Published: January 9, 2008

In Einstein’s Lap

Recently, I had an opportunity to sit in an exquisite, historic building in our nation’s capitol and watch brilliant education policy lions argue about a timely and critical issue: measuring student learning. The event, sponsored by National Academy of Sciences “Committee on Incentives and Test-Based Accountability,” was billed as a workshop on multiple measures of student achievement.

The day began with a truly impressive speech by committee chair Michael Hout (UC Berkeley), who spoke on the celebrated intellectual transparency of the National Academy (“Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering and Medicine”) and offered heady remarks on bringing together experts, the finest minds, in an honest search for Truth. Hout also encouraged us to visit the sculpture of Einstein on the NAS grounds—and to sit in Einstein’s lap, if we chose. I sat back and waited to...