Life – Embrace the Absurd

Through These Doors

I have passed through many doors over the course of my sixty-two years. Some, like the doors to Boston Latin School, were opened by a score on a standardized test. My arrival before others, like the doors at Advanced Systems that welcomed me into a career in large-scale testing, can best be described as dumbContinue reading “Through These Doors”

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”

Do You Love Your Assessment?

As we mark the start of a new school year, the Jewish new year, and a new year of educational assessment, I ask: Do you love your assessment program? If there’s one thing that I’ve learned from watching too many Hallmark movies this summer, it’s that you need to have that special connection, a spark,Continue reading “Do You Love Your Assessment?”

Before Taylor There Was Barry

As you all know all too well, I am a fan of Taylor Swift. I have been hooked since the fall of 2006 after listening to her eponymous initial CD on repeat while driving home to Maine from a conference in Philadelphia. At that point, however, I had nearly half a century of music underContinue reading “Before Taylor There Was Barry”

Ed Reform – The Song That Doesn’t End

This is the song that doesn’t end Yes, it goes on and on my friend. Some people started singing it Not knowing what it was. And they’ll continue singing it forever just because [repeat ad infinitum] Well, folks weren’t too receptive of my attempt to invoke Friedrich Nietzsche in a recent post on Education ReformContinue reading “Ed Reform – The Song That Doesn’t End”

A Changing Nation, A Changing Framework

The US Census and NAEP, two of my favorite topics to write about, have been in the news recently because of changes. Last week, data from the 2020 Census was released summarizing changes to the racial/ethnic makeup of the United States across the last several Census counts. Earlier this month, NAEP also made news, albeitContinue reading “A Changing Nation, A Changing Framework”

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”