Two recent posts by Andrew Ho spurred my thinking about Technical Advisory Committees (TACs); specifically, the role that the committees and their members play in our field. Perhaps even more important than their role as advisors, problem solvers, sounding boards, psychometric therapists, and human guardrails, TAC members are storytellers, passing on through oral tradition the key tenets of our field.
Tag Archives: Assessment
Putting Our Understanding of Assessment to the Test
Are the words test and assessment interchangeable, comparable, synonyms? Seems like a rather innocuous question. My take on it last week, however, hit that blogging sweet spot between striking a chord and striking a nerve. When that happens there’s only one thing for a self-respecting blogger to do, double down, add a bit of meat to the bone, and tackle the topic again.
Strengthening Our Links
I have little doubt that the future of standards-based assessment is going to be much more complex, multi-dimensional, and well, messy than the testing situations with which we are familiar and comfortable. That likely means we are going to have to lean more heavily on those other forms of linking educational assessments that don’t fit under that category of equating. As we are revising the Standards, now might be a good time to consider what linking might look like as we shift our attention from testing to student assessment.
Embrace the Absurd 