Dear fellow NCME members,
A strong professional community supports its members in difficult times. Recent cuts by the U.S. executive branch to funding and positions in measurement in education are having a direct and widespread negative impact on our community members and our mission to advance theory and applications of educational measurement to benefit society.
Last month, the NCME Board acted to waive annual meeting registration fees for presenting members affected directly by executive branch cuts to funding and positions. On March 12, the NCME Board voted unanimously to take the following additional actions to support affected NCME members, NCME scholarship, and NCME careers.
1) In addition to waiving annual meeting registration fees for affected members, the board is designating $1000 travel grants to support presenting members who, absent this funding and due to current widespread and unexpected funding cuts by the executive branch, would have to withdraw their accepted presentations from the annual meeting this April. If you are no longer able to present your work because of this, please see below for more details about applying for funds that would enable you to present. If you are eligible and if funding permits, NCME will waive your registration fee, and NCME will reimburse your travel and lodging expenses up to $1000.
2) The NCME Board of Directors has together contributed $12000 of their personal funds to establish the first 12 of these grants in support of its members’ ability to present their accepted scholarship at the annual meeting in Denver. We hope to fund more from contributions from fellow members, many of whom have already reached out to ask how they can help their colleagues to join them in Denver and benefit from their presentations. To support this initiative, please click here to donate to our Mission Fund. Please add the note "supporting community attendance at NCME 2025" in the Donor Comment box. The board thanks contributors for any amount that they are able to donate, to support the attendance and scholarship of our affected members and, through them, this measurement community.
3) The board is temporarily waiving fees for posting jobs at our NCME Career Center for all newly advertised positions. We hope any members who may have lost their positions can harness the NCME network - as well as the opportunity to meet in person at our annual meeting - to find new opportunities. Those who wish to post a position may do so by filling out this "post a job" form. Note that graduate student internships and fellowships continue to be updated for free at our internships and fellowships page and designated spreadsheet.
NCME leadership is continuing to advocate for educational measurement science and practice in line with its mission. We look forward to our annual meeting as the leading opportunity to meet in person to advance theory and applications of educational measurement to benefit society. Our annual meeting program committee is actively considering panels and presentations that address these and other current events in measurement science and practice, as well as actions to support members who are experiencing unexpected career transitions. We welcome your ideas related to this effort.
We will continue to take actions to make sure that all our members can rightfully benefit from this community. If you have additional ideas about how we can support membership and our mission, our feedback form remains open.
The 2024-2025 NCME Board of Directors
Andrew Ho, President
Amy Hendrickson, President Elect
Michael Walker, Past President
Rich Patz, Executive Director (ex officio)
Rochelle Michel, Board Member
Leslie Keng, Board Member
Brad McMillen, Board Member
Zachary Warner, Board Member
Susan Davis-Becker, Board Member
Li Cai, Board Member
Sonya Powers, Treasurer
For presenters who cannot otherwise travel to the annual meeting due to funding cuts related to recent and ongoing executive actions, please write to us at ncme@ncme.org. Please confirm that you meet each of the following enumerated criteria (please refer to each of these in your email as enumerated):
- You have an accepted presentation where you are the designated presenter (please identify this presentation).
- You had expected to fund your travel from funding directly or indirectly from U.S. federal grants, contracts, or positions (please identify this funding source and its connection to federal funding).
- This travel funding is no longer available due to recent U.S. executive actions (please describe these actions and their effect on your funding).
- You have few or no alternative funds to support your travel, resulting in an inability to present at the annual meeting. (Please confirm that you are not able or are likely not able to attend the meeting otherwise. We will try to support everyone but will rank applications by need.)
- You commit to attend and present at the annual meeting if your registration fee is waived and your travel grant is awarded.
- Please provide any additional context you believe is relevant. This may include your current position, your years of membership in NCME, and whether recent executive actions have caused you to lose your position. We will try to support everyone but will prioritize graduate student presenters, early- and mid-career members, those who have lost their positions due to executive actions, and those who are in acute financial need.
We will begin reviewing requests on Wednesday, March 19 and will respond in weekly increments, as promptly as we are able to ensure members have the security that they will be able to present at the annual meeting in spite of ongoing uncertainty. On behalf of our community, please do not hesitate to reach out. Our hope to support as many of our affected members as possible.
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