There is a common assumption in education that lack of face-to-face instruction during COVID-19 will result in a learning loss when students return to physical classrooms. While some studies reported interesting results on learning loss, more research must be done to inform schooling practices. At a recorded webinar, learning loss was examined by…

In his critique of the Huffman (2014) article, McLean (2016) undertakes an important reflective exercise that is too often missing in the field of second language acquisition and in the social sciences in general: questioning whether the claims made by researchers are warranted by their results. In this article, Jeffrey Huffman says that McLean…

In their article, "Using Learning Progressions to Design Vertical Scales that Support Coherent Inferences about Student Growth," Briggs and Peck (this issue) argue that an important goal of assessment should be "to support coherent and actionable inferences of growth." They suggest that current approaches to test design rely on…

The measurement industry is in crisis. The public outcry against "over testing" and the opt-out movement are symptoms of a larger sociopolitical battle being fought over Common Core, teacher evaluation, federal intrusion, and a host of other issues, but much of the vitriol is directed at the tests and the testing industry. If we, as…

Briggs and Peck [in "Using Learning Progressions to Design Vertical Scales That Support Coherent Inferences about Student Growth"] call for greater care in the conceptualization of the target attributes of students, or "what it is that is growing from grade to grade." In particular, they argue that learning progressions can…

Briggs and Peck make a compelling case for creating new, more intuitive measures of learning, based on creating vertical scales using learning trajectories (LT) in place of "domain sampling." We believe that the importance of creating measurement scales that coordinate recognizable landmarks in learning trajectories with interval scales…

In the past few years, four states have established programs that provide public financial support to students who choose to attend a private school. These programs--a tax-credit-funded scholarship initiative in Florida and voucher programs in Indiana, Louisiana, and Ohio--offer a glimpse of what expansive statewide choice might look like. What…

Briggs and Peck (2015) have written a thought-provoking article on the use of learning progressions in the design of vertical scales that support inferences about student growth. Organized learning models, including learning trajectories, learning progressions, and learning maps have been the subject of research for many years, but more recently…

This webinar described the findings of our literature review on alternative measures of student growth that are used in teacher evaluation. The review focused on two types of alternative growth measures: statistical growth/value-added models and teacher-developed student learning objectives. This Q&A addressed the questions participants had…

The National Urban League president and CEO Marc H. Morial weighs in on what he sees as the need for continued annual assessments of students, rejecting the course of opting out that has taken hold in some places across America. Assessment data provides students with the opportunity to receive personalized supports and necessary interventions to…

The only thing that more testing will tell us is what we already know: The schools that disadvantaged children attend are not being given the supports necessary to produce achievement gains. Students cannot be tested out of poverty, and while NCLB did take us a step forward by requiring schools to produce evidence that students were learning, it…

Located in East Oakland, Bridges Academy serves nearly 430 students, the majority of whom are Spanish speakers. Students who are considered socio-economically disadvantaged comprise 98% of the population and English Learners make up 83%. The school also hosts one of Oakland Unified School District's (OUSD) bilingual programs. In 2016, Bridges…

The authors of the study "The Long-Term Impact of Teachers" claim that their study shows that increases in teacher value-added lead to significant and lasting increases in test scores and significant increases in income that will last throughout adulthood. Instead, I show that these claims are false because they are contradicted by the…

In this article, John Papay argues that teacher evaluation tools should be assessed not only on their ability to measure teacher performance accurately, but also on how well they inform and support ongoing teacher development. He looks at two major approaches to teacher evaluation reform: value-added measures and standards-based evaluations. Papay…

This article is a commentary of a paper by Derek C. Briggs and Frederick A. Peck, "Using Learning Progressions to Design Vertical Scales That Support Coherent Inferences about Student Growth," which describes an elegant potential framework for at least beginning to address three priorities in large-scale assessment that have not been…