Welcome to Dialogue on Equity in Educational Assessment

From: edequity@phoenix.edc.org
Date: Wed Mar 01 2000 - 10:01:21 EST


Welcome to Dialogue with the Experts, the WEEA Equity Resource Center's
series of focused discussions on EDEQUITY. As you may have noticed we had
some
technical difficulties yesterday, which was the first day of the dialogue.
We
apologize for any inconvenienence and we're glad you can join us today.

Today we begin our week-long Dialogue on Equity in Educational Assessment
which will address bias in both classroom assessment and standardized
testing methods, what the research says about the ways that students know
and learn, and the variety of strategies that can make assessment more
inclusive and equitable.

The panelists are:

A. Lin Goodwin, Associate Professor of Education and Co-director of
Pre-service Elementary, Education Program, Teachers College, Columbia
University. Lin is the editor and author of Assessment for Equity and
Inclusion: Embracing All Our Children, and she has written an article
which
will be featured in the upcoming issue of the WEEA Digest on "Educational
Assessment."

Tim Boals, Educational Consultant, Wisconsin Department of Public
Instruction. Tim has also written an article for the upcoming WEEA Digest
on "Educational Assessment."

Joan Dawson, Executive Director, Equity Assistance Center/Metro Center at
New York University, one of the ten federally funded regional equity
assistance centers. Joan is also one of our WEEA Associates.

The guest moderator for the discussion is also one of our WEEA
Associates, Kathy Rigsby, Gender Equity Specialist for the regional Equity
Assistance Center at Colorado State University.

Each panelist's opening statement will be sent in a separate e-mail
message. To respond, simply hit "reply" to any of these messages and your
comments/questions will be distributed to the panelists and the EDEQUITY
list as usual. Messages will be posted throughout the day from today
through Tuesday, March 7. Final comments will be posted on Tuesday, March 7
at 4 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and the dialogue will officially close at 5
p.m. that day.

Before we begin, a word about EDEQUITY's policy on subscriber conduct and a
few rules for the discussion.

First, remember that EDEQUITY is a public list and not everyone who
subscribes will necessarily have the same agenda. In fact, we have learned
from previous experience that some have subscribed to our list simply to
disrupt the discussion. Please be aware of this as you respond to
messages.
Usually the best strategy is to ignore inflammatory, anti-equity statements
and stay focused on the substance of the topic under discussion.

Differences of opinion are expected, but all messages must be respectful
and
civil. Abusive language will not be tolerated. Messages not meeting this
standard will be returned to the sender for revision.

To allow for broad participation from the members of the list and to ensure
that the panelists can respond to the concerns of as many list members as
possible, please limit your messages to TWO per DAY.

To help the flow of the discussion, indicate in the first line of your
message whether you would like a response from a particular panelist (s) or
if you are addressing your comment/question to the entire list.

Finally, let me remind you that only messages related to "Equity in
Educational Assessment" will be posted to EDEQUITY from March 1 to March
7. Posting of all other messages will resume on Wednesday, March 8.

We look forward to your thoughtful participation.

Susan

Susan J. Smith
EDEQUITY Moderator
<edequity-admin@mail.edc.org>



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