Some things bear repeating like this line from a November post on tbhis blog: “Validity is the “cardinal virtue in assessment” noted Bob and two other former colleagues Linda Steinberg, & Russell Almond, in 2003. ” There are some disagreements about validity among psychometricians; some think that the test should be tested for validity, not just its score. Harvey Goldstein articulates the protest well […]
The Complete Posts
When a bad test was good for… me
In yesterday’s post, I asked readers (of whom I am now delighted to say number in the hundreds and not the dozens) whether any of you had ever been involved with a test either as the person giving it or the person taking it where you thought that its score derived from test might not be valid. Still […]
Aiming for Validity
My gratitude swells for the generosity of Marianne Talbot who has commented on each of the January jolt posts thus far. But in an echo of my last post, it’s not just the quantity of her comments but the quality that matters as she offers insights and resources. In a recent comment, Marianne offered this […]
Nobody’s Perfect
I hope that every reader knows the movie Some Like It Hot. But just in case you missed that 1959 classic in which for variety of reasons, here’s a relevant plot twist. Jack Lemmon’s character of Jerry not only has to dress up as a female member of an ‘all girl band’, but also in […]
True Stories, Realities, and Illusions
Over the Christmas week as is our custom, my wife, Marjorie, and I watched several favorite movies. The winner for most viewed film during our more than four decades together has to be The Philadelphia Story even though the story itself contains elements that make us just a little bit more uncomfortable as each year […]
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 […]
If Only the Associated Press Could Call All Our Races: Claims Part II
Did you realize that the Associated Press, which most of us know as AP, called 7000 races on election night in 2020? And that they have a remarkable even extraordinary record for getting every one of them right since the 1930s? NPR, which uses the AP for its own election calls says this is because […]
The Adjustment of Claims Is Not Always About GEICO
Twelve days. Has it really been that long since my last installment in Testing: a Personal History where we talked about constructs? This busy season in the playwrighting dimension of my life got in the way. Genealogy, written with my co-playwright Joe Queenan, opens at that gem of an independent playhouse, Broom Street Theater in […]