Dear NCME Colleagues:
Although this month remains in my presidency, this is my last News@NCME update as president. It has now been almost a year since I established the themes that have guided my term: Continuity, Unity, and Service. I am proud to have upheld these themes, and I am prouder still to have seen all the ways that our members have enacted these themes as values, through their scholarship, their work, and their actions.
1) One of the highlights of my year was witnessing our community’s support of their fellow members in response to ongoing cuts and uncertainty by the U.S. Executive Branch. After our board took unanimous action last month to establish and personally fund travel grants for affected members, members of our community joined us as individuals, with matching support from philanthropic organizations like the Spencer Foundation and measurement organizations like NBME. Thanks to your support, members will be able to join us and contribute scholarship and professional insights that we would otherwise lose. This reminds me that any current uncertainty and loss is temporary, and that through this great organization our expertise, networks, and profession will endure and thrive. Links remain to contribute to this cause through our mission fund and apply for funding to attend our annual meeting this month. I encourage both.
2) As our number of registrants for our annual meeting continues to outpace prior years, our social media committee has been reminding me that our slate of training sessions and additional activities are excellent, including opportunities to learn both cutting edge techniques and foundational competencies that represent the best of our field. In case you missed it, it is easy to adjust your registration to sign up at this link. There is a first-time opportunity for everyone. For me, it will be joining the NCME Fitness Run/Walk for the first time. I hope to see you there for a lovely jaunt around Sloan Lake on Saturday morning, April 26. I will also host the first-ever “informal presidential closing reception” that afternoon, so please make sure to stick around!
3) One of the most important decisions that I believe we make in our lives is how we volunteer ourselves to others, how we dedicate our time and expertise without financial compensation. Hundreds of our members serve this great organization, and through your service we advance our common mission, “to advance theory and applications of educational measurement to benefit society.” Now is the time of year when we refresh roughly 1/3 of memberships on our hard-working committees, and our special interest groups (SIGIMIEs) can also rotate in their leadership. I strongly encourage members to volunteer their time to serve each other and our field. In uncertain times, it is important to uphold our institutions. I hope you will join me to volunteer, united, in service, for NCME.
On this note, I would like to thank News@NCME Editor Cheng Hua, who has graciously curated this space for me and for our community to share knowledge and opportunities through my presidential year. Thank you, Cheng.
Andrew Ho, President
National Council on Measurement in Education
#Presidents_Message#FrontPageNews#CurrentNews