Beyond the Scantron
The role of testing dominates many education policy conversations from classroom practice to state accountability systems to college admissions. In this series, the expert voices of parents, educators, researchers, and policy makers discuss how assessments are built, how they are used, how they can be improved, and the critical role they play for students during the pandemic and beyond.
Expert Viewpoints
Book · Sep 23, 2022
A Testing Primer: A Researcher Translates for the Rest of Us
Mark Dynarski, an education advisor to the George W. Bush Institute and founder and president of Pemberton Research, walks through key topics and consideration points in testing.
Sep 30, 2020
The STAAR is Born, Thanks to Teachers
An overview of the process used to build the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam.
Sep 30, 2020
Preparing for 2030 Requires Knowing Whether Students are Ready
Mike Miles, founder and CEO of Third Future Schools, a charter school network in Colorado and Texas, explains the role of testing in preparing students for the year 2030.
Sep 30, 2020
Validity, Reliability, and Feasibility are Key to Developing Quality Tests
Jeffrey Nellhaus, former deputy commissioner of education in Massachusetts, discusses how validity, reliability, and feasibility are central to good testing programs.
Sep 30, 2020
How Teachers Help Texas Create Its State Exams
Cindy Riney, teacher in the Montgomery Independent School District north of Houston, has served on panels that review test questions for the STAAR exams. She discusses how test questions are reviewed, refined, or rejected in Texas — and teachers' role in the process.
Sep 30, 2020
Disruptions Present Opportunities to Do Something New in School Testing
Larry Berger, CEO of Amplify, spoke about the purposes of different assessments, the way textbooks are selected, and how we could use the COVID-19 crisis to think anew about testing students.
Sep 23, 2020
Demystifying Tests for Parents
Bibb Hubbard and Cindi Williams of Learning Heroes discuss the role that quality assessments play in helping parents understand their children’s academic progress.
Sep 23, 2020
High-Quality, Fair Tests Can Help Students with Disabilities
Sheryl Lazarus, director of the National Center on Educational Outcomes at the University of Minnesota, discusses how students with disabilities and English learners need appropriate accommodations for standardized testing.
Sep 23, 2020
Assessments and the Building of Knowledge
John White, former state superintendent of schools in Louisiana, offers advice to educators, policymakers, and parents — and shares his thoughts on innovations in testing.
Sep 23, 2020
Education Reformers: You Need to Do More Than Take a Book Report to a Knife Fight
Keri Rodrigues, cofounder of the National Parents Union, passionately discusses public education and testing from the perspective of a parent.
Sep 15, 2020
Looking Forward: Tests and Equity in Today's Schools
Recommendations for policy makers, district leaders, and educators will help maximize the power of tests to support all children through and beyond this school year.
Sep 15, 2020
We Don’t Need a “Data Vacation” During the Pandemic
Chris Stewart, CEO of brightbeam and a dedicated parent activist, discusses why quality assessments can help parents and teachers grasp the academic needs of their students — particularly students of color.
Sep 15, 2020
The Evolving Lessons of Testing
Scott Marion, executive director of the Center for Assessment, details how new, richer, testing may evolve.
Sep 14, 2020
The Three W's of Testing
Andrew Ho, the Charles William Eliot Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, explains the importance of knowing "who" is making "what" diagnosis to inform "which" decision.