Dr. John Fremer, NATD contribution to education award winner for 2012, is providing a free online seminar for educators Wednesday at Noon EDT. It will cover some of the same material John shared with the NATD members at our national meeting in Vancouver. The emphasis is on the lessons learned from the Atlanta testing irregularities, managing testing programs, and dealing with the media if there is a problem. Sign up on the Caveon WWW site or sign up at: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/676401152
The National Association of Test Directors thanks the groups and individuals who have sponsored activities at our annual meetings on the new Appreciation page.
The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) have released technology standards to inform potential partners as they plan for instructional technology purchases.
The link below details the basics of the standards and contains links to more detail from each group.
http://www.parcconline.org./instructional-technology-purchases-guidance
Please download your copy of the new NATD Spring 2012 Newsletter now. Information is available on the 2012 Vancouver meeting, NATD/NCME Symposium, NATD candidates for Election to Board Offices, and more. Catch up with NATD News Now!
The Directors of Research and Evaluation (DRE) has made a number of recent updates to the association website. Since many NATD members are also members of DRE you may be interested about some of the recent news about DRE activities at the upcoming Vancouver BC meetings. You are invited by DRE President Donna Snodgrass to visit the new DRE website which is being maintained by NATD member Joe O’Reilly. http://www.redirectors.org/
Joe Willhoft, Executive Director, SMARTER Balanced Consortia and long time NATD member made a well received presentation on the progress of SMARTER Balanced at our 2011 meeting. SMARTER Balanced has put up a new WWW site and Joe has announced that a free monthly newsletter with SMARTER updates is now available. http://www.smarterbalanced.org/2011/02/new-look-for-smarter-balanced/
IES & NCES recently completed a webinar on Testing Integrity. Symposium and PowerPoint Presentations are available online. One of the panels at the symposium was taking a look at our future in a way that will interest NATD members. Wayne Camara, College Board; John Fremer, Caveon; Wes Bruce, IN Dept. of Ed.; and Tony Alpert from SMARTER identified Testing Integrity Practices and Procedures for Online and Computer Based Assessments. Something to take up at the 2012 Vancouver annual meeting. http://ies.ed.gov/whatsnew/conferences/?id=966
If you are interested in keeping up with the developments of the PARCC Consortia, there is now a monthly newsletter available. PARCC will be testing 25 million students in 22 states within a few years and some school districts are already making changes to prepare. Keep up with the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. PARCC
NATD Past President Peter Hendrickson has joined a group at a local university developing an online Masters (or Specialist) program in assessment/measurement. We’re looking for some consensus on the types of knowledge/skills needed for district level work in assessment/measurement.
Please email current school district job descriptions for test directors, directors of research and evaluation, program evaluators or similar positions. It would be helpful if the current student enrollment of your district included.
We would also like to know if you know of any similar online programs for developing assessment/measurement professionals.
Please send your information to Peter Hendrickson, PhD, Redmond, WA p.hendrickson43@gmail.com
NATD members are requested to help. Let Peter know if you would like a summary of his findings.
Using the Publications link from the left side of the page, you will be able to access the PowerPoint presented by Dr. Joe Willhoft during the 2011 NATD Breakfast Presentation during AERA. The presentation was titled An Overview of the Race-to-the-Top Assessment Consortia.