Blogs

Updates and Opportunities Fall 2020

By Megan Welsh posted 12-14-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Updates Lots has been happening behind the scenes at NCME. Please see the links below for details: Journal of Educational Measurement Update Formative Assessment for Classroom Teachers Graduate Student Issues Committee Update Conference Chairs Update Website Committee Update Kadriye Ercikan Named Book Series Editor NCME Fitness Walkrun Corner Update Upcoming Opportunities We are excited to share news about the upcoming conference, SIGIMIES you can become involved with, the NCME Board of Directors Election, the EM:IP Data Visualization Competition, ...
0 comments

Articles Fall 2020

By Megan Welsh posted 12-14-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Articles Challenges in College Admissions and Beyond Maria Elena Oliveri and Cathy Wendler, Independent Consultants A s long as a top priority for many countries is to retain a well-educated population, ensuring fairness in higher education admissions and beyond will remain important. The current pandemic is calling into question the practices and criteria used to make admissions decisions and the role of higher education itself. Students may be unable to take the tests required for admissions or to secure faculty recommendations in a virtual setting. Institutions are finding ...
0 comments

SIGIMIE Section Fall 2020

By Megan Welsh posted 12-14-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
SIGIMIE Section We have added a new section of the newsletter to introduce the membership to the work of different SIGIMIES. In this issue, the State and Local Assessment Leaders and Contemporary Issues in Scaling, Linking and Equating SIGIMIES share their work. An Update from the State and Local Assessment Leaders SIGIMIE Andrew Middlestead, Michigan Department of Education O ur SIGMIE has been able to have several meetings virtually in 2020. While we were saddened to not be able to follow through with our plans to meet together at an in-person conference last April we have appreciated “seeing” ...
0 comments

The Certainty of the Standards in Uncertain Times

By Megan Welsh posted 12-13-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Vince Verges, Florida Department of Education Uncertain Times Then Many years ago in my former life as a Naval Flight Officer, I learned how valuable standard procedures can be when things get chaotic. In 1992, I was a navigator aboard a four-person tactical Navy jet that experienced problems over the Olympic National forest in a very remote part of Washington state. We ended up ejecting over that forest, and while everyone survived, I suffered the loss of my left hand during the ejection. I ended up dangling from a tree for a short while before somehow getting myself down, and then had to tend to my wounds for the next few hours before a Navy search and ...
0 comments

Newsletter Sensitivity Reviews: Introducing Sandra Sweeney

By Megan Welsh posted 12-11-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
I am happy to announce that the newsletter is piloting a process for conducting sensitivity reviews to ensure that newsletter content is respectful of the full membership. The goal of the reviews is to improve communication by avoiding language that could cause unintentional harm to underrepresented groups, such as racial minorities, members of the LGBTQ community, members with disabilities, immigrants, and women. The process involves sending work to a reviewer who reads articles and attempts to identify any terms that some readers might find offensive or upsetting. If such language is identified, the reviewer alerts the newsletter editor who rereads the ...
0 comments

NCME Fitness Walk/Run Corner (Fall 2020)

By Megan Welsh posted 12-11-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Katherine Furgol Castellano, Jill R. van den Heuvel, and Brian French for the NCME Fitness Walk/Run We missed connecting with everyone at the NCME walk/run event this year. We take you on a memory stroll with our collage from 2010 to 2019. We have vivid memories of our events from the cool morning air of the Denver route, to the crowded streets of the Philly course, to the few of us, including a baby, who braved the driving cold rain in New York. We treasure those early mornings of laughter, community conversations, and connecting with friends. We hope you are well and healthy. We look forward to our next walk/run together. Be and move well.
0 comments

Back to School 2020: An Unprecedented Time for Assessment

By Megan Welsh posted 11-30-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Laurie Laughlin Davis & Stephanie Lawkins, Curriculum Associates Curriculum Associates serves approximately 30% of US students in grades K-8 with reading and math curriculum and assessments designed to inform instruction. Data collected so far this school year offer insights about how students are doing in light of changes to schooling since the pandemic began – and raise questions about at-home testing. The i-Ready Diagnostic is an online, criterion-referenced computer adaptive assessment that is administered three times a year, beginning in the Fall, to inform instructional decisions and instructional pathways. Early this summer, ...
0 comments

Publications Committee Update (Fall 2020): Kadriye Ercikan Book Series Editor

By Megan Welsh posted 11-30-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
The NCME Publications Committee is excited to announce that Kadriye Ercikan has been selected as the editor of the NCME Applications of Educational Measurement and Assessment Book Series from April 2021 through April 2026. Dr. Ercikan is Vice President of Psychometrics, Statistics and Data Sciences at ETS and CEO and President at ETS Canada. She brings a wealth of experience editing books and special issues of journals and authoring book chapters and journal articles. More information on the NCME Book Series can be found here: https://www.ncme.org/publications/book-series .
0 comments

An update from the Contemporary Issues in Scaling, Linking, and Equating (SLE) SIGIMIE (Fall 2020)

By Megan Welsh posted 10-10-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Jaime Malatesta, University of Iowa, and Stella Kim, UNC Charlotte The SLE SIGIMIE focuses on evolving measurement issues related scaling, linking and equating. We encourage scholarly development by connecting professionals from diverse backgrounds to discuss and take action on measurement issues associated with scaling, linking, and equating. This past August, the SLE SIGIMIE hosted their first official event with a webinar featuring Dr. Michael Kolen’s talk on the history of test equating methods and practices through 1985. This was the first of several planned online webinars to be hosted by the SLE SIGIMIE. Also underway are the following initiatives: ...
0 comments

JEM Update (Fall 2020)

By Megan Welsh posted 10-10-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Sandip Sinharay, ETS Dear JEM Readers, I sincerely hope that you and your family are all safe and sound. This JEM issue is being published at a time when the world is going through an unprecedented crisis due to the COVID19 pandemic and most of you are probably affected one way or another by the pandemic. The testing industry is being severely impacted by the pandemic as well. The long-term impact of COVID19 on educational measurement will be the focus of multiple short manuscripts that will be published in the Fall 2020 issue of Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice (EMIP), JEM’s sister journal. This JEM issue includes eight articles on a wide ...
0 comments

Award Nominations Due January 6th

By Megan Welsh posted 10-09-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Award_Announcement_2021_with_hyperlinks.pdf
0 comments

An Update from the State and Local Assessment Leaders SIGIMIE (Fall 2020)

By Megan Welsh posted 10-09-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Andrew Middlestead, Michigan Department of Education Our SIGMIE has been able to have several meetings virtually in 2020. While we were saddened to not be able to follow through with our plans to meet together at an in-person conference last April we have appreciated “seeing” each other a couple times over the summer. With the beginning of another (different) school year we are eager to set up some more virtual collaboration. An area we hope to focus on is supporting each other through an unknown period of accountability-based summative assessments states are (so far at least) still required to administer this coming spring.
0 comments

Website Commitee Update (Fall 2020): Making the most of the NCME website in a virtual world.

By Megan Welsh posted 10-09-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Brian Leventhal, James Madison University In Summer 2018 the NCME website experienced record traffic due to the initial launch of the new website. As life recently transitioned to being virtual, the NCME website has now become the go-to place for NCME members and measurement professionals. We have now surpassed the 2018 engagement levels. As seen in the figure, August 2020 saw higher daily views and a higher number of unique visitors to the website as compared to August 2018, the month following the initial launch. As engagement increased, the website committee worked hard to keep pace with demand. To do so, the committee added three new members: Erin Banjanovic, ...
0 comments

Grad Student Corner (Fall 2020): Graduate Student Development Requires Opportunities Beyond Classwork

By Megan Welsh posted 10-09-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Valeria Zunino-Edelsberg, UC Davis I am a Ph.D. student at UC Davis, and probably you have felt the same way I have: there is never enough time. We can’t seem to read all the papers we would like nor attend all the exciting events offered by the University. Our ability to get things done just can’t keep up with our ever-growing curiosity! We must constantly prioritize the multiple demands and opportunities that arise and apply our criteria of how to prioritize our workloads. In my experience, I think we naturally tend to make these decisions based on short-term goals, losing sight of important experiences that will further our long-term professional development. ...
0 comments

Graduate Students Issue Committee Update (Fall 2020)

By Megan Welsh posted 10-09-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Scott Holcomb, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Maura O’Riordan, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Hello Everyone!, We hope that your semester is off to a great start and that you are staying healthy. Hopefully you were able to participate in the virtual conference and enjoyed the sessions. It was great seeing some of you at the GSIC’s Virtual Social Hour. During the event we got to know other graduate students and even a few things about Crofton, Kentucky. We look forward to next year’s conference in Baltimore, themed Bridging Research and Practice . As we build up to next year’s conference theme, we encourage you to participate ...
0 comments

Changes in College Admissions -- and Beyond

By Megan Welsh posted 10-09-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Maria Elena Oliveri and Cathy Wendler, Independent Consultants COVID-19 is necessitating changes to the practices and criteria used to make admissions decisions. As higher education struggles with how the pandemic will alter admissions, changing the process and criteria used in college admissions is not new. Historically, several factors have impacted college admissions and beyond, including changes in philosophical values, shifts in political power, the demographics of students attending college, and the skillset needed for college success. Zwick (2017) highlights that t he postsecondary admissions process does not occur in a vacuum and must be evaluated ...
0 comments

From the President (Fall 2020)

By Megan Welsh posted 10-09-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Ye Tong, Pearson Fall is here now, a fall that will be unique in so many ways. I hope you all are staying healthy and that if you have school-age children like me, the kids are staying productive and adapting to school’s new normal. NCME 2020 Virtual Conference NCME held our historic virtual conference from June through September. I hope all members were able to dial in to some sessions, to learn, to connect, and to celebrate our members’ accomplishments in the past year. Altogether, NCME offered 42 virtual sessions, with the median attendance at around 90 per session. Almost all sessions were recorded and can be accessed at the NCME YouTube channel ...
0 comments

New NCME Resource: Formative Assessment for Classroom Teachers

By Megan Welsh posted 09-29-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Sue Brookhart, Brookhart Enterprises, and Heidi Andrade, University at Albany The NCME Classroom Assessment Task Force announces the launch of a new NCME resource: Formative Assessment for Classroom Teachers (FACT). The FACT resources support formative assessment practices that provide teachers and students with information about learning as it develops—not just at the end of a project, unit, or year. The beta version is available at https://www.ncme.org/resources/formative . We encourage you to take a look and share the link widely. One does not have to be a member of NCME to use the resources. The resources are organized into four categories: diagnostic ...
0 comments

Annual Meeting Update (Fall 2020)

By Megan Welsh posted 09-29-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Susan Davis-Becker, ACS Ventures, and Leslie Keng, Center for Assessment The NCME 2021 conference plans are in the works! For up-to-date information check out the conference website: https://www.ncme.org/meetings/annualmeeting2021 . Included on the site is an ‘FAQ’ link that describes the hybrid model we are planning for the meeting.
0 comments

Legal Corner (Fall 2020): USED Unwavering on Assessment Waivers

By Megan Welsh posted 09-21-2020
Be the first person to recommend this.
Michelle Croft, ACT Spring 2020 was the first time in nearly twenty years that states did not administer assessments to students in grades 3–8 and high school. The spring newsletter previously articulated some of the technical issues facing states missing one year’s worth of assessment data. Since that newsletter, a half dozen states have announced plans to seek assessment and accountability waivers for spring 2021. In June, Georgia, citing budgetary concerns, announced a plan to seek a waiver, and submitted the waiver request to the U.S. Department of Education (USED) in mid-July. Also in June, South Carolina’s state Superintendent stated that she ...
0 comments