Race to the Top Assessment Competition

1. Race to the TopAssessment Competition Public & Expert Input Meetings General Assessment Atlanta, GA November 17, 2009

2. Race to the Top Assessment Competition • Race to the Top State Competition: $4B competitive grant to encourage and reward States implementing comprehensive statewide reforms across four key areas • Race to the Top Assessment Competition: $350M to support consortia of States implement common standards by funding the development of a new generation of common assessments aligned to them • Applicants: Consortia of States; 50% of the funding must be passed through to participating LEAs • Timeline: • March 2010 Release notice inviting applications • June 2010 Applications due • September 2010 Grants awarded

3. Goals of the Assessment Program • Support States in delivering a system of more effective and instructionally useful assessments: • More accurate information about what students know and can do: • Achievement of standards • Growth • On-track to college and career ready by the time of high school graduation • Reflects and supports good instructional practice • Includes all students, including English language learners and students with disabilities • Usable to inform: • Teaching, learning, and program improvement • Determinations of school effectiveness • Determinations of principal and teacher effectiveness for the purposes of evaluation and support • Determinations of individual student college and career readiness

4. Other Requirements • Subjects and Grades – at a minimum: • Reading/language arts and mathematics • Grades 3-8 and high school • Summative assessments – at a minimum – but: • Not necessarily end-of-year • Not necessarily once during the year • Not necessarily one test • May replace rather than add to assessments currently in use • Be valid, reliable, and fair

5. Goals for the Input Meetings • Paint a vision of the what the next generation of assessment systems could and should look like. • Provide concrete expert and public guidance to ED staff, in response to questions asked in the notice. • Help prepare States to develop the highest quality proposals with the greatest likelihood of impact.

6. Agenda 10:00-10:15 Welcome/Setting the Stage 10:15-12:15 Expert Presentations 12:15-1:15 Lunch (on your own) 1:15-2:15 Expert Presentations 2:15-3:30 Round Table Discussion 3:30-3:45 Break (public speakers queue up) 3:45-4:45 Public Speakers 4:45-5:00 Conclusion

7. Housekeeping • Submitting your questions • Time keeping • Cell phones on vibrate please • Today’s session will be transcribed and posted to www.ed.gov, together with the presentations • Additional written input may be submitted to racetothetop.assessmentinput@ed.gov

8. States Attending Today • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Delaware • District of Columbia • Georgia • Iowa • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • New Hampshire • Ohio • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee

9. On the Panel Invited Experts • Carol Campbell, Chief Research Officer, Ontario Ministry of Education • Lou Fabrizio, Director of Accountability Policy and Communications, North Carolina Department of Public Instruction • Thomas Fisher, Chair, National Technical Advisory Committee • Brian Gong, Executive Director, National Center for the Improvement in Educational Assessment (NCIEA) • Paul Nichols, Vice President of Psychometric and Research Services, Pearson Education • Theresa Siskind, Deputy Superintendent- Division of Accountability, South Carolina Department of Education From the U.S. Department of Education • Alexa Posny, Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services • Joanne Weiss, Director of Race to the Top, Office of the Secretary • Ann Whalen, Special Assistant to the Secretary • Judy Wurtzel, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development

10. Additional Information For more information on the Race to the Top Assessment Program, please visit: http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/index.html