NATD NEWS

NATD Is ‘NET Working

Steve Henry, Topeka (KS) Public Schools & Joe O'Reilly, Mesa (AZ) Public Schools

Over the past year Internet use by schools and NATD members has exploded. As more and more NATD members come on line the possibilities for sharing information and becoming a closer "virtual community" of colleagues has become intriguing.

To help NATD members get more out of the ‘Net and to get immediate access to NATD materials Steve Henry and Joe O’Reilly have worked together to put NATD on line. The NATD home page can be accessed at

http://www.cjnetworks.com/~steveh/index.html

The NATD Homepage has:

The 1994 & amp amp amp amp amp 1995 Annual Proceedings
Recent newsletters
Sample district assessment policies and procedures
A Membership Directory
A membership application
The NATD Constitution
A list of officers
A description of NATD
Links to internet resources on K-12 assessment, curricular content standards, ERIC system resources, government resources, regional laboratories, professional organizations related to assessment, and guides for grant seekers.

The current NATD home page is really a "first draft" that can be improved with your input. In fact, creating and maintaining this home page is a lot like making Stone Soup (if you don’t know that story ask a primary school teacher!). To be any good for all of us, each member of the NATD community will have to share their information with the whole group.

Right now we need two types of "ingredients." We need you to share any appropriate links that would be useful to have on the NATD homepage. Second, we need copies of your district’s policies and regulations on assessment. That we can share. Please send materials to: Steve Henry, 624 SW 24th St, Topeka, KS 66611 or steveh@cjnetworks.com or call (913) 233.0313 x 239). See you in cyberspace!

Is There Life After The Dinner Party For NATD?

Guy Glidden, Wichita (KS) Public Schools

At a recent AERA Conference, a long time NATD stalwart mused that our organization was in danger of becoming one of America's foremost dinner societies. True, the speaker may have been slightly "lubricated" at the time and, as those who had attended these dinners know, NATD dinners are very pleasant experiences! Still, NATD does have a life after the dinner party. I would like to inform you of three ongoing activities which are adding value to NATD and to let you know what you can to do to support the continuation of these activities.

NATD has provided nineteen separate publications to members since 1985. Thanks to Peter Wolmut, Joe O'Reilly and the Mesa Public Schools, copies of a number of these publications are still available for distribution to members and for purchase by others. Soon, it is expected that the information about NATD publications will be available on the Internet. Pass this information on to others!

Net surfers can find NATD on the Internet! For those who want to know more, read "NATD is `NET Working," look up the NATD home page or plan to attend the Joint NATD/DRE meeting in New York on Monday, April 8.

Thanks to the efforts of Steve Henry and Joe O'Reilly, solutions to many of the technical issues have been identified, but a number of questions about our effective use of this resource remain. Call, write, fax, send e-mail or come to the joint meeting and offer your ideas.

Thanks to the hard work and creativity of Joe Hansen and an ad-hoc NATD committee, the "Guiding Principles for Performance Assessments" was presented at the NATD Symposium in 1994. This document provided a reminder that a code must be provided for the special needs of performance assessment Many believe that NATD should take action in support of the "Guiding Principles." An abbreviated copy of the "Guiding Principles" is enclosed (see p.6). The NATD Board is considering adopting it as an official NATD document. Please send me or other Board members your comments and suggestions.

Publication, Internet Access and "Guiding Principles" happen because our colleagues care and use NATD as a vehicle to support our profession. These concerns and activities will keep NATD alive and well as an organization. Keep up the good work and, by the way, don't forget the NATD Dinner!

NATD Symposium

NATD presents an annual symposium as part of the NCME meeting. This year the symposium will be held on Wednesday, April 10th at 12:25 in Carnegie 1, 3rd Floor, Sheraton.

The theme of this year’s symposium is Current Issues in Test Administration. The presenters are:

Current Issues in Test Administration, Karen Banks ¨
Teacher and Test Administrator Guidelines For The New Frontier, Paul LeMahieu ¨
Successful Efforts to Improve Test Administration Practices, Lorna Earl, Kevin Matter ¨
Policies and Standards: Their Role and Revision, Marty Ward ¨
Dealing With Irregularities When You Find Them, Guy Glidden

NATD Activities At NCME/AERA

Don’t miss the following NATD activities at NCME/AERA:

NATD/DRE (Directors of Research and Evaluation) joint meeting; Monday 8:00 ¨
NATD Breakfast, Tues 7:30, Whitney East, Sheraton ¨
NATD Symposium. Wednesday, 12:25, Carnegie 1, Sheraton

Highlights of the AERA Division H Program

Joe Hansen, Colorado Springs Public Schools

Many of the papers presented at AERA are of interest to NATD members. To help you plan your time at the upcoming conference in New York we have highlighted below the sessions that are most likely to be of interest to NATD members. Unfortunately the rooms were not available at the time we went to press.

SESSION TITLE

1.02 Minimum Competency Test Policies: What Do National Survey Data Reveal About Their Effects on Student Achievement, Student Retention and Teacher Attitudes? Jay Heubert, Chair; Walt Haney, Asa Hilliard & Aline Sayer, Discussants; M 12.

10.08 Developing and Implementing Defensible, Consequence Bearing Assessment and Accountability Systems in "Down-sized" Education Agencies. Doris Redfield, Chair; Cheryl Tibbals & Ramsey Selden, Discussants; Tu 8:15.

10.22 Impact of State and Federal Student Assessment Legislation on Curriculum, Instruction and Student Learning: The Perspectives from CA, CO, CT, and IL School Districts. Mary Yakimowski, Chair; Steve Henry, Discussant; Tu 8:15.

16.01 Assessment Driven Reform: Tales of the South Pacific. Joe Canaty, Chair; Ernie House, Discussant. Tu 2:15.

23.60 Performance Based Student Assessment; K. Rehage, Chair; Edmund Gordan, Discussant. W 8:15.

34.04 Division H Business Meeting and Panel Discussion on Reinventing School Based Research and Evaluation. Th 7:00

39.05 Using Assessment Data: Practical Issues in States and School Districts. Judy Arter, Chair; Dale Carlson, Discussant; Th 12:25.

41.49 Evaluating State and Local Assessment Systems: High Hopes and High Stakes. Steve Henry, Chair; Tom Haladyna, Discussant; Th 2:15.

48.10 High stakes accountability for schools: Perspectives on Kentucky’s assessment & amp amp amp amp amp accountability program. Susan Fuhrman, Chair; Jim Popham Discussant. F 8:15.

48.12 Results from a Multi-State Collaborative on Assessment: New Approaches to Developing Student Assessments and Measures of Opportunity to Learn. Edward Roeber, Chair; Rolf Blank, Discussant; F 8:15.

50.55 International Patterns of Assessment: Policy Change. George Madeus, Chair; F 10:35

54.15 What can we do to improve? An interactive symposium on factors influencing student assessment results. Russell French, Chair. F 2:15.

New Title I Assessment Regulations

Michael Kean, CTB/McGraw-Hill

The New Law

The Assessment Provisions

In an effort to allow states and local education agencies maximum flexibility to create new assessment systems, a provision in the Improving America's Schools Act exempts "transitional assessment systems" from some of the requirements of the law governing assessment systems. It has been recommended, however, that states and LEAs move to incorporate the provisions required by law for "final" assessment systems as they develop their transitional assessment plans. To begin to meet the law for final assessment systems, state and local transitional assessments should:

Assess the performance of complex skills and challenging subject matter in at least mathematics and reading/language arts and be aligned with the state's content and performance standards in these subjects;

Be administered at least once in each grade grouping during grades 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12;

Be valid, reliable and consistent with nationally recognized technical and professional standards;

Involve multiple measures;

Use up-to-date measures of student performance that assess complex thinking skills and understanding of challenging content;

Provide for participation of all students in the grades being assessed;

Include students who have attended schools in the LEA for a full academic year;

Provide individual student interpretive and descriptive reports; and,
Enable results to be disaggregated within each state, LEA and school.

ADDRESSING THE NEW REQUIREMENTS

Determine what state content standards, state performance standards, and state assessment measures will/may be used by the state office to benchmark the performance of students in the local educational agency and schools.

Begin to identify "additional high-quality student assessments," in addition to the state assessments, which the local educational agency can use to (a) determine the success of children in local schools; and (b) provide information to local teachers, parents, and students on the specific progress being made by individual students.

Begin to identify strategies to provide professional development related to assessments.

For schoolwide programs, begin to plan for a comprehensive needs assessment of the entire school, based on pupil performance information.

For schoolwide and targeted programs, begin to identify measures that ensure that student difficulties are identified on a timely basis and that provide sufficient information on which to base effective [instructional] assistance.

Begin to explore (a) how "the school will provide individual student assessment results, including an interpretation of those results, to the parents of a child who participates in the assessment" and (b) how it will provide "statistically sound disaggregated data" to the public.

Some Final Considerations

Are you using multiple measures?
Are they aligned with state standards?
Are they high quality?
Up to date?
Do they provide coherent information about student attainment?
Include measures of higher order thinking skills?
Are they valid and reliable?
Consistent with nationally recognized technical and professional standards?
Can the results be disaggregated?
And are the disaggregated results statistically sound?
Are you providing individual student interpretive and descriptive reports?
Are you going beyond what the state requires?

Those districts which can respond affirmatively to the above questions, probably already meet the new requirements. Hopefully this article will provide helpful information for those which cannot.

Michael H. Kean, Ph.D. is Vice President for Public and Governmental Affairs at CTB/McGraw-Hill in Monterey, California.

Want To Join NATD?

Just send your name, address, title, affiliation, phone number, fax number and e-mail address to Steve Henry, 6317 SW 32nd Street, Topeka KS 66614. The annual dues are just $20.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS

SELECTING/DEVELOPING APPROPRIATE ASSESSMENTS

Standards

The APA/AERA/NCME Standards and the Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education represent the type of technical standards against which all assessments should be judged.

Technical Rigor

All assessments must meet appropriate standards of technical rigor, which have been clearly defined prior to the development of the assessment.

All assessments used in high stakes decisions must be developed in conjunction with personnel who have demonstrated expertise in psychometrics.

Cost Effectiveness

In making selection decisions about assessments, the quality and utility of the information produced must be weighed against the cost of collecting, interpreting and reporting it, including the time requirements for developers, teachers, administrators and students.

INTERPRETING/USING ASSESSMENT INFORMATION

Multiple Assessments

Multiple measures should always be considered in generating information upon which any type of educational decision is to be made.

Purpose of Assessment

Different assessments are designed for different purposes and should be used only for the purpose(s) for which designed.

If a performance assessment cannot meet desired technical standards, it should not be used to make high-stakes decisions.

STRIVING FOR FAIRNESS

Protection of Students

No harm should accrue to any student or groups of students as the results of administration or subsequent use of the results of any form of assessment.

Equability

Extra care should be taken in the use of assessment results when bias factors affecting students of different race, gender, ethnic and income groups are unknown.

PROVIDING ASSESSMENT INFORMATION

Educational Value

All performance assessments should be designed so that both the administration of the assessment itself and the use of the results of the assessment augment the educational experience of the students.

Annual NATD Breakfast/Business Meeting