Materials and video from the event available below ...

Participants
Maria Ferguson, Vice President for Policy, Alliance for Excellent Education
Joan Herman, Director, National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, UCLA
Gary Phillips, Vice President, American Institutes for Research
Robert Rothman, Senior Fellow, Alliance for Excellent Education

Assessment has long been at the center of education policy debates, and with good reason. There is widespread concern that the assessments currently used in the United States are inadequate and may have a significantly negative impact on student learning. Fortunately, the United States is now poised to make the most dramatic advance in assessment in decades. The federal government is about to make a $350 million investment in new assessments, states are forming consortia to build new systems, and a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will set guidelines for assessments and their use for years to come.

On February 25, the Alliance for Excellent Education released Principles for a Comprehensive Assessment System, a policy brief—written by Alliance Senior Fellow Robert Rothman—that informs the above-mentioned decisions. This paper outlines criteria for new assessment systems that support instruction and are aligned to standards for college and career readiness. During the webinar, a brief presentation about the report was followed by an interactive conversation with experts using questions submitted by participants from around the country.

EVENT-DAY MATERIALS
Event-day Agenda PDF
Speaker Biographies PDF
Principles for a Comprehensive Assessment System Policy Brief(PDF) 
Principles for a Comprehensive Assessment System, a PPT presentation by Robert Rothman, Alliance for Excellent Education PPT (PDF)
Why "International Benchmarking" is an Important Principle of a Comprehensive Assessment System, a PPT presentation by Gary Phillips, American Institutes for Research PPT (PDF)

EVENT-DAY VIDEO (flash popup)