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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 2010. Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12906.
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Appendix A
Workshop Agenda

Best Practices for State Assessment Systems

Workshop 1

December 10-11, 2009


National Academy of Sciences

2100 C Street, NW

Washington, DC

Auditorium


Thursday, December 10

OPEN

9:15-9:45

Welcome

 

Stuart Elliott, Director, Board on Testing and Assessment

Judith Rizzo, Executive Director and CEO, James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy

 

Overview of Workshop Goals

Diana Pullin, Chair, Committee on Best Practices for State Assessment Systems

 

  • Précis of previous workshop series and report

  • Overview of the goals and plans for the current workshop series

  • Introduction of the idea of innovative assessment

  • Discussion of the current status of the common standards movement

9:45-11:30

Session I. Examining the Status Quo: What Are the Benefits and Limitations of the Current Approaches to Assessment in This Country?

Moderators: Diana Pullin, Dirk Mattson

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 2010. Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12906.
×

 

(9:45-10:15) Overview of Current Assessment Practices

This session will provide a review of the current test-based accountability system, the goals and purposes it has developed to serve, and its strengths and limitations.

Presenter: Peg Goertz, University of Pennsylvania

 

(10:15-10:45) Changes in Assessments and Assessment Systems Over the Past Decade

This session will review the ways assessments and approaches to assessment have changed over the past decade, including changes in item types, uses of local and interim assessments, and advancements in assessment of special populations.

Presenter: Scott Marion, National Center for Improvement of Educational Assessment (NCIEA)

 

(10:45-11:15) Synthesis of Key Ideas

Discussant: Joan Herman, National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, & Student Testing (CRESST)

 

(11:15-11:30) Focused Discussion

Moderators lead focused discussion with presenters and audience members.

11:30-12:15

Working Lunch

12:15-3:45

Session II. Changing the Status Quo

Moderators: Joan Herman, Rebecca Maynard

 

(12:15-1:00) Developing Standards That Lead to Better Instruction and Learning

This session will discuss ways to specify standards so that they (1) more accurately delineate the skills and knowledge to be learned and (2) can be more accurately and readily translated into instruction and assessment. Examples will be drawn from the draft common core standards.

Presenters: Joe Krajcik and Shawn Stevens, University of Michigan

 

(1:00-1:45) Developing Assessment Tasks That Lead to Better Instruction and Learning

This session will explore ways to use more elaborated standards to develop assessment tasks that accurately measure the intended skill and knowledge, with a particular focus on

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 2010. Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12906.
×

 

ways to ensure that assessments measure higher-order, critical thinking skills using a variety of item types.

Presenter: Mark Wilson, University of California, Berkeley

 

(1:45-2:30) Technical Challenges of Implementing Innovative Assessments

This session will explore the technical challenges associated with developing more innovative assessment tasks that measure challenging content and skills, tradeoffs associated with these kinds of assessments/tasks, and ways that the information gathered from innovative assessments might be used to support better decision making about students and instruction.

Presenter: Stephen Lazer, Educational Testing Service

2:30-2:45

Break

2:45-3:15

Synthesis of Key Ideas

Discussant: Scott Marion, NCIEA

3:15-3:45

Focused Discussion

Moderators lead focused discussion with presenters and audience members.

3:45-5:00

Session III.A What Is the Status of Innovative Assessment?

Moderators: Diana Pullin, Mark Wilson

 

(3:45-4:30) Lessons from the Past and Current Efforts

This session will provide an overview of the experiences of pioneers in the area of innovative assessment, such as programs developed for Kentucky (KIRIS), Maryland (MSPAP), Vermont (Portfolio Assessment Program), and California (CLAS performance assessment) which are no longer in operation. Examples from currently operational assessment programs, international assessments, and in fields other than K-12 education will also be discussed.

Presenters: Brian Stecher and Laura Hamilton, RAND

 

(4:30-5:00) Focused Discussion

Moderators lead focused discussion with presenters and audience members.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 2010. Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12906.
×

5:00

Presentation by Lauren Resnick, Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh

5:30

Adjourn Workshop

Reception

6:00

Working Group Dinner (in Lecture Room)

Friday, December 11

OPEN

8:30-10:30

Session III.B What Is the Status of Innovative Assessment?

Moderators: Diana Pullin, Mark Wilson

 

(8:30-9:30) Panel Discussion: Political Considerations

This session will explore the political/practitioner perspective on the pioneer program discussed in Part A. Panelists representing several of the programs will address the following questions:

 

  • What was the motivation for the assessment? Why was it considered? Who wanted it? Who wasn’t in favor of it?

  • What was involved in getting the assessment adopted? What, if any, obstacles were encountered? How were they overcome?

  • What was involved in developing the assessment? What, if any, obstacles were encountered? How were they overcome?

  • What issues were encountered with implementation of the assessment? What, if any, obstacles were encountered? How were they overcome?

  • What were primary reasons for the demise of the program?

 

Panelists: Steve Ferrara (MSPAP), Brian Gong (KIRIS), and Dirk Mattson (Minnesota)

 

(9:30-10:00) Synthesis of Key Ideas

Discussant: Lorraine McDonnell, University of California, Santa Barbara

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 2010. Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12906.
×

 

(10:00-10:30) Focused Discussion

Moderators lead focused discussion with presenters and audience members.

10:30-10:45

Break

10:45-2:15

Session IV. Exploring the Opportunities

Moderators: Rebecca Maynard, Dirk Mattson

 

(10:45-11:30) What Opportunities Does the Common Standards Movement Offer for Improving Assessment?

This session will explore the opportunities the common standards movement might offer for moving to more innovative assessments that assess challenging content and also give more information to teachers and local decision makers. The presentation will address technical issues and potential benefits of collaboration across states, drawing on examples from the experiences of Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Maine (New England Common Assessment Program)

Presenter: Laurie Wise, HumRRO

11:30-12:30

Working Lunch

 

Session IV. Exploring the Opportunities (cont.)

 

(12:30-1:15) Using Common Standards to Enable Cross-State Comparisons

This session will focus on the elements that would need to be in place in order for test results to be compared across states, including issues associated with adding state-specific items. The presentation will address the inferences that policy makers and test users might want to make and what is required to support each kind of inference.

Presenter: Ron Hambleton, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

 

(1:15-1:45) Synthesis of Key Ideas

Discussant: Rebecca Zwick, ETS and University of California, Santa Barbara

 

(1:45-2:15) Focused Discussion

Moderators lead focused discussion with presenters and audience members.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 2010. Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12906.
×

2:15-2:30

Break

2:30-4:00

Session V. Setting Research Priorities

Moderators: Diana Pullin, Scott Marion

 

(2:30-3:00) Research Priorities

The U.S. Department of Education has set aside $350 million for developing tests to measure common standards. This panel will listen to the workshop discussions and consider the implications for research. The presenter and discussants will address the following questions:

 

  • Given the issues raised during the workshop, what are realistic priorities for research?

  • What projects/efforts are most in need of research?

  • How would you proportionally allocate the funding?

 

Presenter: Lorrie Shepard, University of Colorado

 

(3:00-3:45) Responses

Discussants: Laurie Wise, HumRRO; Joan Herman, CRESST; Rebecca Maynard, University of Pennsylvania

 

(3:45-4:15) Focused Discussion

Moderators lead focused discussion with presenters and audience members.

4:15

Closing Remarks, Adjourn

Diana Pullin, Chair

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 2010. Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12906.
×
Page 71
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 2010. Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12906.
×
Page 72
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 2010. Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12906.
×
Page 73
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 2010. Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12906.
×
Page 74
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 2010. Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12906.
×
Page 75
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A: Workshop Agenda." National Research Council. 2010. Best Practices for State Assessment Systems, Part I: Summary of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12906.
×
Page 76
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Educators and policy makers in the United States have relied on tests to measure educational progress for more than 150 years. During the twentieth century, technical advances, such as machines for automatic scoring and computer-based scoring and reporting, have supported states in a growing reliance on standardized tests for statewide accountability.

State assessment data have been cited as evidence for claims about many achievements of public education, and the tests have also been blamed for significant failings. As standards come under new scrutiny, so, too, do the assessments that measure their results. The goal for this workshop, the first of two, was to collect information and perspectives on assessment that could be of use to state officials and others as they review current assessment practices and consider improvements.

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