Tuesday, July 11, 2006

CCSSO Session Results

I found this year's CCSSO Large-Scale Assessment Conference particularly useful. I have been a critic of this conference in the past, believing that there were too many people pontificating about "how" assessment should be done without actually having done any themselves. This year, however, the conference was a very good mix of policy/political insight, applied measurement research, program advice, and empirically driven "theoretical" research. In addition, the sessions I attended were standing room only, indicating that some interest was peaked in the attendees. This must have been particularly true given such a nice venue as San Francisco as a distraction.

Don't take my word for it. Look over the papers and presentations posted at the CCSSO website. The sessions I attended or that were reported to be most interesting included: Monday Session 74 - "Using Technology to Create Innovative State Science Assessments: Pilots and Policy"; Monday Session 125 - "Measures of Student Achievement, Vertical Articulation, and the Realities of Large-Scale Assessment"; and Tuesday Session 38 - "What's Next In Online Testing?".

Thanks to CCSSO for posting these papers. This is a service we should all be excited about.

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