assessment, accountability, and other important stuff
The relationship between assessment and learning is one that we’ve been struggling to understand for as long as I can remember. Before we jump headlong into reimagining assessment, it will be beneficial to clarify what we mean by both terms as well as the relationship(s) between them.
Let’s begin with a simple filling in the blank item: Assessment ______ Learning.
All signs suggest that we might finally be emerging from our decade-long period of malaise regarding large-scale testing. Advances in AI, flexibility from the feds, and new buckets of money are making people giddy. Happy Days Are Here Again! In such heady times, however, it’s critical that we step back and take a sober look at our place in the education world.
I truly enjoyed reading the many posts describing the amazing work showcased at NCME in LA; and the positive, uplifting experience that the conference was for everyone. But in this week’s post I want to acknowledge the contribution of those who take it upon themselves to poke, prod, and noodge at every presentation and in response to every post. It takes a village and they are part of ours.
A bonus blog post in honor of #NCME2026 conference week. Last month I tugged on Superman’s cape when I suggested that preserving the NAEP trend might not be in our best interest. Today, I refresh a presentation from the early days of the CCSS, PARCC, and Smarter Balanced to clarify that reporting a NAEP trend is not the problem. Rather, the problem may be in the way that we in educational measurement and assessment tie trends to fixed achievement standards and scales.
We’ve made it to April!
In the spirit of this season of rebirth and renewal, in this week’s TL: DR blog post I ponder and prophesy on the current state and future of our field.
I wrap up my March series, NAEP by the Numbers, with the number .05 and a discussion of significance and differences. The significance of NAEP lies far beyond score differences within and across years that are statistically significant at the .05 level. Much of what makes NAEP significant is that it is different. Different from state tests. Different from tests administered by schools and districts. It serves a different purpose. A purpose for which it is well-designed. Simply put, NAEP is NAEP.
“All good things must come to an end.” In the third post of my NAEP by the Numbers series, I ponder historically, philosophically, and a little bit technically, on whether that time has come for something that many believe are very good things – the NAEP trend lines.
In the second post of my NAEP by the Numbers series, I reflect on the NAEP 0-500 scales: both the Long Term Trend scale that stretches back to the 1970s and the new scale developed when NAEP began reporting state results some 35 years ago. At times, impressive. Other times frustrating. Love it or hate it, there’s nothing in our field quite like the NAEP scale.
For March, I’m planning a series of posts looking at NAEP by the numbers. The first two numbers are 20 and 10, as in the 20 students performing at the 10th percentile in reading and mathematics in a typical NAEP state sample. We’re all concerned that the bottom has been falling out of NAEP results, but my question is just how well we understand who those 10th percentile students are.
The 10th percentile sitting out there 1.28 sd from the mean is kind of an abstract concept, but a classroom-size sample of 20 kids is something we should be able to wrap our heads around.
Over the weekend, I set out to make a list of the test-related things that I was thankful for this Thanksgiving. That daunting task proved more difficult than I anticipated. The constant attacks on testing have become more subtle and a little more muted, but they persist. Everything about testing seems up in the air, changes in technology happening faster than our ability to process them. Then I remembered that the past 25 years focused on compliance. The chaos itself is something to be thankful for. But let’s dig a little deeper than that.
Embrace the Absurd 