Guest Post: Standardized tests are good…we should listen to what the results are telling us
By: Dale Chu and Chad Aldeman Chad Aldeman is a nationally recognized expert on education policy and my compatriot on the EduProgress: Unpacked blog. There are few people in the education sector as well-respected as Chad. He’s also a friend, and incredibly endearing whenever he laments the plodding pace at which states slow walk their assessment results. Today, […]
Four Texas-sized testing happenings to keep an eye on
By Dale Chu While the education talk in Texas revolves around the expansion of school choice, the goings on in the Lone Star State as it relates to standardized testing, lawmaking, and the strategic use of assessment data have largely flown under the radar. I’d like to call your attention to four items in particular: […]
Bright spots and a missed opportunity in new bipartisan call to action
By: Chad Aldeman, Jocelyn Pickford, and Dale Chu In a refreshing display of collaboration, the Building Bridges initiative recently released a call to action to “quickly and dramatically improve the learning opportunities for today’s students.” They diagnose the problems in a clear but sobering way: The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated a crisis in our education system—with […]
Testing in Missouri: Showing how it’s done or worrisome show?
By Dale Chu In August, the Missouri State Board of Education unanimously approved a waiver request from nineteen districts and one charter school that allows them to pilot a through-year assessment model and to be exempted from certain provisions in the state’s accountability system for three years. The ability to apply for “innovation waivers” in […]
Years late and a dollar short in Vermont
By Dale Chu States are notoriously slow when it comes to releasing annual test results, but the state of Vermont took apathy to new lows a couple of weeks ago when, as part of a Friday news dump, the state finally released its 2022 state assessment results for schools and districts. Some states have already […]
Montana gets the green light from the feds
By Dale Chu Earlier today, the U.S. Department of Education (USED) officially greenlit Montana’s waiver request. This is big news in the world of large-scale testing as, among other things, it allows the state to move forward with its innovative assessment pilot without “double testing” (more on this below) during the upcoming school year. Alert […]
Uncle Sam moves against state assessments
By Dale Chu In the latest episode of never sleep on assessments, the Senate Appropriations committee just passed a funding bill before going on August recess that underscores the deteriorating support for state testing on Capitol Hill. In what could be a harbinger of things to come, the proposal would cut ten millions dollars from […]
Instructional transparency hits a dead end
By Dale Chu One year ago, EdReports and the Center for Assessment announced a joint effort to bring greater transparency to the commercially available, and financially lucrative, interim assessment market. That project recently collapsed when assessment publishers demurred, citing a laundry list of misgivings ranging from timing, capacity, proprietary concerns, and skepticism about the need […]
State tests that are useful for both instruction and accountability: A conversation with New Meridian’s Arthur VanderVeen (Part II)
Arthur VanderVeen is the founder and CEO of New Meridian, an assessment design and development company. Today, it works with over 2,500 districts in five states. Because of New Meridian’s leadership in response to the call for better measures, I wanted to take a closer look under the hood of their efforts. In the second […]
State tests that are useful for both instruction and accountability: A conversation with New Meridian’s Arthur VanderVeen (Part I)
Arthur VanderVeen is the founder and CEO of New Meridian, an assessment design and development company. Today, it works with over 2,500 districts in five states. Because of New Meridian’s leadership in response to the call for better measures, I wanted to take a closer look under the hood of their efforts. In part one […]