Boston, Massachusetts: March 29, 2008
Science Assessment: Research and Practical Approaches
For Grades 3–12 Teachers and School and District Administrators
A Daylong Conference Offering NSF-funded Program Findings in Assessment
In response to the current interest in science assessment strategies in grades 3–12 classrooms, NSTA will present Science Assessment: Research and Practical Approaches, a special conference on this topic on Saturday, March 29, in conjunction with the NSTA Boston National Conference on Science Education. Assessments play key roles in learning how to learn; understanding the cognitive frameworks and thinking patterns of students; measuring progress in relationship to curricular goals; and communicating to parents, the community, and other stakeholders information about program effectiveness and student accomplishments.
TheScience Assessment: Research and Practical Approaches conference is designed to familiarize practitioners with current National Science Foundation–funded research on the multiple forms, roles, and contexts for student assessment in science. This research develops and tests new assessment strategies, studies assessments that can inform classroom practice, explores students’ understanding and misconceptions, and investigates assessment formats that can serve as accountability measures in high-stakes tests. The overall objective of the daylong event is to allow teachers, administrators at school and district levels, as well as professional development providers, to learn about the implications of NSF-funded researchers’ work for classroom practice and professional development.
According to Rowena Douglas, NSTA’s Assistant Executive Director for Professional Development, “This is the continuation of NSTA’s Research Dissemination Conferences (RDCs) highlighting research topics and our expanding commitment to bring specific, meaningful, and practical professional development to science educators. These highly focused, and timely single-topic events are an important part of our continuing emphasis on topics of current interest in the education community. They complement NSTA’s Professional Development Institutes (PDIs), currently being offered on Wednesday, March 26, in Boston.”
The Conference Program
The conference format includes plenary sessions that address issues of general interest. The main plenary session is focused on linking science assessment research to effective science teaching and learning and will feature Dr. Arthur Eisenkraft, Distinguished Professor of Science Education at the University of Massachusetts–Boston, Director of the Center of Science and Math in Context (COSMIC), and NSTA Past President
In this presentation, It's not just what we know, but how we know and why we believe it?, Dr. Eisenkraft will describe the essential questions of science. He will contrast them with the questions we often find on teacher generated tests as well as on high-stakes assessments and then discuss the implications.
Fifteen concurrent small group sessions have also been planned that will be relevant to the interests and needs of the practitioner audience. When registering for the conference, participants may select three breakout sessions that best match their needs and interests. Each breakout session targets the interests of specific groups, such as elementary teachers, secondary teachers, principals, curriculum coordinators, and professional development providers.
The breakout topics closely relate to the professional needs of these groups, such as embedded assessments; diversifying student feedback and assessment; assessment policies, expectations, and accountability; assessment systems models; examining assessment strategies across reading, math, and science; and using data to support and sustain school improvement. Breakout session presenters represent the fields of science education research, instructional materials development, assessment design, school administration, and teacher professional development.
Participants are encouraged to attend in teams at a reduced registration rate. The diverse breakout session format is designed to accommodate different team members’ interests.