Experts Discuss Pros, Cons Of Computer-Based Tests

Education Daily (5/14, Brown) reports that stakeholders speaking at an Educational Testing Service K-12 Center symposium last week said that districts are facing "a major shift...in the areas of teaching and learning as preparations are underway to administer technology-enabled tests that will anchor next-generation assessment systems." The article adds that ED Assistant Deputy Secretary of Innovation and Improvement Jim Shelton "opened the discussion during 'What Going Digital Means for the Future of Teaching, Learning and Assessment,' which was keynoted by Tom Vander Ark, the founder of GettingSmart.com. Shelton said that because many ideas in the education sector intended to accelerate academic gains have failed, it's important to focus on inventions and methodologies 'that are now doing better than the status quo, but also those things that have the full potential and probability of going to scale.'"