March 6, 2014  Ready, Fire, Aim: New SAT will be validated,
eventually  Yesterday, David Coleman of the College Board
announced a new SAT that will go into use in early 2016. Some of
the ideas sound pretty good, some not so hot, but my big
question is: Is Coleman just making this up as he goes along? Or
have they actually tested these planned changes and found they
work as hoped?  The usual practice with the SAT is to slip
experimental questions into real SATs. The unvalidated new
questions don't count for the students' scores, but ETS checks
to make sure they aren't worse than the old questions. I don't
see much evidence that this has been done with Coleman's reforms
yet.  Ready Aim Fire or Fire Ready Aim?  Research Base  A fuller
review of the evidentiary backbone for the redesigned SAT will
be available on April 16, 2014. ... Many institutions have
devoted considerable resources to developing the skills of
source analysis and evidence use in their students.  Please
refer to research by these leading univer