The hope that CAT holds, its champions claim, is a future where the testing process our society seems so drawn to will more accurately assess the width and breadth of a student’s knowledge. By allowing for differences, CAT more clearly reflects the reality of how – in a world of infinite facts – different people can have different knowledge sets and varying thinking structures, and still be accurately judged as competent.
Predictor: Cooper, Carol
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for Wired magazine, Carol Cooper, a writer for The Village Voice, and Perry Halkitis, director of statistics and computer services for the Professional Examination Service, cover the implications of computer-adaptive testing (CAT) and its potential for the future. They write:”CAT proponents insist that adaptive testing isn’t only a method for speedier test tabulation. The hope that CAT holds, its champions claim, is a future where the testing process our society seems so drawn to will more accurately assess the width and breadth of a student’s knowledge. By allowing for differences, CAT more clearly reflects the reality of how – in a world of infinite facts – different people can have different knowledge sets and varying thinking structures, and still be accurately judged as competent.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: E-learning
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: This Test is for You: Standardized Testing is a Communal Rite of Passage. Computer-Adaptive Testing is About to Make Those Rites Very Individual
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.01/adaptive_pr.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney