Learning Sciences Research Institute > News and Events > Past Speakers > Speaker |
|
To Test or Not to Test: That is NOT the Question! James Pellegrino, Co-director, LSRI (Click name for speaker's biography) In the current climate of educational accountability, members of the K-12 and higher education communities are constantly confronted with issues regarding the fairness, equity, validity, and utility of assessments of student achievement. This includes standardized tests mandated by external agencies as well as the tests educators create and use within their own classrooms. Many argue that current tests are the bane of the educational enterprise whereas others see them as necessary and useful tools to judge our students and the success of our investments in K-16 education. Lost in the morass of rhetoric and arguments about tests and testing are deeper discussions about what constitutes good assessment, the ways it should be designed, and how it might be used properly and profitably to aid the processes of learning and teaching. In this presentation Pellegrino will aim to clarify what contemporary research and theory about knowing and learning bring to the discussion of assessment design and use. This includes consideration of the very nature of assessment and what we should be assessing, as well as the implications for a fundamental shift in arenas ranging from classroom practice to state and national testing policies. To do so he will draw from examples that span K-16, including his current work with the College Board on the redesign of Advanced Placement courses and exams in the sciences. Reception to follow. Free and open to the public.
No Audio File Exists for this speech at this time. No video file exists for this speech at this time. |