The National Academies, Board on Testing and Assessment and The National Academy of Education BEST PRACTICES FOR STATE ASSESSMENT SYSTEMS Workshop 1 Agenda December 10-11, 2009 Washington, DC
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10
9:15 am	Welcome
VIDEO	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
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
9:45	Overview of Current Assessment Practices
VIDEO	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	Paper		Presentation
10:15	Changes in Assessments and Assessment Systems Over the Past Decade
VIDEO	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			Presentation
10:45	Synthesis of Key Ideas
VIDEO	Discussant: Joan Herman, CRESST
11:15	Focused Discussion
VIDEO	Moderators lead focused discussion with presenters and audience members
11:30	Working Lunch
Session II. Changing the Status Quo Moderators: Joan Herman & Rebecca Maynard
12:15 pm	Developing standards that lead to better instruction and learning
VIDEO	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	Paper		Presentation
1:00	Developing assessment tasks that lead to better instruction and learning
VIDEO	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 ways to ensure that assessments measure higher-order, critical thinking skills using a variety of item types.
	Presenter: Mark Wilson, University of California, Berkeley			Presentation
1:45	Technical Challenges of Implementing Innovative Assessments
VIDEO	This session will explore the technical challenges associated with developing more innovative assessment tasks that measure challenging content and skills, tradeoffs associated with 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			Presentation
2:30	Break
2:45	Synthesis of Key Ideas
VIDEO	Discussant: Scott Marion, NCIEA
3:15	Focused Discussion
VIDEO	Moderators lead focused discussion with presenters and audience members
Session III. What is the Status of Innovative Assessment? Moderators: Diana Pullin & Mark Wilson
3:45	Lessons from the Past and Current Efforts
VIDEO	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		Paper	Presentation
4:30	Focused Discussion
VIDEO	Moderators lead focused discussion with presenters and audience members
5:00	Adjourn Day 1
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11
Session III. What is the Status of Innovative Assessment? (Cont.) Moderators: Diana Pullin & Mark Wilson
8:30 am	Panel Discussion: Political Considerations
VIDEO	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)	Paper		Presentation
	Brian Gong (KIRIS)			Presentation
	Dirk Mattson (Minnesota)			Presentation
9:30	Synthesis of Key Ideas
VIDEO	Discussant: Lorraine McDonnell, University of California, Santa Barbara
10:00	Focused Discussion
VIDEO	Moderators lead focused discussion with presenters and audience members
10:30	Break
Session IV. Exploring the Opportunities Moderators: Rebecca Maynard & Dirk Mattson
10:45	What Opportunities Does the Common Standards Movement Offer for Improving Assessment?
VIDEO	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 (NECAP))
	Presenter: Laurie Wise, HumRRO	Paper		Presentation
11:30	Working Lunch
12:30 pm	Using Common Standards to Enable Cross-State Comparisons
VIDEO	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			Presentation
1:15	Synthesis of Key Ideas
VIDEO	Discussant: Rebecca Zwick, ETS and the University of California, Santa Barbara	Paper		Presentation
1:45	Focused Discussion
VIDEO	Moderators lead focused discussion with presenters and audience members
2:00	Break
Session V. Setting Research Priorities Moderators: Diana Pullin & Scott Marion
2:30	Research Priorities
VIDEO	The U.S. Department of Education has set aside $350M 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			Presentation
3:00	Responses
VIDEO	Discussants: Laurie Wise, HumRRO; Joan Herman, CRESST; Rebecca Maynard, University of Pennsylvania
3:45	Focused Discussion
VIDEO	Moderators lead focused discussion with presenters and audience members
4:15	Closing Remarks
	Diana Pullin, Chair
4:30	Adjourn Workshop