Post by Eric Tucker

Winning the Wisest Wonk is a celebration of a life devoted to service, decency, and purpose—a huge win for Professor Edmund Gordon and for Assessment in the Service of Learning! Professor Gordon, at 104, just proved the power of wisdom and compassion is infinite—and together our entry won the Wisest Wonk title! This victory honors a civil rights leader, a Head Start co-founder, and now, The Thomas B. Fordham Institute's 2025 Wisest Wonks! Thank you Brandon Wright, Mike Petrilli, Amber Northern, and the whole Fordham Institute team! Our call for "Assessment in the Service of Learning"—championed by the living legend Professor Gordon—officially earned top honors. This is what 80 years of contributing to the struggle for human dignity looks like. The Science of Reading 2.0 just secured validation in a competition focused on advancing science-powered reading improvement. Evidence-based policy prevailed: our entry, rooted in the three-volume Handbook for Assessment in the Service of Learning, made the case for reimagining assessment. The Handbook's body of work puts forward a transformative vision for assessment. Appreciating Professor Edmund Gordon's 80-year legacy is fitting. The greatest honor: a growing movement’s shared vision for Assessment in the Service of Learning is now recognized as relevant for the Science of Reading, and many of the most pressing policy challenges of our day. We set out to honor a conceptual giant and to shape the next 25 years of research and policy – thank you to so many of you who helped make it happen! We appreciate the 48 entries, please check out amazing work from our colleagues. We appreciate those who contributed to the Handbook for Assessment in the Service of Learning series over the last three years and to the Modelling What Matters project. We appreciate the wider family of colleagues, team members, supporters, and leaders who voted for our team. The team at The Study Group is proud to be working to advance the best of AI, assessment, and data practice, technology, and policy and to uncover future design needs and opportunities for educational and workforce systems. Sheryl Gómez, Lauren Cutuli, Ian Boly, Elijah Gordon.   Read more in the article.