Assessment and Cognition: Theory to Practice
August 13-14, 2001
University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland
A conference hosted by the Department of Measurement,
Statistics and Evaluation, University of Maryland, and
supported by the Maryland State Department of Education.
Organized by Robert Mislevy, William Schafer, and Robert
Lissitz, University of Maryland.
Summary
1985 marked the publication of an influential volume
entitled Test Design: Developments in Psychology and
Psychometrics, edited by Professor Susan Embretson of the
University of Kansas. Test design is an intriguing foray
into ways that developments in psychometrics and cognitive
psychology might be brought together to improve educational
and psychological testing. A number of tantalizing
small-scale examples illustrated the ideas. Much progress
has been made since that time. Many projects have not only
pushed the individual contributing sciences farther, but
pulled insights together from across disciplinary
boundaries, and closed in on practical applications. This
conference is meant to lay down another footprint along
that path. The opening session describes an approach that
brings the various developments together in an assessment
design framework. In the main part of the conference,
presenters describe in depth three applications that build
on advances in the contributing sciences, integrate the
developments into coherent designs, and harness them for
practical work. Three sessions each focus on a different
project, as members of their multidisciplinary teams
describe the important ideas from their own perspective
(e.g., psychology, measurement, technology, instruction, or
content domain), and discuss how these ideas fit together
to achieve a common purpose.
Sessions
Welcome and Introduction (Dean Edna Szymanski, Robert
Lissitz, University of Maryland).
Cognition and assessment: Theory to practice (Session
organizer: Robert Mislevy, University of Maryland). This
session describes a framework for designing and delivering
assessments in which the integration of psychology and test
design envisioned in Test Design can be realized.
Biomass (Session organizer: Linda Steinberg, Educational
Testing Service). Web-delivered, standards-based
assessment of science inquiry, in the domain of secondary
biology. Biomass can be run in one mode for learning in
the classroom, another for end-of-course assessment. One
talk features the Bayes net measurement model.
The Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research (BEAR)
system (Session organizer: Mark Wilson, University of
California at Berkeley). The BEAR assessment system
demonstrates relationships among learning, open-ended
performance tasks, and a graded-response measurement model,
as applied in a middle school science curriculum called
"Issues, Evidence and You."
The Cisco Learning Institute (CLI) simulation-based
assessment prototype (Session organizer: John Behrens,
Cisco Systems). CLI has developed a design framework and
delivery architecture for web-based assessment of network
design and troubleshooting. The goal is to extend CLI's
current on-line instruction and assessment to the complex
and interactive problem-solving that students need in
practice.
How far have we come, where do we need to go? Commentary by
Profs. Susan Embretson, University of Kansas, and William
Schafer, University of Maryland.
Registration
For further information or registration materials,
contact Mr. Ricardo Morales at (e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
phone: (301) 405-3629)
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Instructions for joining and leaving this list and remarks about
the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES are available at
http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/
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