What gets taught and how it gets measured.
9 topics · 9 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment
Paul Black & Dylan Wiliam · 1998
Argues that frequent, actionable feedback given to students during learning rather than after it produces some of the largest achievement gains found…
+3 more at this level
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
High Stakes: Testing for Tracking, Promotion, and Graduation
National Research Council · 1999
Warns that single test scores are being used for high-stakes decisions no single test was validated to support, and that the stakes themselves change…
+2 more at this level
Primary sources and full treatments.
The Curriculum
John Franklin Bobbitt · 1918
Argues schools should design their curriculum backward from the specific adult activities society needs, founding curriculum-making as a field of…
+1 more at this level
9 works
Paul Black & Dylan Wiliam
Argues that frequent, actionable feedback given to students during learning rather than after it produces some of the largest achievement gains found anywhere in education research.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Daniel T. Willingham
Argues critical thinking is not a general skill that transfers across subjects but is inseparable from deep factual knowledge of the specific domain being reasoned about.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Jeffrey Schinske & Kimberly Tanner
Reviews a century of grading research to argue that conventional grades are an unreliable, often demotivating measure of learning, and surveys alternative grading schemes with better evidence behind them.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Linda J. Button
Walks a curriculum developer through defining curriculum, choosing a design model such as backward design, building units, and adapting them, treating curriculum-making as a practical craft rather than a theory to admire.
link checked 17 Sept 2026National Research Council
Warns that single test scores are being used for high-stakes decisions no single test was validated to support, and that the stakes themselves change what the score measures.
link checked 17 Sept 2026National Research Council
Argues that most classroom and standardised tests rest on an outdated model of learning, and lays out what a test would need to measure to validly capture how students actually reason.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Aurora Institute
Defines competency-based education by operating principles such as advancement upon demonstrated mastery rather than seat time, and argues most self-described programmes meet only some of them.
link checked 17 Sept 2026John Franklin Bobbitt
Argues schools should design their curriculum backward from the specific adult activities society needs, founding curriculum-making as a field of scientific study in its own right.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Randall Collins
Argues rising credential requirements track the competition among status groups for advantage rather than any rising technical skill demand from jobs.
link checked 17 Sept 2026