If you plan to attend this year’s Association of Test Publishers (ATP) annual meeting (March 1-4) held in Palm Springs, CA, Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) annual convention (April 8-11) held in San Diego, CA, or American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting (April 16-20) held in Chicago, IL, we invite you to attend conference sessions delivered, moderated, or chaired by NCEO staff members.

Association of Test Publishers

“Including Special Populations in Test Security Policies” (ATP, Sheryl Lazarus, Martha Thurlow, and John Olson, paper presentation)
This session will include information about how several sets of guidelines and standards address the issue of including special populations in test security policies. The session will also present the results of an analysis of states’ test security and confidentiality policies, and how they included accommodations, alternate assessments, and issues related to students with disabilities. The focus of this session will be on how these guidelines and standards can be used to inform the development of test security policies at the K-12 level.

Council for Exceptional Children

“Choosing Accommodations for Assessments Based on Common Core State Standards” (CEC, Laurene Christensen and Vitaliy Shyyan, poster presentation)
This session will demonstrate accommodations decision making for students with disabilities and ELLs with disabilities in the context of Common Core State Standards. Participants will learn about a 5-step process for selecting, administering, and evaluating accommodations for instruction and assessment. The 5-step process was developed in collaboration with a group of states and the process can be applied in any assessment context. In addition, this session will feature case examples using released test items based on Common Core State Standards.

We are also delighted to report that NCEO Director, Dr. Martha Thurlow, will be receiving the Council on Exceptional Children’s 2015 J. E. Wallace Wallin Lifetime Achievement Award. This award acknowledges Dr. Thurlow’s commitment to and exemplary performance in serving children and youth with exceptionalities that exemplifies the best in special education and made her an outstanding choice for this honor. We hope you join us in congratulating Dr. Thurlow on this prestigious and well-deserved award.

American Educational Research Association

“How States Include Students with Disabilities in Test Security Policies” (AERA, Lynn Edwards, Sheryl Lazarus, and Martha Thurlow, paper presentation)
Test security policies and procedures are needed to help ensure the integrity and validity of a test. In this era, when cheating on tests draws regular media attention, it is vital to consider and understand how possible test security measures may affect accessibility. Some test security policies and procedures may affect test accessibility for some students with disabilities. This study examined how accommodated tests for students with disabilities, alternate assessments, and other related issues were addressed in states’ test security policies in 2013-14.

NCEO staff members also are scheduled to be chairs for the following meetings and sessions at the AERA annual meeting: “Business Meeting: Inclusion and Accommodation in Educational Assessment SIG” (AERA, SIG Chair: Sheryl Lazarus) “Testing Students with Disabilities and from Diverse Populations” (AERA, Chair: Vitaliy Shyyan) “Inclusion and Accommodation in Educational Assessment SIG Roundtable Session” (AERA, Chair: Vitaliy Shyyan) 

You are invited to join our AERA special interest group Inclusion & Accommodation in Educational Assessment (SIG #96).