University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to Host Symposium on the Reports of the Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to Host Symposium on the Reports of the Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education

When:
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
12:30–4:30 p.m.

Where:UCLA, De Neve Plaza
351 Charles E Young Drive West
Los Angeles, CA 90024

To attend, please send an RSVP to Candice Carpio at carpio@cse.ucla.edu.

For more information, contact Ron Dietel at 1-310-794-9168 or dietel@cse.ucla.edu.

About the Symposium

A number of well-known national education assessment and policy experts will host a symposium onJune 12, 2013, to discuss the reports of the Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education. The reports call for state and federal policymakers to make substantial changes to K–12 assessments and reprioritize the existing focus on the use of test results. The event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education, and the Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education.

Signaling a shift from high stakes consequences for students, schools, and teachers, "The primary purpose of assessment ought to be to inform and improve teaching and learning," said Dr. Edmund W. Gordon, Chairperson of the Gordon Commission. The Commission's report, To Assess, To Teach, To Learn: A Vision for the Future of Assessment, comes amidst adoption by 45 states of the Common Core State Standards, expected to be measured by one of two technology-based tests beginning in the 2014–15 school year.

Among the report's recommendations is that the states create a permanent council on educational assessments that would evaluate new assessments and their effects on teaching and learning. The report also encourages Congress and President Obama to revise federal education law in order to promote new ideas about assessment.

About the Speakers

In addition to Gordon, the afternoon symposium will include brief presentations from Commission members Eva Baker and Louis Gomez from UCLA's Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. "This event is an excellent opportunity to discuss the Commission's recommendations that are likely to produce significant changes in assessment," explained Baker, who authored a paper for the Gordon Commission on testing in the global future.

Also speaking at the symposium are leading education experts including Karen Symms Gallagher, Dean of the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education; Edward Haertel, Stanford University School of Education; Carl Cohn, California State Board of Education; Charlene Rivera, George Washington University; and Norma Silva, UCLA Lab School.

Representing the Consortia developing technology-based assessments to measure the Common Core State Standards are Tony Alpert from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and Allison Jones from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC).

Rounding out the speakers are Li Cai, co-Director with Eva Baker of UCLA's Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST), as well as Joan Herman, CRESST Senior Research Scientist.