Tests and exams are a source of stress for many students. High school teacher Jacob Wells has found that he can alleviate some of that stress by allowing students to weigh in on when their assessments are scheduled. He describes why this has been helpful and shares some of the parameters that have made it feasible.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) was designed to remedy the wrongs of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Yet Andrew Saultz, Jack Schneider, and Karalyn McGovern explain that, so far, it has failed to fundamentally alter how the federal government interacts with schools. They discuss the need for federal authority over issues of equity in education…

Why school? The 48th Annual PDK Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools included questions about the purpose of schooling, standards, homework, school funding, and parents' relationships with their schools. The 2016 poll, which was conducted by Langer Research Associates, was based on a telephone poll of 1,221 adults during April…

Today's accountability paradigm has led many teachers to take on too much work in the push to raise test scores. Teachers don't need to do more; rather, they need to approach instruction differently. To improve results, teachers must require that students assume more responsibility for their own learning. Three key ways in which students and…

Multitasking impedes learning and performance in the short-term and may affect long-term memory and retention. The implications of these findings make it critical that educators and parents impress upon students the need to focus and reduce extraneous stimuli while studying or reading. Course-based quizzes and tests can be used for more than…

Interim assessments are hot in American schools. Also called benchmark or periodic tests, these assessments are given every four to nine weeks to check on students' progress. Although interim assessments are an important tool for school improvement, they are easy to misuse. In the author's work coaching principals in a number of districts, he has…

Examines six areas of controversy surrounding testing--test validity, the role of affective objectives, criterion-referenced tests, test bias, IQ tests, and the effect of competition. (IRT)

The "instructional sensitivity" of a test represents the degree to which students' performances on that test accurately reflect the quality of the instruction that was provided specifically to promote students' mastery of whatever is being assessed. In other words, an instructionally "sensitive" test would be capable of distinguishing between…

Test scores reflect the unfairness of social and environmental conditions. The remedy is not the elimination of the test or alteration of skills demanded by the school, so that there will be no need for such tests, but the elimination of learning inequalities and social inequalities. (Author)

Rather than showing the growing inadequacy of schools, about half of the Scholastic Aptitude Test score decline is attributed to significant changes in the composition of the test-taking group; about one-fourth of the decline to school-related factors; and one-fourth to broader social factors. (MLF)

Presents a silly test of current and former TV shows. (MD)

Explains how a high school English teacher came to realize the value of having brief quizzes at the beginning of each class session. (IRT)

Discusses written and unwritten tests of teachers and such issues as due process, equal protection, and test validity. (IRT)

The increasing use of test results as a mechanism of educational reform is diminishing local control of schools and changing the curriculum to train students to pass tests rather than to educate students. (MLF)

A review of court decisions about teacher testing programs shows that tests must be equitable and fair, must not be used to discriminate by race or sex, and that adequate notice to teachers is required. (MLF)