Minutes
National Council on Measurement in Education
Board of Directors Meeting
Chicago, Illinois
December 2-3, 2000
PRESENT: John Fremer, President; H.D. Hoover, Vice President; Michael Kolen, Immediate Past President; Mary Lyn Bourque, David Frisbie, LeAnn Gamachee, Suzanne Lane, Catherine Welch, Rebecca Zwick, Directors; William J. Russell, Executive Director; Becky Smerdon, Associate Director
National Council on Measurement in Education
1230 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036-3078
Announcements and Review of the Agenda
President Fremer called the meeting to order and asked if there were any modifications or additions to the agenda.
Approval of the Minutes
Minutes of the August 26-27 Board of Directors Meeting were approved with minor editorial changes.
Dates of Next Meeting
The Board confirmed the dates for the next Board of Directors meetings in Seattle on April 10, and April 13, 2001. Members running for office will be notified of the dates of the meeting as soon as possible.
President’s Report
President Fremer presented his report on NCME activities. He described the interactions with program chairs as working well. He also indicated that he has not done as much as he would like with respect to Standards. He indicated the newsletter note on construct validity had generated a lot of discussion and mentioned different venues at which he discussed the Test Standards (e.g., Forum of Education Evaluation, FERA, CCSSO). The new newsletter contribution will be on high-stakes testing. Additionally, President Fremer discussed membership and how decline in membership poisons the atmosphere—always thinking about cuts. He also stressed the important of clarifying NCME’s place in key events/developments in testing (e.g., high stakes uses).
Finally, President Fremer provided some hindsight observations. He concluded that he should have established a separate email address to deal with inquiries he received as President. In terms of consulting with the Board, President Fremer indicated that he had primarily contacted Past President Michael Kolen. President Fremer indicated that he felt he should be doing more in this regard. He also recommended that future presidents should always send letters to appointees and cc all board members and NCME central office staff.
NCME Response to OCR Guide on the Use of Tests when Making High States Decision for Students
Dr. Lane presented a statement drafted by the Committee on Educational Testing and Policy. Drs. Zwick and Lane discussed some confusing sections in the statement and Dr. Lane agreed to send comments to the Chair of the Committee on Educational Testing and Policy. Board members discussed issuing their own response or teaming with AERA and APA. Dr. Lane recommended asking AERA and APA if they support the NCME response or if they would like to modify it. She volunteered to bring it up at the January 2001 AERA Council meeting. Dr. Russell volunteered to share the next draft of the statement with APA. President Fremer stressed the importance of having a response ready to take advantage of the press coverage.
Annual Meeting
The Board reviewed the highlights of the meeting program. Dr. Zwick indicated that the highlights would appear in EM and an abbreviated version in ER. President Fremer informed the Board that the Program Chairs were planning to draft a handbook for use by future Annual Meeting Program Chairs.
The Board discussed some minor concerns about money (projected deficit) for the NCME Fitness Run/Walk. They discussed contacting other sponsors, but wanted to be careful not to go to sponsors too often. The Board agreed to approve the budget for the event—souvenir bags included.
The Board discussed the professional development and training session at the annual meeting. In particular, Dr. Gamache recommended that the Board think about the audience NCME would like to attract. Dr. Russell recommended that the committee should think beyond the annual meeting and think about groups to target in order to get proposals. President Fremer urged the Board to think about distance learning. He volunteered to ask the committee to think about future possibilities that could be proposed to next year’s Training and Professional Development committee.
Publications Committee Report
Dr. Frisbie reported that the NCME Webmaster has crated a means for systematically updating certain information on the website on an annual basis. The Board discussed a recent complaint by a member about a link on the website. The link was removed and there was a discussion with the member. Dr. Zwick stressed the importance of including a variety of perspectives. Dr. Russell suggested that there should be an editorial policy about content and links on the website. President Fremer recommended that there be an editorial policy and that the publications committee should pull it together. The Board agreed to allow links, but to also post a statement of non-endorsement and have a draft editorial policy. Dr. Zwick and the publications committee chair designate will coordinate on this.
The Board discussed three candidates for ITEMS editor. The Board indicated that all candidates were very strong. Dr. Russell recommended that President Fremer set goals for the editor (e.g., 2 modules in first year, up to 4 in the 3rd year). Dr. Zwick stressed the importance of having an editor who can start immediately. Dr. Fremer is going to consult further and then make an appointment among one of the three candidates. Dr. Frisbie reported that he has convened an ad hoc committee to conduct the ITEMS review. They are just waiting for an editor to be named.
Dr. Frisbie discussed the lack of backlog for JEM. He felt that this is a good place to get something out quickly. President Fremer recommended going to conferences like FERA to solicit submissions. He indicated that the current editor should ask committee members to get the word out. Dr. Zwick indicated that she has encouraged the incoming editor to start soliciting manuscripts. Dr. Kolen recommended that the next JEM editor add another book review to each issues; the current editor had reduced the typial number of revie3ws per issue from 2 to 1. Dr. Zwick suggested that the new editor consider adding software reviews. President Fremer suggested that the new editor might increase the number of special issues. Dr. Frisbie volunteered to talk to the incoming editor about these options.
Dr. Frisbie reported that the publications committee has reviewed the Software Issues Ad Hoc Committee Proposals and offered a number of recommendations. The Board discussed these recommendations, and agreed that the publications committee should implement the first recommendation (the website should be used for the posting of supplementary materials associated with journal articles). The Board discussed the second recommendation and suggested a slight change in language. The new draft of recommendation #2, NCME editorial policies describing computational algorithms and commercial software, was given to President Fremer to copy and to give to Dr. Russell for inclusion in the instructions to contributors. Dr. Kolen indicated that he would communicate recommendation #3 to the software committee—that they shouldn’t develop a proposal for NCME to use its resources to develop position papers on software documentation and dissemination. The committee recommended that the idea of developing a software information exchange be approached with caution (recommendation #4). Dr. Frisbie recommended experimenting with the software information exchange and including a statement of non-endorsement. Dr. Russell stressed the need for some basic criteria that could be added to the editorial policy.
President Fremer asked that statistics on manuscripts, submissions, acceptances, and length of reviews, be presented in the next report.
Membership and Recognition
Dr. Bourque presented the names of the newly formed Dissertation Award Committee. She indicated that they sent out calls, but only received three nominations. Dr. Gamache indicated that this was typical. The Board agreed that it was not necessary to give out an award if the nominees were not deemed of outstanding.
Dr. Bourque also presented the report from the Classroom Assessment Recognition Committee. Dr. Kolen recommended that President Fremer ask the chair of the Classroom Assessment Recognition Committee if he is planning to present the award at the NCME breakfast at the annual meeting. The Board also discussed the role of media at the annual meeting. Dr. Russell recommended that media be invited to the breakfast. Dr. Fremer indicated that he would speak with the chairs of the Annual Meeting Program Committee about media at the meeting. Dr. Russell reported that a grant was received to support media coverage of the annual meeting. Dr. Frisbie recommended an evaluation of media coverage of the meeting.
The Board discussed the Graduate Student Committee report. Dr. Kolen noted that there were 3 graduate student sessions this year. Board Policy allocates of of these sessions to the Committee. The other two sessions were included at the discretion of the program chair. The Board discussed the call and review process for graduate student reports. The Board reaffirmed that graduate students can have one session and additions at the discretion of program chairs. They also concluded that graduate student submissions should go through the regular review process, not to be handled by a separate call for papers.
The Board decided not to grant an individual student’s request for travel funds to the annual meeting. President Fremer will send an email offering to send letters to Dean’s of graduate students’ institutions asking them to support travel to the annual meeting.
The Board approved of the graduate student budget, but agreed not to support their separate social this year.
The Board discussed the low number of nominations for the annual dissertation award and ideas for expanding the pool. It was decided to put out a new call (on the web and maybe in the newsletter).
Standards and Issues
Dr. Welch presented the Standards Area Committee Report. The Board discussed dissemination ideas, including creating a group (“Standards Bearers�) that would provide information, but not NCME’s views. Dr. Russell suggested a standards workshop geared toward different audiences. Dr. Kolen asked the committee to document the implementation of standards and solicit information from NCME on trying to implement standards to inform revisions of the standards. Dr. Russell recommended inviting APA and AERA into the activities.
Outreach
Dr. Zwick presented the Recruitment of Educational Measurement Specialists Committee report. Their activities include an interactive panel discussion for the 2001 NCME conference, compiling a list of graduate programs in educational membership, creating an APA/NCME career brochure, creating biographies of measurement professionals, partnering with professional associations and testing agencies, and developing recruitment products. The Board discussed using GRE mailing lists to target recruitment materials; ETS and the Iowa Measurement Research Foundation may help with the costs. Dr. Zwick recommended thinking about how to evaluate this costly endeavor. Dr. Lane volunteered to pull together a 1-page proposal for this purpose.
Jason Millman Promising Young Scholar Award
President Fremer shared a request with the Board regarding a new award. The award, established by the Department of Education at Cornell in 1996, is in honor of Jason Millman. The request is that the award become a joint effort between Cornell and NCME. The Board discussed the merits of such an award and NCME’s role. President Fremer volunteered to sketch out a number of different scenarios that were proposed during the discussion and work with Meredith Millman and Cornell. President Fremer will draft the letter and send to Drs. Gamache, Hoover, and Russell before mailing it.
Dr. Russell’s Departure
The Board discussed Dr. Russell’s departure and suggested ways in which they could be involved. Dr. Fremer will send a letter to Catherine Snow offering support and input in the hiring of the new Executive Director. Dr. Kolen identified potential problem areas once Bill has departed: the breakfast at the annual meeting, election committee, allocation of time, space, etc. between AERA and NCME. The Board indicated that they would like to take a field trip to the central office during the summer meeting; they would like to meet in DC.
Proposed Session: Promoting Training and Dissemination, and Use of “Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing�
President Fremer recommended developing a session at the annual meeting (90-120 minutes) to bring together groups interested in testing. The purpose is to share information regarding such initiatives and possibly to find places to work together. Groups that President Fremer suggested include: AERA, NCME, APA, AAC, CRESST, NASP, NATP, state testing directors, Association of Test Publishers, etc. The group would assess interest and develop follow up plans, including creating a steering committee, developing a conference, creating dissemination and training plans, developing materials, and devising a publicity campaign. President Fremer volunteered to set up the session, report to the Board, and coordinate with the central office.
2001 Budget
The Board discussed the FY 2001 budget and a motion to approve it was passed.
Adjournment
President Fremer thanked Board members for their thoughtful participation and the meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Becky Smerdon
Associate Director