Author Archive for Joanne

This will be on the test - June 9 to June 22

Hot enough for you yet?
Several folks emailed me this Wall Street Journal Op-Ed about the declining use of the SAT for college admissions. Author Naomi Riley correctly points out the distinction between differential group impact and bias, and deftly summarizes the differing attitudes of the test prep giants Kaplan and the Princeton Review. [...]

This will be on the test - June 2-8

Man, is it ever hot here in Philly! And when the weather gets hot, the testing news usually gets cool - there’s rarely a testing-related scandal or uproar when the kids are out of school and away from those dreaded Number 2 pencils. Here’s a roundup of what news there is, though…
Peter Salins of [...]

This will be on the test - May 19 to June 1

Hi ya’ll! Hope everyone had a refreshing Memorial Day holiday last week! Now that schools are letting out and the morning commute is less cluttered with buses, let’s talk about some of the testing-related events from the last two weeks…
The big national news - CNN reports that more colleges are moving towards [...]

This will be on the test, May 12 - 18

This one will be short and sweet, since I’m technically on vacation - visiting friends here in lovely Roanoke, VA.
The Palatine-Schaumburg High School District (Illinois) has suspended the rule that a failing score on the Prairie State Achievement Exam meant a delayed diploma and extra exams.  While the rule was intended to make students take the [...]

This will be on the test - May 5 - 11

Howdy, folks! Hope y’all had a great Mother’s Day! The vice president of ACT has a few words of wisdom for you moms out there with middle-school age kids but no college plans.
In Dade and Broward counties (FL), FCAT writing test scores improved, while the results for the state overall look similar to [...]

This will be on the test - April 28 - May 4

Welcome to the weekly testing roundup!
ACT, Inc reports that the average performance of Latino students on the ACT increased on multiple components of the exam between 2002 and 2006. One theory is that Latino students are now taking more challenging coursework in preparation for college. A small national average rise is also reported.
The [...]

This will be on the test - April 21 - 27

Welcome to this week’s testing roundup!
First, Seattle teacher Carl Chew was suspended for two weeks without pay for refusing to administer the WASL to his students. Although this article doesn’t make clear exactly what he thought was wrong with the test, he is on record as wanting a “kinder, gentler” way to assess students. [...]

This will be on the test: April 14-20

Welcome to this week’s testing roundup! It’s finally spring, which means tests and tulips are all poking their heads above ground. What are schools recommending to help students with the upcoming exams? Breakfast, I can buy. Breathing exercises, yes. But hugs? And more natural lighting?
While elementary school [...]

This will be on the test - April 7 - 13

Welcome back to the weekly testing roundup! For those of you who commented on the previous weeks’ post to ask, “What’s a psychometrician?,” the New York Times has probably the best article about the field to date. I don’t usually think of myself as “obscure, esoteric, and cerebral,” but there you [...]

This will be on the test

Well, hi there! This is Kimberly Swygert, and I’ll be providing a roundup of testing links and commentary every weekend here at Joanne Jacob’s blog.
If you’re unfamiliar with my work, I’m a psychometrician and work in the field of educational testing. I was also an edublogger from 2002 - 2006, and you can [...]




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Archive for Kimberly Swygert.

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