This month, we celebrate golden anniversary of the CCSSO National Conference on Student Assessment (NCSA) and with it, 50 years of innovation in assessment. The theme for the 2021 virtual conference is Re-Imagining Assessment. That theme is particularly well-suited for the annual assessment conference that I remember fondly as large-scale (short for the National Conference onContinue reading “Re-Imagining Assessment at NCSA”
Category Archives: Life
With a Little Help from the Class of ’81
Oh, I get by with a little help from my friendsMm, gonna try with a little help from my friends Forty years ago this week I graduated from college. In many ways, however, this feels more like my 15th reunion than my 40th. Not that I don’t look and feel like it’s been aContinue reading “With a Little Help from the Class of ’81”
Something is Rotten in the State of Testing
To be, or not to be, that is the question: To be, or not to be. To test, or not to test, that is the question. Make no mistake, the current debate about state testing may be framed in terms of the pandemic and the specific context of spring 2021, but it is a much largerContinue reading “Something is Rotten in the State of Testing”
Are You There Data? It’s Me, Charlie
It’s pretty much impossible to engage with any media platform on any topic without someone telling you, “The data speak for themselves!” or perhaps the less pedantic, “The data speaks for itself!” Often, that message is being delivered by a trusted authority like rock star Dr. Fauci (lately, very often). Other times, it may beContinue reading “Are You There Data? It’s Me, Charlie”
I Have Confidence in Me! – Thanks, Mom
I have confidence in sunshineI have confidence in rainI have confidence that spring will come againBesides which you see I have confidence in me I have confidence in confidence aloneBesides which you see I have confidence in me! With the three of us singing these lines from our well-worn The Sound of Music soundtrack album,Continue reading “I Have Confidence in Me! – Thanks, Mom”
Testing-21, Catch-22
As May begins, I feel confident in declaring the end of major combat operations in the war against Spring 2021 State Testing. States are doing what they have decided to do. Parents and students will do what parents and students do. Of course, skirmishes in remote outposts or densely populated strongholds will continue to claimContinue reading “Testing-21, Catch-22”
Where Everybody Knows Your Name
Later this week I will be participating in NEERO 2021 – the 52nd annual conference of the New England Educational Research Organization. This will be my 30th NEERO conference. Starting with the first time I made the trip to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and the Sheraton Harborside Hotel in April 1989, NEERO became a special partContinue reading “Where Everybody Knows Your Name”
Coming Full Circle To The Road Not Taken
It has been a long and winding road that has taken me to this place where I am making presentations and writing about things like pedagogical content knowledge and assessment to inform teaching and learning. Thirty-eight years ago this month I stood figuratively before two roads diverged, sorry that I could not travel both, tryingContinue reading “Coming Full Circle To The Road Not Taken”
Fidem Scit
My unshakable faith in the value of a Boston Latin School education The school that I love has come under attack. As has been the case periodically over the past forty years, the primary issue is admissions testing, specifically concerns about unequal representation and inequities resulting from admissions testing. Added to the mix this timeContinue reading “Fidem Scit”
Morbid Math
“Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty—a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music, yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show.” – Bertrand RussellContinue reading “Morbid Math”
