Assessment is a Bad Word?

Posted by on Apr 1, 2010

Many teachers in many districts have the same reaction to the word assessment.  Mention it, and you could very well elicit a visual cringe.  That’s interesting. The most oft cited criticism of assessment is that we don’t have time for it.  I don’t really get that. I can’t say it any better than Grant Wiggins […]

Can Standardized Test Data be Formative?

Posted by on Mar 27, 2010

Very often we refer to state standardized testing data as summative.  It is used to determine if a student, and an institution, meet AYP.  We apply the data, much as the somewhat tired analogy goes, as a learning autopsy.  We identify problems and areas of health, and perhaps even the cause of learning death, but […]