What happened
Cool Cat Teacher published an Aug. 5, 2026 post and podcast episode in which Vicki Davis interviewed Jennifer Bay-Williams, professor at the University of Louisville, and Gina Kling, assistant professor at Hope College. Bay-Williams said, “Timed tests need to be abandoned,” and argued that speed pressure can make students anxious, push them toward counting strategies, and obscure why errors occur.
Why it matters
For teachers, coaches, and instructional designers, the practical shift is from speed as the task to strategy as the evidence. Kling said that watching children play can provide assessment data. The episode frames games such as Salute, Lucky 13, and Go Fish for 10s as ways to practice facts without timers or racing classmates.
What to do next
Teams could review where timed tests or “Around the World” style activities are still used and compare them with no-timer game routines. The source points to Bay-Williams and Kling’s Math Fact Fluency book and a Kentucky Center for Mathematics companion site with printable materials. Educators should treat the episode as practitioner guidance, not as a new study.
About this briefing
Reviewed by TutorFlow Editorial. We link the primary source, preserve its publication date, and distinguish reported claims from TutorFlow analysis. Our commentary focuses on practical decisions for educators and training teams.
Discussion (0)
Open to everyone