Associate professor quoted in AJC on benefits of smaller tests

Large year-end standardized tests are commonplace in Georgia schools, but that could change in Putnam County, where a series of smaller tests spread throughout the year may soon replace the Georgia Milestones exams.

In an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Laine Bradshaw, an associate professor in the College of Education's department of educational psychology, stated that smaller tests could result in less stress for students and more useful information for teachers in the long run.

"If these local quizzes are allowed to supplant the Milestones, it would mean more questions cumulatively over the year, but fewer at each sitting," she explained. Bradshaw and a team of teachers have been rewriting assessment questions for Putnam County, which started a pilot program this fall to investigate the validity of the results in its assessments for math and reading for third through eighth grade.

Bradshaw's research focuses on developing and improving psychometric methods for educational assessments. Her goal is to help provide students, teachers and researchers with actionable information they need, value and trust.