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.
Tag Archives: learning
Embracing Absurdity In 2025
Thanks to all who joined me in embracing the absurdity of 2025 through my blog, Embrace The Absurd. In this final post of 2025, I recap the most popular posts and issues we discussed in 2025 and offer some words of wisdom (not mine) to guide us into the new year ahead.
Wishing you and yours happiness, health, proficiency, competency, relevance, validity, reliability, fairness, engagement, and purpose in 2026.
Giving Thanks (Testing Version)
Over the weekend, I set out to make a list of the test-related things that I was thankful for this Thanksgiving. That daunting task proved more difficult than I anticipated. The constant attacks on testing have become more subtle and a little more muted, but they persist. Everything about testing seems up in the air, changes in technology happening faster than our ability to process them. Then I remembered that the past 25 years focused on compliance. The chaos itself is something to be thankful for. But let’s dig a little deeper than that.
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 