The National Assessment Governing Board–National Center for Education Statistics Assessment Literacy Campaign

• In Event: 66.036 - A Major Assessment Literacy Campaign Aimed at Parents, Policy Makers, and Students

Abstract

This proposal is structured as a symposium presentation. However, because substantive advice is being sought from those who attend the proposed symposium, its particulars are somewhat atypical. The proposed symposium is divided into three equal segments of approximately 30-minutes each.
Segment 1: The Panel Presentation. During the session’s first segment, a panel of five presenters will each take no more than five minutes (per panelist) to present a specific message to the audience. A NAGB member will serve as moderator for the panel and it will be the moderator’s obligation to briefly set the stage for the session, introduce the panelists, and monitor their presentation-times. The moderator will also supervise the remaining two segments.
Although, because of proposal-submission regulations, the specific individuals who will be taking part in the session will not be identified, here is the proposed panel lineup:
• The moderator, an NAGB member, whose roles are described above
• A NAGB member who will describe the assessment-literacy initiative
• A NAGB staff member who will describe NAGB project activities
• A NCES staff member who will describe NCES project activities
• A contract communications staff member (NCES) who will lay out the already completed and planned implementation activities for both contractors
• A NAGB member who will present a set of two or three specific project-related issues to the audience for consideration by small groups during Segment 2.
Segment 2: Small-Group Analyses. During this 30-minute segment, members of each small group will initially attend to the two or three specific issues identified at the close of Segment 1. If, in anticipation of the final total-group discussion during Segment 3, a subgroup wishes to arrive at any conclusions to be shared with the total group, this option will also be available.
The issues to be identified for small-group analysis will be collaboratively identified by e-mail, about one month in advance of the Chicago meeting, by members of the NAGB Work Group overseeing this activity. We anticipate that by next spring there will be a number of implementation options facing the project staff, and it seems likely that at least one of the issues for Segment 2 analysis might involve choices among such options.
One-sheet forms will have been distributed to all attendees during Segment 1. These forms will request an attendee to supply a written reaction to one or more of the panel-presented issues—or to any other project-related point the attendee wishes. These forms should be returned to any panelist at the close of the session.
Segment 3: Total-Group Discussion. With 30 minutes remaining in the session, the moderator will ask attendees, if necessary, to re-arrange their chairs so that a final, total-group discussion can close out the proposed session. The overall mission of the proposed symposium will be to describe what has taken place, what is slated to take place, and encourage a dialogue emphasizing attendees’ reactions and suggestions regarding any aspect of this potentially influential assessment-literacy initiative.

Authors

• Sharyn Rosenberg, National Assessment Governing Board

• Peggy G. Carr, National Center for Education Statistics/IES, U.S. Department of Education

• Tonya Miles, National Assessment Governing Board

• Andrew Dean Ho, Harvard University

• Amy Squire Buckley