A friend (thanks B. Brunsman!) sent me this 30 minute interview with Dr. Lorrie Shepard is an amazing, concise, and clear summary of the current state of large-scale achievement and accountability in the United States. Listen to this whole interview if you’d like a well-researched perspective on:

• the historical origins of current statewide testing and accountability (Dr. Shepard tells the story clearly and fairly, I think)
• impacts of the emphasis on testing and “incentives” on schools (restrictions of curriculum and impact on achievement)
• the fallacy of using statewide testing data to measure “learning loss” because of the pandemic (and clever alternatives to measuring the learning impact of school pandemic closures)
• alternatives to statewide testing policies (her ideas about sampling make a LOT of sense to me)

I am grateful researchers like Dr. Shepard continue to work towards more humane and useful assessment policies. I hope we can get policy-makers to listen.