Lindquist would have argued that if you want to determine whether third-grade students can manage subtraction with carrying, you give them problems that require subtraction with carrying but that entail as few ancillary skills as possible. You would not embed that skill in complex text, because then a student might fail to solve the problem either for want of these arithmetic skills or because of poor reading, and it would be hard to know which. This principle is still reflected in the design of some tests, but in other cases, reformers and test developers have deliberately moved in the
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