Race to the TopAssessment Competition

Public & Expert Input MeetingsProject & Consortium Management

Washington, DCJanuary 13, 2010

Race to the Top Assessment Competition

Race to the Top State Competition: $4B competitive grant to encourage and reward States implementing comprehensive statewide reforms across four key areas

Race to the Top Assessment Competition: $350M to support consortia of States implement common standards by funding the development of a new generation of common assessments aligned to them

Timeline: March 2010 Release notice inviting applications June 2010 Applications due September 2010Grants awarded

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Goals of the Assessment ProgramSupport States in delivering a system of more effective and

instructionally useful assessments:More accurate information about what students know and can do:

Achievement of standards Growth On-track to college and career ready by the time of high school graduation

Reflects and supports good instructional practiceIncludes all students, including English language learners and students

with disabilities

Usable to inform: Teaching, learning, and program improvement Determinations of school effectiveness Determinations of principal and teacher effectiveness for the purposes of

evaluation and support Determinations of individual student college and career readiness

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Other RequirementsSubjects and Grades – at a minimum:

Reading/language arts and mathematicsGrades 3-8 and high school

Summative assessments – at a minimum – but:Not necessarily end-of-yearNot necessarily once during the yearNot necessarily one test

May replace rather than add to assessments currently in use

Be valid, reliable, and fair

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Goals for the Input Meetings

Paint a vision of what the next generation of assessment systems could and should look like.

Provide concrete expert and public guidance to ED staff, in response to questions asked in the notice.

Help prepare States to develop the highest quality proposals with the greatest likelihood of impact.

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Agenda

10:00-10:15 Welcome/Setting the Stage10:15-12:00 Expert Presentations 12:00-1:00 Lunch (on your own)1:00-2:10 Expert Presentations2:10-3:30 Round Table Discussion3:30-3:45 Break (public speakers queue up)3:45-4:45 Public Speakers4:45-5:00 Conclusion

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Housekeeping

Submitting your questionsTime keepingCell phones on vibrate please Today’s session will be transcribed and posted to

www.ed.gov, together with the presentationsAdditional written input may be submitted

racetothetop.assessmentinput@ed.gov (deadline is 5pm Eastern time on January 20th)

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States Attending TodayArizonaArkansasConnecticutFloridaGeorgiaHawaiiIllinoisKentuckyMaryland

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MassachusettsMinnesotaNew YorkOregonRhode IslandSouth CarolinaTennesseeVermontWyoming

States in italics are participating by phone and/or WebEx.

On the PanelInvited Experts Byron Auguste, Partner, McKinsey & Company Timothy Boals, Executive Director, World-Class Instructional Design & Assessment (WIDA) Tammy Butler Battaglino, Partner, The Parthenon Group Mike Cohen, President, Achieve Marc Tucker, President & CEO, National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE)

From the U.S. Department of Education Tony Miller, Deputy Secretary of Education Joanne Weiss, Director of Race to the Top, Office of the Secretary Ann Whalen, Special Assistant to the Secretary Judy Wurtzel, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy

Development

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Key Project & Consortium Management Questions How would you recommend organizing a consortium to achieve success in

developing and implementing the proposed assessment system? What governance model do you suggest and why? What leadership model

do you suggest and why? What recommendations do you have on the decision-making process

within a consortium? What recommendations do you have for States that are organizing

consortia regarding: how to differentiate roles, responsibilities, and workloads within a

consortium? roles for third parties (e.g., conveners, project managers, assessment

developers/partners, intermediaries)? What advice do you have on the characteristics that all consortium

members must have in common in order for a consortium to be successful, and what characteristics can vary across member States, e.g., philosophical approaches to assessment, standards, scope and sequence, etc.?

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Key Project & Consortium Management Questions, con’t. What would you recommend that a consortium be asked to

demonstrate in its application to show that it has the capacity, structure, and potential to implement its proposed plan? What are the critical success indicators six, 12 and 18 months into the life of a consortium? What signals are predictive of ultimate success or failure?

What could go wrong in the development and management of a consortium and what can States do to mitigate these factors up front? In what ways could the Department structure the competition to help mitigate these factors?

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Additional Information

For more information on the Race to the Top Assessment Program, please visit:

http://www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment/index.html

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