimistically and encouragingly still were focused on looking forward (who we will be when we grow up and how we will change the world) rather than on looking back. One of the first events I attended at the reunion was a townContinue reading “In the blink of an eye”

Interval Scales, Unicorns, and Non-stick Pans

There are certain things that you hear about for the first time and with all your heart you want them to be real. Although your brain tells you to be skeptical, you desperately want those things to exist and to have the magical powers that people ascribe to them. For me, interval scales, unicorns, andContinue reading “Interval Scales, Unicorns, and Non-stick Pans”