The word ‘dialogue’ cops 2,380,000 hits on Google all by itself, which indicates to me that people mean a lot of different things when they use the word… Dialogue. One of the purposes of the blog Testing: a Personal History was to attempt to establish a dialogue about testing. My meaning of dialogue, however, tracks […]
Before he disgraced himself by dating and then marrying the adopted daughter of his previous partner, Woody Allen was an artistic hero of mine. I read all of his stories, listened to the recordings of his standup, and stood online to catch one of the first screenings whenever a new film of his opened. No […]
Yesterday’s post continued the theme of the lack of understanding of validity in both the design of tests at all levels and interpretation of their scores. In service of that argument, I quoted from a chapter by Emily Shaw in the book Measuring Success edited by Jack Buckley, Lynn Letukas, and Ben Wildavsky: “Decades of […]
Double digits now! This is the tenth post of the thirty-one promised January Jolts for Testing: A Personal History. For new readers — and if LinkedIn stats are valid — we have many of those — here is an explanation for why this blog exists: Having been thrust accidentally into the world of testing 20 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
No, this is not a blog post about how to figure out if your electrician has connected your fuses, switches, and circuit breakers in the right way. Although, I recommend that you have one of those done by somebody who actually knows what they’re talking about in that dimension. This post is about the polarity […]