San Francisco Highlights
The national Association of Test Directors (NATD) held its annual meeting on Saturday, April 19 in the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. The meeting was held in conjunction with the national meetings of the American Educational Research Association (AREA) and the National Council on Measurement in Eduation (NCME). Formal actions included approval of the April 3, 1985 annual meeting minutes, approval of the financial report with amendments, and approval of the NSTD Constitution with amendments.
President Peter Wolmut reported that the informal affiliation between NATD and NCME is counting in a positive manner. He also reported that a joint committee has been formed between NATD and DRE (Directors of Research and Evaluation) to study the national test initiative that is being supported by the Chief State School Officers (CSSO). A proposed position concerning national testing will be one outcome of the study group.
New Officers for 1986-87 are;
President – Janie Hall, Oklahoma City, OK (Replacing Peter Wolmut)
Vice President – Mike Strozeski, Garland, TX (Replacing Janie Hall)
Past President – Peter Wolmut, Portland, OR (Replacing Paul Brown)
Treasurer – Jean Jolly, Palm Beach county, FL (Replacing Roger Baglin)
Secretary – Tommy Hall, Houston, TX (Replacing Grace Iverson)
New Board members for 1986-87 are;
Roger Baglin, Rochester, NY (Replacing Len Granick)
Grace Iverson, Lansing, MI (Replacing Mike Strozeski)
At the conclusion of the meeting, President Wolmut turned the presidency
officially over to Janie Hall. President Hall’s plans for the coming
year follow.
REPORT FROM PRESIDENT JANIE HALL
The theme song of the National Association of Test Directors might well be I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends. We have had a great deal of help from many friends over the years:
B.E. Bergerson of Personnel Press first got a group together to discuss common problems.
Riverside Publishing Company picked up the tradition from “Bergie”, Jules Grosswald and Peter Wolmut took responsibility for bringing some semplice of order to those informal meetings.
The Association of American Publishers brought test directors and publishers together to look for ways to achieve high quality norming samples without overtaxing our students.
I think few of us realized how those meetings were going to change the course of NATD. It was as we worked out what was to become The Guidelines and Principles for National Test Norming Samples that we began to see that we had to become an organization. To Paul Brown, our first formally elected president, fell the task of molding this collection of free spirits into a working unit. NCME gave help which included time on their program and a place to hold our meetings. Science Research Associates provided a way for us to do some advance organizing for our meetings. And finally, Peter Womult took on the task of establishing …a financial base sound enough to allow us to move our programs forward. (Womult, 1986) Pete has done his job so successfully that within a year of establishing a dues system, our membership is back up to what it was when membership was free. In this day of tight money, that tells me that what NATD is doing is useful.
In the coming years I would like us to even more helpful to our members
and friends.
I see this happening in several ways. First, I see NATD enlarging
its function as a support group for its members. To facilitate this
I propose the publishing of a Yearbook. Funds are currently available
for this from anonymous friends. This Yearbook would consist of a
listing of members along with their title, address, phone number.
Each listing would include an abstract 9&5to 150 words) describing
measurement areas in which the member has particular concern and/or special
expertise.
Depending on space, we might consider including summary demographics, such as which states have a competency testing program and what tests are used, etc. The goal is for our members to have at their disposal, all year (not just at rational meeting), an awareness of others who are working on, or interested in, the same issues as they.
I have asked four of our members to serve as area representatives who will be responsible for pulling together the Yearbook material from their area. I will compile the information with an expected publication deadline of October.
Second, I suggest that we include, as members, test directors form settings other than large city and county public school systems. Although those systems will, hopefully, always make up the backbone of our organization, we should consider the mutual benefit of including others whose primary responsibility is testing but who function in somewhat different settings. This will be our first year to have a membership chariman.
A third way in which we can function as a helping group is to assist non-members whose primary assignment is not testing but who have that responsibility thrust upon them. This might include teachers and counselors in smaller districts. By making ourselves available, both collectively and individually, we can be of considerable assistance to the educational community, and we can exercise influence on the quality of local testing programs.
And finally, I have one more suggestion about how we can be helpful. This one stems from the fact that we are an organization of practitioners, and as such, changes in the political climate, which surrounds us in time to affect their direction.
How about a committee of climate watchers? Their job will be to keep aware of the emerging issues and to suggest ways that we as test directors can act (as opposed to react) to influence them.
We have a busy productive year ahead of us. I predict that we
will do much better than”get by” with a little help from our friends.
RESOURCES
The May, 1986 How to Evaluate Education Programs contains an article
titled “How to Make Student Achievement Comparisons Among States.”
Authored by Conrad G. Katzenmeyer, senior research associate in the Office
for Educational research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education,
a review of national testing options is given with a discussion of the
pros and cons of each method. The Newsletter can be obtained by writing
to Capitol Publications, Inc. 1300 North 17th Street, P.O. Box 9672,
Arlington, VA, 22209
NATD CONGRATULATES
Jules Grosswald recently retired from the Philadelphia Public Schools. Jules was one of the organizers of NATD. Jules is consulting and is developing a private counseling practice.
Roger Baglin (Rochester, NY) won an AERA Division H award for the category called “Best School or School District Statistical Profile”.
Robert Ziomek (Brownsville, TX) also won an AERA Division H award for the category called “Advances in Methodology”.
NATD THANKS
Many thanks form NATD to Riverside Publishing Company and Science Research
Associates for the elegant dinner and breakfast provided to NATD members.
OTHER STUFF
As of March, 1986, NATD had 144 members with new members joining almost daily.
NATD began the year with a debit of $32.00 and ended with a carry-over of $1,600.00
Pass the word along to your colleagues about this viable organization. Membership form is attached.
An updated membership list will be coming out soon.
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