by Vicki Davis, New York Times
Adaptive learning’s greatest potential may be adaptive testing, which we barely have at all. How many questions does it take to determine that a child doesn’t know decimals? Probably just two or three. At that point, a computer could start going “down” to see if a child knows fractions. If a child is reading below grade level, then test him on grade level. If he can’t read it, he can’t answer the questions at all and the entire reading section is pointless. If a child is reading below grade level, and his test is on grade level, then if he can’t read the test, he won’t be able to answer the questions and the entire reading section is pointless. Paper and pencil can’t adapt. Adaptive testing is really about personalizing the knowledge of the student. It is about understanding the individual student. If we can understand enough individual students and aggregate the data, then a school can create a plan to help those students progress and move ahead.
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