Nine Shift outlines 21st Century Testing for Test Publishers

 In a major keynote address before the Association for Test Publishers annual conference, Nine Shift co-author Wm. Draves outlined the future of testing in the 21^st century.

   Testing will become even more important in this century than in the last one, he noted.

 But the current system of testing is obsolete, meant to prepare students for the factory rather than knowledge work.

 A few big tests given infrequently will be replaced by testing that:

1. Replaces the subjective and inaccurate judgments of      individual teachers;
2. Measures learning and knowledge at the unit and subunit      levels for each course;
3. Are taken frequently, usually about once a week;
4. Measures knowledge in thousands of subjects with thousands      of different tests;
5. Provides choice in tests based on student gender, age,      ethnicity, learning style, neurological abilities, and other learning      differences.

 As a result, there will be thousands of different tests, almost all of them administered online, that respond to individual student testing styles.