Toward a Culture of Educational Assessment in Daily Life

Author: Michael Nettles

Consulting Editors: Constance M. Yowell and Lee Shulman

Shulman and Gordon have speculated concerning a future cultural form by which lay persons, as well as professional workers will enjoy reasonably sophisticated understandings of educational assessment data and processes. An example can be seen in colloquial health maintenance practices where lay persons have considerable understanding of the indicators of acceptable and unacceptable indicators of good health and enjoy the ability to self monitor. In this paper the author is asked to make the case for such a cultural form and to specify some of its characteristics.