View Content #10590
| Contentid | 10590 |
|---|---|
| Content Type | 1 |
| Title | Education Department Announces Second Round of Public Meetings Seeking Advice from Experts on Ways to Improve Assessments |
| Body | Press Release: Education Department Announces Second Round of Public Meetings Seeking Advice from Experts on Ways to Improve Assessments The U.S. Department of Education announced on December 28, 2009, that it will hold a second round of public input meetings in the Washington, D.C. metro area to listen to and learn from assessment experts and practitioners. To date, the department has convened seven meetings in Boston, Atlanta and Denver where thirty-seven states joined department leadership and nearly 700 members of the public to hear from assessment experts in general assessment, high school assessment, the role of technology in assessment, assessing students with disabilities, and assessing English language learners. As with the previous meetings, the goals of the upcoming meetings are two-fold: first, to gather technical input to inform the development of a Race to the Top Assessment Competition, and, second, to enable states, who will be the competition applicants, and the public to participate in and learn from these events. “The next generation of assessments will provide information that helps accelerate student learning and improve teachers’ practice,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “Our first set of meetings was extremely helpful in gathering cutting edge expertise on assessment from around the nation and world. We are eager to continue learning from the field on an important range of next topics and questions. We are eager to employ that knowledge in supporting the work that States will do to build the new assessments our country needs to ensure that our students are prepared for success in college and careers.” As announced in advance of the first round of public meetings, Duncan has pledged to reserve up to $350 million to support consortia of states that are working to create new assessments tied to a common set of standards. The grants will be distributed next year through a competitive process. The assessment grants will come from the $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund and will be awarded under a separate program from the larger one designed to support states’ comprehensive efforts to reform education. Over the course of three additional meetings held in January, department officials will continue to solicit input from expert assessment practitioners and researchers about how innovative and effective approaches to the development of the next generation of assessments. The meetings are open to the public. The department is inviting states, in particular, to attend the meetings, and will share on its website both the transcripts of the meetings as well as all written input received. (Past transcripts and written input received to date are available on the department’s web site at http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/resources.html .) The meetings will be held in the Washington, DC metropolitan area on January 13, 14 and 20. Department officials and invited experts will spend a full day on January 13 discussing project and consortium management. The department has invited a panel of experts to join on January 14 for a half-day discussion of procurement in complex cross-state initiatives. Finally, on January 20 department officials and invited experts will spend a full day discussing general assessment issues. Department officials will use the input gathered to design the assessment competition. Consortia of states, who are the applicants for the competition, will use the information to inform their proposed assessment designs. The department plans to publish a notice inviting applications in the spring and will award grants by September 2010. The Department is publishing an official notice about the assessment meetings in the Federal Register. You can read the notice at http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/index.html. |
| Source | NCELA List |
| Inputdate | 2010-01-07 10:19:59 |
| Lastmodifieddate | 2010-01-07 10:19:59 |
| Expdate | 2010-09-30 00:00:00 |
| Publishdate | 2010-01-11 00:00:00 |
| Displaydate | Not set |
| Active | 1 |
| Emailed | 1 |
| Isarchived | 1 |
