It all started at UC Berkeley in 1998...
As a graduate student in developmental psychology, Dr. Dawson was shocked by the the pumped-up learning standards, greater focus on preparing students for college, and high-stakes testing associated with emerging educational initiatives like the infamous No Child Left Behind. It seemed clear that the correctness-focused tests being created to hold schools and teachers “accountable” would narrow the curriculum and drive teaching—especially in disadvantaged schools—toward the memorization of facts, vocabulary, definitions, and procedures, and away from practices that foster deep understanding and skill. Dawson was further concerned that these initiatives would damage children's minds, produce mental health problems, alienate students, and foster widespread distrust of authority figures.
Recognizing that governments and parents—the people who fund education—would always want a way to determine how well children are learning, Dawson set out to create a radically different testing technology—one intended to drive the kind of teaching that increases engagement while continuously building skills for thinking and learning.
The result of these efforts is a new approach to testing and a set of learning tools that keep learning fun while supporting robust mental development.
Our nonprofit mission serves K-12 learners, but we've also been serving adult learners since 2002 when we began developing the LDMA (Lectical Leadership Decision-Making Assessment) for the US Federal government.