For those interested in education innovation made possible by technology you must read Bill Tucker’s new report - Beyond the Bubble: Technology and the Future of Student Assessment. Bill is reframing the debate between two key education camps.

Bill’s key idea is that, ultimately, we don’t have to choose between accountability systems and instruction that addresses a broad array of skills and deep content. Because whether you are Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee, or Linda Darling Hammond, you have common ground on one thing. .. our assessments can be radically improved.

Over the last eight years, education took major steps towards holding schools accountable and measuring their progress. But our actual assessments, for the most part, took a few steps back. We automated the most basic forms of assessment, and states stopped experiments in performance-based assessments designed to measure the higher-order thinking our kids need to succeed in the future.

Now that the FEDS, the teachers union, and the governors, ALL agree that we need national standards – this conversation about investing seriously in assessment innovation is extremely timely and relevant. My vote for how to use some of this stimulus!

For more discussion on this issue click here.