👋 Welcome to the second issue of The Latest! Thank you so much for your kudos and feedback on last month’s inaugural email. Was this email forwarded to you? Get your own subscription!
This month’s newsletter is 614 words — a 2-3 minute read.
📆 4,000 Weeks
That is about the duration of the average human lifetime — just 4,000 weeks.
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“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” poet Mary Oliver famously asked.
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What wild and precious thing will you do this week? Or next week?
For those of us in education, the end of the spring semester can be difficult — weeks of relentless work and urgent, endless demands — but let’s pinkie swear to find the wild and embrace the precious. ✨
👉 The Main Takeaway: Our Future in Academic Assessment
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Our students are diverse digital natives. We must ensure academic assessments are moving toward the same future they are.
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As I reflect on my 20 years in the field, particularly from a systemic lens, I identified five themes shaping my vision of the future of academic assessment.
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A critical concern: The major disconnect between families and schools. Clear, jargon-free, and transparent communications are essential to eliminate this disconnect.
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What about the assessment of deaf and multilingual learners? Check out Advancing ALTELLA’s expert Q&A with me.
📚 Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law
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Haben Girma’s memoir will always have a place on my bookshelf because it’s an incredible story to read (and re-read).
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An opportunity for innovation is Haben’s empowering definition of disability.
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She pioneered through countless obstacles from icebergs to higher ed and now uses her considerable talents to advocate for people with disabilities.
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And she’s great to follow on Twitter.
🎓 Congratulations to Our Graduates!
To the Class of 2022, I reassure: you got this! You have proven your resilience. Now embrace your purpose, find your network, make your mistakes, and know that you have this community to lean into.
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“What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” That’s what I asked graduates when I delivered the first commencement address in ASL in UT Austin history.
💻 Around the Internet
⚽️ This was a much-needed read: Applying Ted Lasso Management Lessons to Accessibility | Medium
💥 There were several moments in this podcast interview that hit me at my core: Brene Brown and Scott Sonenshein | Dare To Lead
🚫 We all need to work on reducing the damage of ableist language: Why You Need to Stop Using These Words and Phrases | Harvard Business Review
🌟 Join me in celebrating #GlobalAccessibilityAwarenessDay or #GAAD on May 19 to advocate for digital accessibility.
🌀 The Wrap-Up
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Charting a path forward is the 2022 Model State Plan for Vocational Rehabilitation Services for Deaf People — a passion project of mine released in February. It was in the spotlight at a nationwide summit last month.
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Myth-busting with data is not just a favorite flex. It is the title of our AERA presentation, a study we are in the process of submitting for publication.
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Why do we need a new accessibility framework? My co-authors and I explain in a Future Review article about measuring accessibility that the editor called “generative for researchers.”
😎 And Finally…
Nothing like hanging out with your people on a glorious day in San Diego! So fun to watch my incomparable doctoral students, Ryan Mata (left) and Ana Vielma (right), launch at their first AERA annual meeting. Mentoring students is a joy — encouraging them to greater heights, experiencing their amazingness, and feeling so fortunate to work with such exceptional change-makers. Who are your favorite mentors?
[Image description: Three people wearing sunglasses smile happily on a boat. At left is a Latinx man in a grey, long-sleeved shirt with a Longhorn logo and a zipper. At center is a white woman in an olive-green tunic with three buttons. At right is a Latinx woman in a black, short-sleeved shirt. Behind them an American flag waves in the breeze and the shoreline is visible, with palm trees and a red-roofed building.]