Chad M. Barrett's

I've had three books sitting on my desk, unread, for the longest time. I pick one up, read a few pages, then switch because I think that another book is more relevant at that moment. Switching between these books, along with my failure to read everyday (or even some weeks), means that all three have gone unread for better than half a year. (That's not something I'm proud of by the way.) As I prepare to make reading a priority (again), I thought I'd share a brief description of each book.

Leading Out Loud is the book I am currently carrying around. This book, by Terry Pearce, talks about authentic communication.

I picked up Drive sometime before Christmas last year. Drive is now third on my reading list. This book, by Daniel Pink, talks about motivation.

Leading Change was handed to me this past spring. I started reading Leading Change and then put it down when I decided to finish reading Leading Out Loud. This book, by John P. Kotter, talks about leading groups through the change process.

If these books don't suit your fancy, the catalystspace blog wrote an entry earlier this month titled What Are the Top 5 Books Every Young Influencer Should Read? You know it's a pretty good list when the first book is The Bible.

What's on your reading list? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Yesterday I attended three sessions at the AERA/NCME conference. I will briefly explain the topics covered in each session.

Session #1 - Technical Issues in Benchmark Assessment

The presenters at this session discussed issues in using benchmark assessments to provide specific types of information (in the form of scores). Benchmark assessments are given at specific points throughout the year. School and district leaders use the data generated by benchmark assessments to ensure that students are ready for the statewide summative assessment. Presenters touched on the following technical issues.

• Growth Models – Test users are interested in developing benchmark assessments that track student growth. Leaders are interested in knowing that, even if a student is failing, that the student is learning (and maybe even catching up).
• Predictive Models – Test users are interested in developing benchmark assessments that predict whether the student will pass the summative test.
• Sample Size – Benchmark tests, particularly those developed at the district level, are administered to smaller numbers of students when compared to the statewide summative assessment. This presents a number of additional issues to the measurement community.

Session #2 - 21st Century Assessment Design: Four Perspectives

The presenters at this session discussed innovative approaches to designing assessments. The approaches presented during this session focused on evidence-centered design (ECD). This approach holds promise in assisting test developers in identifying the content students need to know and what students need to be able to do with the content. After this session, I know that I need to study this approach in much greater detail.

Session #3 - Common Core Standards and Coordinated State Assessment

This session was a panel discussion. Panel members were experts that are monitoring the assessment competition that is a part of the federal government’s Race to the Top Competition. The next five years will be very exciting in educational assessment because consortia of states will be working together to develop common assessments.

Here is a list of bloggers that are at AERA this weekend. I will update as I find people that are here.

Education Week's Inside School Research