Assessment – Page 8 – Embrace the Absurd

NCME & Me

As I read the tweets and posts from the NCME community assembled in Chicago this week, I find myself back here in Maine reminiscing about my five conference trips to Chicago since 1991. There are the memories of discovering deep dish pizza, walking in fascination along the wall of stones (fragments of history) at theContinue reading “NCME & Me”

Pushing Through on Through-Year

Through-year assessment. Is it an idea whose time has come or a bad idea that just won’t go away? Is through-year assessment the best thing since sliced bread? Or is through-year assessment simply the back-up quarterback; that is, the next best thing that isn’t what we’re doing now. As any football fan knows, unless yourContinue reading “Pushing Through on Through-Year”

A Case for Classifications

The question stuck in my craw this week is how we (i.e., the large-scale testing community) came to be so dependent on scaled scores, or scale scores if you prefer, as the primary method of reporting state test results. Test that are supposed to be providing criterion-referenced information. I could hold Andrew Ho, and DanContinue reading “A Case for Classifications”

Do I See What You See?

Perhaps it’s due to a disconnect between what’s assessed on the state test and what goes on in the school. Perhaps it’s just perspective. One group looking down at the state test results and the other group looking up. Whatever the reason, more than two decades into the NCLB era of assessment and accountability, itContinue reading “Do I See What You See?”

Revise or Reimagine the Joint Standards

Nothing lasts forever. All good things must come to an end. To everything there is a season. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Whenever it’s time to revise or repair something, you have to ask yourself whether a revision is the best option or is it time for something more radical. Do I fix the transmissionContinue reading “Revise or Reimagine the Joint Standards”

Into The Great Known

In my last post, Right Before Our Very Eyes, I called on assessment specialists to focus their efforts on understanding and explaining observed scores. This post, which could have had the same title, is a reminder that, in general, educational assessment involves dealing with known quantities. The purpose of 99.9% of educational assessment is not toContinue reading “Into The Great Known”

Right Before Our Very Eyes

It’s time for educational measurement, or at least assessment specialists, to say goodbye to latent traits, hidden constructs, and true scores. They are useful concepts, in theory. In practice, well, they really haven’t helped us provide useful information to stakeholders, and that is the name of the game. Admit it, you were a bit skepticalContinue reading “Right Before Our Very Eyes”

A Christmas Carol (Testing Version)

State testing was dying; to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The actions, or more aptly put, the inactions taken by the assessment community over the years had signed the death warrant. It seemed clear that all that remained was to wait for the bell to toll. Times up. Pencils down. ItContinue reading “A Christmas Carol (Testing Version)”

Gender – Our Achilles Heel

For as long as I can remember, gender has been a sore spot in large-scale assessment. Often overshadowed in the media and federal regulations by race and ethnicity, it is a difference in test results by gender that can cause the most trouble for those of us in testing. The problem, you see, is thatContinue reading “Gender – Our Achilles Heel”

Choosing Our Battles Wisely

We appear to be in a lull in the storm that has been battering large-scale assessment, in general, and state assessment programs, in particular, for the last several years. Knowing that the next band of thunderstorms is on the horizon, this may be a good time to assess our situation to determine what it isContinue reading “Choosing Our Battles Wisely”