teachers – Embrace the Absurd

What Might Have Been

We are now a quarter of the way through the 21st century and about the same length of time into the current era of test-based school accountability. Like most Education Reform initiatives, with NCLB we jumped right in with testing and accountability – proudly flying the plane while we were building it. Except that we never actually get around to rebuilding it. Sure, we update the snacks, swap out seats, and add wi-fi, but the basic public education plane remains the same. What if we tried a different approach. What might have been?

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.

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.