Tolerating Approximate Answers about Student Learning

Presented by Derek Briggs at the Oxford University Centre for Educational Assessment on May 24, 2018. The statistician John Tukey once wrote “Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise.” Some...

Standardized Testing & Special Needs

Presented by Derek Briggs at the Chautauqua Education Series on Mar. 18, 2015. There is considerable controversy over the use of standardized tests to assess academic progress of children with special needs. The very act of standardization appears to conflict with the tailoring of a student’s learning goals through an...

An Economist, a Psychometrician, and a Father of a Special Needs Child Walk into a School…

Presented by Derek Briggs at the University of Michigan on Feb. 19, 2013. This lectureship is made possible by a generous endowment from Dr. Frank B. Womer, who served the School of Education as a professor of educational measurement for 30 years. Dr. Womer was staff director of the National...