Most educators are familiar with at least three different categories of assessments: Formative assessments – which are essentially ”on the fly” assessments that provide a snapshot of where students happen to be with respect to their on-going competence on a subject being assessed; these assessments have been increasingly used over the past two decades; Summative...Read More

In this blog post, I’d like to talk about what they call ‘’value added’’ measures in school reform.  Basically, this means judging teachers according to the standardized test results that their students get over the course of the year.  First, let me say something about the term ‘’value added’’ because at first glance an unassuming...Read More

Think of an assessment in school and very likely you’ll think of a teacher handing out some papers with questions on them, and students providing the answers.  In fact, this scenario represents by far the bulk of assessments that teachers give to students.  But, this type of assessment barely scratches the surface of what is...Read More

Tests have become de regueur in education over the past decade, with so many teachers being assessed on their ability to increase their students’ test scores.  I’ve developed this test (not yet standardized) specifically for teachers (parents can take it too). The objective of this test is to help educators get in touch with their...Read More

I am sickened by a news report from Reuters on the rapid rise in the use of standardized testing at the kindergarten level.  The push for academic accountability in the higher grades has been essentially pushed downwards through the grade levels and now sits like a 10-ton block of steel on what used to be literally a “children’s garden”...Read More