FutureEd Senior Fellow Lynn Olson, a former deputy director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, joins Education Next Editor-in-chief Marty West to discuss The Big Test: The Future of Statewide Standardized Testing. The FutureEd report, co-authored with Craig Jerald, details how standardized testing has come under bipartisan attack, and what will need for change for testing to survive.
While the coronavirus crisis has suspended testing for the 2019-20 school year, Olson says that it could also be an opportunity.
“It could create some real pressure and demand for better, closer-to-instruction diagnostic and classroom assessment, because there’s such a need as we return to school this fall, whatever form that school takes, to to really understand where students are and to help accelerate and support their learning.