Charlie DePascale

Join me and Susan Lyons for an engaging discussion on my new book, Fundamentals and Flaws of Standards-Based Testing. Together, we will explore key lessons from my three decades in large-scale state testing and what they mean for the future of educational testing.

Register here: bit.ly/43zZJue

Innovative or In Over Our Heads Why is innovating in educational assessment so difficult? Is there an invisible string, a common thread, connecting the chain of so-called innovations that have either never produced fruit, died on…

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Publication Day!
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Approaching The Limit of Equating State Tests Since my last post, several people have asked what I meant by my claim that virtually every decision related to the operation of state testing programs since 1990 has made equating more difficult. …

We've been pushing boundaries for years, but how close are we to reaching the limit of the utility of our current approach to equating state tests?

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A Commitment To Communicate Andrew Ho, in his NCME presidential address, defended his use of metrics such as weeks, months, and “years of learning” citing what he dubbed as “the accuracy-engagement tradeoff” while asking “Can…

@andrewdeanho.bsky.social challenged us to find a way to be both accurate and engaging in the way that we communicate about tests and test scores. I'm willing to give it a go while taking a closer look at his "accuracy - engagement tradeoff."

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Nothing Is Certain Except Tests and Taxes Happy Tax Day!  April 15. That one day each year that Americans are focused collectively on a massive, state-run, data collection enterprise. Seems like the perfect time to reflect on that other st…

The sooner that we start treating state testing like the data collection activity that it is and not as an anachronistic measurement exercise in self-abuse, the better off we'll be.

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What Do We Want From AI? In this week’s behind the scenes look at how Charlie’s mind works, we consider the question what is it that we want from the use of AI technology to support educational assessment and a…

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Are Personalization and Generalization Compatible? At the risk of overgeneralizing, I am beginning to think that unless we are very careful the current emphasis on personalization is likely to have a negative effect on generalization – long a goal …

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Running In Circles, Chasing Our Tales What is our story? What is it that we hope to accomplish with assessment and accountability? What makes instruction or schools effective? Why do we have such a difficult time answering fundamental …

What is our story? What is it that we hope to accomplish with assessment and accountability? What makes instruction or schools effective? Why do we have such a difficult time answering fundamental questions and crafting a compelling narrative?

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It’s Socioeconomic Status, Stupid I thought that I was done writing about the 2024 NAEP results. I had nothing to add to all of the thoughtful recommendations for improving student achievement. But then after spending an afternoon …

charliedepascale.blog/2025/02/18/i...

What Is The State’s Role In High School Graduation? With its MCAS graduation requirement repealed, Massachusetts faces the task of determining the proper balance between the state and local districts in setting graduation requirements and certifying…

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misReading Our Mathematics Problem All too often we consider test results separately by content area. We’ve started to think of English language arts and literacy skills as interdisciplinary, but until I started thinking about the 2…

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Education is a Matter of the Heart On January 31st, we celebrate the feast day of St. John Bosco, whose words, Remember, Education is a Matter of the Heart, are a credo of educators around the world. Don Bosco, as he was known, was …

On the feast of St. John Bosco, while we are searching for solutions to dismal test scores, sharing a post first published in 2023.

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Are We Dumber Or Just Different? In a preemptive shot ahead of the 2024 NAEP results we were told that Americans have been getting dumber.  Perhaps, but I’m not sure that’s a conclusion we can reach based on an average scaled scor…

charliedepascale.blog/2025/01/28/a...

NAEP, Why Must You Vex Me So? We are one week away from NAEP Day and the release of the 2024 NAEP Reading and Mathematics results! It’s a day portrayed as our Super Bowl, Christmas morning, and release of the Orange Crop report…

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Sometimes the majority of studies in a field can point in one direction and yet the studies can be similarly flawed. That's what Doug Fuchs at Vanderbilt argues in a forthcoming article in the Journal of Learning Disabilities about the evidence for special ed inclusion. 🧵 (1/8)

Ultraprocessed Test Scores – Just How Bad Are They? The New York Times Well newsletter kicked off 2025 with a series on ultraprocessed foods; addressing not only the dangers they pose, but also increasing awareness of their ubiquitousness, explainin…

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A Year To Embrace The Absurd Happy New Year! As 2025 begins, I take a look back at 2024 as the year in which my blog took on a life of its own, fulfilling its destiny to Embrace The Absurd. And I make the bold prediction that …

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My 12 Memories of Christmas As time goes by, certain memories of Christmases past become stronger than others.  Most are filled with family, food, music, and fun; but a few other things manage to creep in as well.  On Christm…

Posts of Christmas Past – Merry Christmas

In my first Christmas post from 2017, I recall my top 12 Memories of Christmas.

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Special prize to the first person to correctly identify the inspirations for the totally fictitious spirits of assessment past, present, and future: The opportunity to be featured or the promise you’ll never be mentioned in a 2025 blog post. Winner’s choice.

A Christmas Carol (Testing Version) State testing was dying; to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The actions, or more aptly put, the inactions taken by the assessment community over the years had signed the death wa…

Posts of Christmas Past – Day 7

On Christmas Eve, my 2022 assessment-themed retelling of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Like state testing, it’s longer than it should be, but as long as it needs to be.

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Maybe It’s Time for a Diorama Back in my youth, when it was fashionable, if insensitive, to celebrate Christmas unabashedly in public elementary schools, a good part of the curriculum and instruction after Thanksgiving was devo…

Posts of Christmas Past – Day 6

In this 2021 post, I recounted how that mother of all interdisciplinary performance tasks, the Christmas Diorama, helped deepen cultural understanding and also revealed common ground. Maybe, in 2025, we need more dioramas.

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A Testing Time for All of Us ‘Tis another year of testing, and all through the landEv’ry creature is stirring, it’s quite out of hand;The mockings they’re flung with nary a care,Of whether they’re valid, or whether they’re fai…

Posts of Christmas Past – Day 5

In 2021’s Christmas verse, A Testing Time For All Of Us, I said some of the quiet parts out loud, for after all, that’s who I am, that’s why I’m here.

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My Assessment Christmas List My Christmas offering to you this year is my vision for the components of the oft-mentioned, but never seen balanced assessment system. Something tangible for all of us to believe in before we are …

Posts of Christmas Past – Day 4

Last Christmas, I offered up my vision for the components of the oft-mentioned, but never seen balanced assessment system in My Assessment Christmas List. Can you hear the bell?

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Yes, Virginia VIRGINIA, your friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see on cable news and read on social media platforms. They think that…

Posts of Christmas Past – Day 3

Everyone says, "If you see it in Charlie’s blog it’s true.”

In “Yes, Virginia” from 2021 I reassure Virginia and other states that their so-called friends are wrong. There is, indeed, great value in state testing.

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A Letter to Santa Dear Santa, I am the next generation of large-scale assessment and I am 4 1/2 years old.  I have been very good this year. At least I have tried very hard to be good.  I have been reliable and fair…

Posts of Christmas Past – Day 2

In this 2018 post, A Letter to Santa, a young next generation test asks for Santa’s help as it struggles to find its place in the large-scale assessment world.

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How the Grinch Stole Testing Everyone in the state house likes State Tests a lot, But to the west at the uni, the Grinch he did not! The Grinch hated State Tests! The whole testing season! Now, please don’t ask why. To ask wou…

Posts of Christmas Past

I’m counting down the week before Christmas by reposting my Christmas-themed posts from 2017-2023. First up is a little Christmas verse from 2020, one of my most viewed posts of all time. With apologies to Dr. Suess.
Merry Christmas.

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Calculus in High School – It Doesn’t Add Up Each year, I make a list of possible topics to address in the blog. Each year, the absurdity of top high school students with zero interest in mathematics sitting through calculus makes the list, b…

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Through the Looking Glass on Educational Assessment and What I Found There While writing about large-scale assessment over the past month, the lyrics to Grace Slick’s White Rabbit grew louder and louder in the back of my head. I’m not certain, but it’s probably not a good…

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The Fallout & The Future of State Testing As state officials in Massachusetts struggle to deal with the fallout surround the end of the MCAS graduation requirement and the rest of us try to envision the future of state testing, it’s critic…

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