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component:how.assessment
Creativity and Accountability
Yong Zhao is back in receptive Seattle this week preaching his gospel of edu-innovation. The anti-standards, pro-creativity Zhao is a Chinese-born prof at Michigan State. Here’s his thesis in a nutshell: In my new book Catching Up or Leading the Way, I mostly focus on issues facing…
Belief + Acceleration + Effective Practice = Success
Paul Wezman changed my daughter’s life. He is an extraordinary teacher that in the mid-90’s was making full use of instructional technology. Here’s a note from him about the importance of our perceptions of what kids can do and the importance of effective instruction. He’s a middle school math teacher…
How Students Show What They Know
My wife appreciates psychodrama (today we’ll see another triumphant women in a Nancy Meyer movie). I, on the other hand, enjoy a juicy psychometric-drama. And we have a thriller in the making. A couple agreements in the next few weeks will set the stage for the next decade of testing…
Fixation with Reliability
Compared to other OECD countries the US is fixated on reliability and cost in student assessment. Our friends across the pond value validity more than we do–can you imagine oral exams being proposed in the US? WaPo reviewed Todd Farley’s book My Misadventures in the Standardized Testing Industry…
Markets in everything: Standards & Assessments
Borrowing a phrase from GMU economist/blogger Tyler Cowen, there are markets for (almost) everything. In the case of educational standards and assessments, it may be worth considering a competition of ideas for the most effective way to frame and measure learning goals. I had a discussion about these…
Bill Ayers on teaching
“Education is always and everywhere about opening doors, opening minds, opening possibilities. Education is about opening your eyes and seeing for yourself the world as it really is in all its complexity, and then finding the tools and the strength to participate fully, even to change some of…