Technology-Enhanced Assessments: Innovations in the Next Generation of State Assessments

Participants
Juan D’Brot, PhD, Executive Director of Assessment and Accountability, West Virginia
Department of Education
Nancy A. Doorey, Director of Programs, K–12 Center, Educational Testing Service (ETS)
Sue Rigney, Education Specialist, U.S. Department of Education
Robert Rothman, Senior Fellow, Alliance for Excellent Education
Kathleen Scalise, PhD, Associate Professor of Education, University of Oregon

The two state consortia—Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers and the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium—that are developing new comprehensive assessments to measure the common core state standards are designing ambitious assessments that push the envelope of assessment practice in the United States. What role can technology play in making possible new types of items and tasks that measure concepts and skills that are difficult to measure through traditional means? How can technology make assessments more accessible to students with disabilities and English language learners?

The Alliance for Excellent Education and the K–12 Center at ETS (K–12 Center) held a webinar on June 25 to consider the potential for technology-based assessment and the challenges faced by the consortia and states. Nancy Doorey of the K–12 Center at ETS provided an overview of the assessment implications of the common core state standards. Kathleen Scalise from the University of Oregon and Sue Rigney from the U.S. Department of Education discussed the innovative possibilities for the new consortia assessments. Juan D’Brot from the West Virginia Department of Education considered the state perspective. Panelists also addressed questions submitted by viewers from across the country. Alliance Senior Fellow Robert Rothman served as moderator.

The webinar presentations were based on papers presented at a research symposium sponsored by the K–12 Center on May 7–8, 2012. Those papers are available at www.k12center.org/events/research_meetings/tea.html.

Supplemental Material:

• Using Technology to Assess Hard-to-Measure Constructs in the Common Core State Standards and to Expand Accessibility (PDF)
• Sea Change in Assessment: How Technology IsTransforming K-12 Testing (PDF)
• Invitational Research Symposium on Technology Enhanced Assessments

NOTE: If you are unable to watch the webinar live, an archived version will be available athttp://www.all4ed.com/webinars usually one or two days after the event airs.

The Alliance for Excellent Education is a Washington, DC-based national policy and advocacy organization that works to improve national and federal policy so that all students can achieve at high academic levels and graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship in the twenty-first century. For more information about the Alliance, visit www.all4ed.com.

Created by Educational Testing Service (ETS) to forward a larger social mission, the K–12 Center at ETS has been given the directive to serve as a catalyst and resource for the improvement of measurement and data systems to enhance student achievement.
www.k12center.org