What to test instead - Ideas - The Boston Globe - 2 views
-
A new wave of test designers believe they can measure creativity, problem solving, and collaboration – and that a smarter exam could change education.
-
Reengineering tests has become a kind of calling for a group of educators and researchers around the country. With millions of dollars of funding from the federal government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as from firms like Cisco Systems, Intel, and Microsoft, they have set about rethinking what a test can do, what it can look like, and what qualities it can assess.
- ...15 more annotations...
-
There are just a lot fewer jobs where you’re not doing information-seeking, interpreting, problem-solving, and communication than in the past.”
-
rafting computer programs that take advantage of so-called stealth assessment, a method of judging test-takers without telling them exactly what’s being judged.
-
When we test, we’re really probing for certain qualities—the particular mix of knowledge and ability—that tell us a student is ready to move ahead, or an employee will be an asset to the firm.
-
Harvard developmental psychologist Howard Gardner participated in an effort to design new kinds of tests in the humanities that could be graded objectively.
-
Ultimately, he found that the nuance required to measure softer skills collided with the demands of standardization.