Education Reform – Embrace the Absurd

Build Back Better: School Accountability

Or Thirteen Thoughts on Making School Accountability Great Again Stop turning to assessment specialists for advice about school accountability Well, if you take my advice seriously this was a pretty short read. If you choose to read on, do so at your own risk. On a good day assessment specialists have a pretty good handleContinue reading “Build Back Better: School Accountability”

Another Nice Mess You’ve Gotten Me Into

Things change. It’s inevitable. Sometimes the changes are big, sudden, and can’t be missed. Sometimes they are much more subtle, occurring gradually over a long period of time. Some changes are deliberately planned, years and “steps” in advance: first we’ll change A, then B, then C. Some changes are the unintended consequence of another change:Continue reading “Another Nice Mess You’ve Gotten Me Into”

The Coleman Continuum

Any serious conversation about school accountability must begin with clearly stating your beliefs about schools and schooling, particularly those related to public schools in the United States and what it is that you think that those schools can accomplish. I place beliefs about schools, schooling, and the role of public schools along what I haveContinue reading “The Coleman Continuum”

How You Doin’?

It’s such a simple question. We ask it all the time. If I had to guess, I would say that these are now the three little words that wife and I share most often. There is no denying, however, that this innocuous little question becomes quite confounding, perhaps even contentious, when directed toward schools andContinue reading “How You Doin’?”

Vive La Variance!

To educate is to change. Instruction and learning are about change. Educational measurement is defined by variance. Literally. The fundamental concepts in the field are expressed in terms of variance. One of the first techniques that we learn as eager young graduate students is analysis of variance. Without variance, our lives as psychometricians, much likeContinue reading “Vive La Variance!”

Adrift at “C” with IRT

For the past three decades we have weathered the storm of test-based accountability in a skiff called IRT. Buttressed only with a few psychometric tools, loosely defined unidimensional latent constructs, and the promise of measurement invariance we have been buffeted by wind and waves, sometimes taking on water, sometimes finding ourselves run aground in shallowContinue reading “Adrift at “C” with IRT”

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”