Comments on: First Take: $350m Assessment Competition Guidelines http://www.quickanded.com/2009/10/first-take-350m-assessment-competition-guidelines.html The Quick and the Ed is an education blog published by Education Sector, an independent think tank in Washington D.C. The Quick and the Ed offers in-depth analysis on the latest in education policy and research. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:21:50 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.1 hourly 1 By: mosaic lamp http://www.quickanded.com/2009/10/first-take-350m-assessment-competition-guidelines.html/comment-page-1#comment-4011 mosaic lamp Sun, 21 Feb 2010 12:06:53 +0000 http://www.quickanded.com/?p=8233#comment-4011 thank you admin supers thank you admin supers

]]> By: Dick Schutz http://www.quickanded.com/2009/10/first-take-350m-assessment-competition-guidelines.html/comment-page-1#comment-2253 Dick Schutz Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:37:19 +0000 http://www.quickanded.com/?p=8233#comment-2253 Q: "How can we develop assessment systems for the next decade while constrained by the state of the art from 2001 (NCLB)?" A: We can't. But it's a lot worse than that, Bill. The constraints are in test theory that goes back to the early 1900's when psychologists thought in terms of "latent traits." That theory was abandoned long ago by everyone except psychometricians who are applying the theory to try to measure the transparent instructional accomplishments of teaching kids to read and do arithmetic. Today the "big thing" in the business world is "Business Intelligence." From Wikipedia: Business Intelligence (BI) refers to skills, technologies, applications and practices used to help a business acquire a better understanding of its commercial context. Business Intelligence may also refer to the collected information itself. BI technologies provide historical, current, and predictive views of business operations. Common functions of Business Intelligence technologies are reporting, OLAP, analytics, data mining, business performance management, benchmarking, text mining, and predictive analytics. Business Intelligence often aims to support better business decision-making.[1] Thus a BI system can be called a decision support system (DSS). The "skills, technologies, applications and practices" are directly extendable to Educational Intelligence, but they don't start with filling in bubbles or constructing responses in response to artificially contrived items. We're pitching $350 down the drain. That's just a down payment on the billions dedicated to the four propositions of RttT which the National Academy of Sciences has warned are without foundation. http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12780&page=1 Q: “How can we develop assessment systems for the next decade while constrained by the state of the art from 2001 (NCLB)?”

A: We can’t. But it’s a lot worse than that, Bill. The constraints are in test theory that goes back to the early 1900’s when psychologists thought in terms of “latent traits.” That theory was abandoned long ago by everyone except psychometricians who are applying the theory to try to measure the transparent instructional accomplishments of teaching kids to read and do arithmetic.

Today the “big thing” in the business world is “Business Intelligence.”

From Wikipedia:

Business Intelligence (BI) refers to skills, technologies, applications and practices used to help a business acquire a better understanding of its commercial context. Business Intelligence may also refer to the collected information itself.

BI technologies provide historical, current, and predictive views of business operations. Common functions of Business Intelligence technologies are reporting, OLAP, analytics, data mining, business performance management, benchmarking, text mining, and predictive analytics.

Business Intelligence often aims to support better business decision-making.[1] Thus a BI system can be called a decision support system (DSS).

The “skills, technologies, applications and practices” are directly extendable to Educational Intelligence, but they don’t start with filling in bubbles or constructing responses in response to artificially contrived items. We’re pitching $350 down the drain. That’s just a down payment on the billions dedicated to the four propositions of RttT which the National Academy of Sciences has warned are without foundation.

http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12780&page=1

]]> By: john thompson http://www.quickanded.com/2009/10/first-take-350m-assessment-competition-guidelines.html/comment-page-1#comment-2239 john thompson Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:41:08 +0000 http://www.quickanded.com/?p=8233#comment-2239 The world is full of dichomomies that are not false. As much as I learn from your discussions of innovation, I simply can't comprehend how you expect to move forward on innovative assessments while not backing off from data-driven accountability - or at least accountability that looks, sounds, and smells like NCLB-type accountability. The world is full of dichomomies that are not false. As much as I learn from your discussions of innovation, I simply can’t comprehend how you expect to move forward on innovative assessments while not backing off from data-driven accountability – or at least accountability that looks, sounds, and smells like NCLB-type accountability.

]]>