What’s Next? It’s a question that has been at the core of criticism of state tests more than a decade and one that is central to current definitions of high-quality, instructionally useful assessment. But if such a fundamental question has been so difficult to answer for so long, perhaps we need to look beyond tests and assessment for both the answer and the source of the problem.
Category Archives: Teaching
Danger! Steep Grades Ahead
A clear sign of the start of a new school year is the uptick in posts about grades and grading. Across platforms, thoughts are being shared on grade inflation, fair and equitable grading, and opinions offered on perennial debates over grading formative work during instruction, retakes, and assigning 0’s. After letting all of these thoughts and words wash over me, I arrived at this conclusion:
Grading is complicated but it is only the tip of the iceberg. If we hope to support assessment in the service of learning, we are going to have to close huge gaps between our relatively straightforward world of psychometrics and large-scale testing and our understanding of the complex world of schools, teachers, and students.
Competencies – I Can See It Now
I have watched approaches like standards-based grading, microcredentialing, and competencies ebb and flow over the past couple of decades, but the slow but steady movement has always been in one direction; that is, from abstract to concrete. Today, as we stand on the cusp of a new era of assessment it seems to me that the journey is nearly complete. Latent traits, once the staple and foundation of educational measurement have been set aside in favor of clearly defined observable skills. On the surface, it may seem like I am making a distinction in search of a difference. However, that distinction may be the crux of the difference between assessment of learning and assessment for or in service of learning. And the implications for measurement, testing, and how we report results are quite real.
Culture > Curriculum > Courses
As I leaf through excited posts and articles about how AI is going to help assess durable skills and bring to life the freshly painted portraits of high school graduates, I start to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach and a tightness in my chest. My fear is that once again we’re going to do this backwards, that is by beginning with assessment. It’s critical, particularly with these the types of skills that are being discussed today that we remember to consider curriculum before assessment and more importantly, culture before curriculum.
Assessment ________ Learning
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.
Book ‘Em, Danno!
One way I that check the “pulse of the nation” on education is though the topics that family members raise with me around the table at holiday gatherings. Last year it was Massachusetts ending the MCAS graduation requirement, before MCAS it was chronic absenteeism and NAEP scores, and before that colleges dropping the SAT and ACT. This year, the topic was books and kids not reading very many of them. So, let’s turn the page on the 2026 blog year by considering books.
Dancing With Stars
Starbucks seems really focused on selling me coffee, iced tea, cake pops, etc.; that is, the Starbucks experience. Can we commit to being that same level of focused, creative, and yes, relentless in figuring out ways to sell the school experience to students.
Entertain, Engage, Educate, Enlighten
My post this week was already going to be about engagement, even before Taylor and Travis shared their exciting news. But not that type of engagement. Stepping back into the classroom, I’ve been more focused “student engagement” the latest in the long line of widely known but recently discovered solutions to cure all that ails public education.
Is Writing The Hill To Die On?
As the dust settles and the smoke clears following the opening forays of artificial intelligence into the world of PK-12 and higher education, the battleground is becoming clear. Writing is the line in the sand that cannot be crossed, the tract of land that must be defended at all costs. But is writing the right battle to fight?
On Our Best Behaviorism
Whenever I see the word “behaviorist” written in a post, article, or even a chapter I co-authored, I can feel the derision and condescension being expressed. But much like the ongoing debate about validity I wonder whether we are missing the forest for the trees when we focus too much on the role of behaviorism v. cognitive science in instruction and student learning.
