The proceedings of this blog began back in September with an invocation of the metaphor of exorcism. Some might have found that strange, but the comparison seemed apt to this old altar boy because impressions and ideas, objections and observations, frustrations and fancying associated with the world of testing do afflict me like distracting spirits. […]
The Complete Posts
Are Problems With Tests Really Problems With Authority?
An unexpected telephone conversation this morning, on the 27th day of for this blog, exposed me to a loved one who trusts what Joe Rogan and his guests say about the pandemic. In other words, that person believes that those voices speak with authority. To do so requires a corresponding belief that the so-called official […]
The failure to reconcile social learning with competitive testing schemes
Hard to believe that seven years have passed since Alina Von Davier and I with the expert assistance of Sue Borchardt created this brief animated video on collaborative assessment as part of the Pulling to the Edge series to accelerate innovation in educational measurement. Alina offers some glittering insights in this short film such as “We (educational measurement scientists) measure very very well what we […]
Two Stories of Failed Testing — And Teaching
Stories Day 2 is made much easier because two friends shared stories from their own personal histories of testing that allow me to riff off of them. First, my dear friend and former colleague, Vasu Murti related this example: Sharing my testing story while pursuing Bachelors in India vs. Masters in the US. Bachelors: 5-years Naval Architecure B.Tech program (Focus: ship design, construction […]
Claims matter the most for those deemed different
In the first days of this blog, Testing: A Personal History, a reader who is also a friend wrote me this reaction: “ I’ve really enjoyed your writing on testing. I’ve always hated tests, but I think its’s more an issue of what is done with those test results that informed my experience than the […]
Too Early for Apgar
I was born early. My mother, by then familiar with the routine of births via my four older brothers, insisted the nurse admitting her had made a wrong turn in the corridor at Union Hospital in the Bronx; the labor room was in the other direction. But the nurse replied that there was no need […]
Defending Your Writes: Are How-To Books for Authors Hooey?
Short answer: Depends upon what you consider a ‘How-To-Write’ book Yes, my good and faithful readers,’ ‘writes’ is a word; Obsolete in most places admittedly and only used in northeastern Scotland as of 1974, but it’s a real word signifying ‘A written record or work; a book, a letter, a document, etc.’ Even if it […]
01132026 Quote of the Day
“The authentic and pure values — truth, beauty and goodness — in the activity of a human being are the result of one and the same act, a certain application of the full attention to the object.”Simone Weill
FITZGERALD CHANGED HIS MIND ABOUT SECOND ACTS: we all should
HENRY OLIVER’S BOOK TELLS US HOW WE CAN STAGE A SECOND ACT IN OUR OWN LIVES Eventually, this post will get to a strong recommendation for Henry Oliver’s book, but first we have to clean up some Fitzgeraldiana related to second acts. Like many other besotted English majors of my and other generations, F Scott […]
Testing Assumptions: Meritocracy
My dear friend Zeineb Mahzouz sent me an article that drills into a subject that surfaces again and again in my stew of concerns: meritocracy.
TESTING ASSUMPTIONS: NOT BORN YESTERDAY BY HUGO MERCIER
The subtitle of this book is The Science Of Who We Trust And What We Believe, and its purpose is to disabuse us of ideas about how we decide, who we can have faith in, and what we should accept as real. Mercier, research director at the CNRS, Institut Jean Nicod, Paris, is of the […]
Never Can Give Too Many Thanks
ARCHIVIO GBB/Alamy Stock Photo; Getty Images Whether we share his faith or not, the words and actions of Pope Leo gain our attention for their sincerity and strength. While speaking with NBC’s Molly Hunter on Nov. 25, the Chicago native shared what he hopes people remember during the annual holiday: I would encourage all people, […]
Testing Myself
Chasing the Dead Today is Samhain (pronounced “Sow-win) in the old Celtic calendar. The Irish of pre-Christian time — and still these days with New Agers and would be witches and druids — believed that the veil between the living and dead worlds was thinnest at this time. To those who march up dark hills […]
Shame on You, Shame on Me, Shame on Nobody
Part II of The Reconsidering Shame Campaign He that deceives me once, it’s his fault; but if twice, it’s my fault This quote comes from a 1651 book attributed to Anthony Weldon, “The Court and Character of King James”. In this spicy collection of gossip and dissing, the narrator, supposedly Weldon, claimed this saying was […]
Come back, Shame
A Philosophy of Shame by Frederic Gros Matches the Moment — Mostly Growing up in the 1950s, the local NYC area television stations like Channels 9 (WOR) and 11 (WPIX) showed a lot of Westerns. Shane from 1953 proved a favorite for young boys. Bad guys, nice decent father, beautiful mother, gunslinger hero, Shane, hero-worshiping […]
Not The Greatest
What makes a thing or person ‘the greatest’? How did we judge it to be “having the “most significant effects, importance, distinction” over all other similar items? With Muhammad Ali saying he was the greatest the proof was in all those other boxers stretched out on the canvas, but even then my uncles would say […]