FROM THE PRESIDENT:
Peter Wolmut
Multnomah School District
Portland, Oregon
Immediate Past Paul Brown (Indianapolis, IN ) and I attended the NCME Board of Directors meeting, and we are very heartened at their continued warm reception of us and their willingness to help our fledgling NATD organization.
I recognize that many of us may never have been NCME members or, once having been a member, dropped out because of a perception that NCME does not relate to the practitioner. I am certain that you will agree that we cannot practice measurement without keeping up to date on theory while, at the same time, our academic colleagues need to know the practical limitations to the theories they wish to espouse.
NCME has started, if you are not aware of it, a bold attempt to build a resource bank of instructional units for educational measurement. The practitioner response to this has been minimal. Those of us who are concerned about instruction in our field have an opportunity to participate, but we have to be NCME members. So, I urge you to use the form attached to consider starting or reinstating your NCME membership id you aren’t current. And, if you area member, please consider nominating your colleagues to receive membership information.
I am pleased to announce that the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) agreed to underwrite the cost of the NATD Symposia (1985) and also will allow us to advertise its sale in their national publications.
If you have paid your NATD dues, you are receiving with this newsletter a copy of that symposia. If you haven’t paid your dues, won’t you please consider writing that check for $20 payable to NATD and sending it in right now using the form located at the end of the newsletter? Treasurer, Roger Baglin (Rochester, NY) has reported a total of 62 members. We hope to have 144 members this year. As a member, would you please consider inviting other Test Directors from smaller districts in your geographical area to join NATD regardless of district size?
Best wishes to your for the happiest holidays. 1985!
SUMMARY OF MEETING WITH NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR MEASRUEMENT IN EDUCATION (NCME)
Peter Wolmut, NATD President, and Paul F. Brown, NATD Immediate Past President, attended the NCME Board meeting at NCME’s invitation. This invitation is an example of NCME’s intent to establish a closer affiliation with NATD. Paul Brown reports the following major conclusions reached at the meeting:
1. There is a symbiotic relationship between NCME and NATD.
2. NATD will publish the symposia papers form the 1985 meeting in Chicago.
(Enclosed if you have paid your dues)
A. the NCME Board voted to reallocate the monies allocated for the distribution of the NATD Newsletter to NCME members to the printing of symposia papers to be distributed to NATD members.
B. The NCME Board voted to advertise the availability of the symposia papers in JEM and EM at not cost to NATD.
C. The symposia papers will be sold to NCME members. Profits from the sale will be turned over to NCME to reimburse the original funding.
3. NATD will serve as a communications liaison between NCME and educational practitioners.
4. NATD will continue to encourage the members to become NCME members.
5. NATD will continue its efforts to allocate time for NATD symposia at the annual meeting.
6. Bill Mehrens, NCME Board President, established an ad hoc committee to look at the NCME structure for a place for NATD within NCME. It was suggested that the Division model be reviewed rather that the Special Interest Group (SIG) model. Carol Robinson and Dean Nafziger were continued in their appointments to the ad hoc committee. (Carol Robinson is on the NCME Board and is an active member of NATD.)
7. A definite plan for an affiliation between the two organizations
still needs to be worked out.
1986 NATD ANNAUL MEETING PROGRAM PLANNING UNDERWAY
Janie Hall, (Oklahoma City, OK) NATD Program Chair and President Elect has been working on the NATD annual meeting program. Two NATD symposia are scheduled for the NCME program:
Taming the Rasch Tiger – Dean Forbes, (Portland, OR) Chairman. This is to be a very practical approach intended for the less sophisticated audience than this topic usually addresses.
Legitimate Ways to Prepare Students for Testing – Paul Brown, Chairman. This is in response to increased concerns over inappropriate means of preparing students.
Be sure to mark your calendars April 17-19, 1986, for San Francisco.
Another advantage of being a dues paying member will be an invitation to
our annual dinner and our second annual breakfast.
PROMOTING APPROPRIATE USE OF TEST SCORE INFORMATION
A topic of continuing concern to our membership has been the seeming ease with which the public media use test scores to tell them all they feel they “need to know” about schools. (Some of our professional colleagues of a group of Lansing School District teachers who were appointed by their teacher organization to look into testing issues, the president of that organization and the superintendent of schools co-authored an editorial “Point of View” which was published in the Lansing State Journal. This is an idea that you might try as testing directors who constantly walk the fine line between colleagues, parents and community to get too carried away by test scores. The “Point of View column” is attached.
ANNOUNCEMENTS/ACTIVITIES
Bill Myers of Broward County Schools in Florida is retiring at the end of December. Bill has been with NATD since it’s very beginning. We wish him all the best.
Carol Perlman (Chicago, IL), NATD Board member has been busy developing a constitution for NATD. Carol writes, “It amazed me that the Founding Fathers were able to write the U.S. Constitution without a word processor.”
The editor thanks Board member Mike Strozeski (Garland, TX) for his help in mailing the newsletter.
If you haven’t yet paid NATD dues, the form attached will help speed up the process. If you’re looking for a 1085 tax deduction, NATD qualifies!
Newsletter items, ideas? Send to Grace Iverson, Research and Evaluation Services, Room 220, 500 West Lenawee, Lansing, MI 48933.
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