1. Accountability and High School Success: Graduation Rate and Diploma Trends in Virginia. Dr. Lisa Abrams, Assistant Professor,VCU, School of Education.

This presentation explores the relationship between accountability and high school success by examining the graduation rate and diploma earning patterns of Virginia's 2000-2004 high school classes. This session will focus on 1) overall state graduation rate and diploma trends, 2) trends according to student subgroup populations, 3) student and school factors that influence graduation rates, and 4) the implications of No Child Left Behind for determining graduation rates.

2. Assessing Virginia's English Language Learners. Laura Kennedy, LEP Assessment Specialist Division of Assessment and Reporting

Find out what's new in English Language Proficiency (ELP) assessment for this school year. Specifically, the Virginia English Language Proficiency (SELP) Test will be discussed in detail. Additional ELP assessment issues will be addressed. You will receive ELP assessment tips and resources.

3. Back By Popular Demand: SOL Accountability and Sanity - Both at the Same Time. Barry Kavy, DDOT and Maureen Fowler, Testing Assistant, Virginia Beach City Public Schools.

Even with online testing, the second largest school division in Virginia processed over 160,000 SOL test booklets during the 2004-2005 school year! How does Virginia Beach handle thousands of test booklets each administration and still keep accountability for them? Learn some of the things Virginia Beach is doing to process, distribute, and track test materials accurately and quickly - before, during, and after testing! Information will be shared on using technology, man/woman power and organization to your best advantage.

4. Boosting the Academic Achievement of Your ESOL Students. Megan Moore, ESOL Coordinator and Amy Howard, DDOT, Manassas City Public Schools.

Presenters will share strategies and activities designed to boost the academic achievement of ESOL students. Participants will come way with hands on activities and ideas to bring back to their teachers. Presenters will also share teacher-designed SELP and SOL practice sample test questions for ESOL students.

5. Creating "Portraits of Learning." Ken Sumrall, President, and David Shea Consultant, EdSoft Software Corporation.

EdSoft Software Corporation's Performance Assessment feature allows districts to gather vital observational, anecdotal and performance-based data to add to state and local benchmark data to create comprehensive “Portraits of Learning” of how individual and targeted groups of students are performing against expected state and local standards. EdSoft’s Program Tracking feature allows districts to organize diverse data sources to create custom systems for monitoring progress of individual students or groups of students based on demographic or programmatic criteria.

6. District-wide Classroom Assessment. Dr. Nora Hall, DDOT, Prince William Co. Schools.

A description of Prince William County's district-wide classroom assessment program will be provided including the development of test maps, tests, and reports.

7. Formative Assessment With Student Response Systems. Susan Ennis, Account Manager and Marty Connolly, Technical Consultant, Pearson NCS.

Using the Prosper Assessment System and Classroom Performance System (CPS) from Pearson NCS, districts can formative assessments and administer them by paper/pencil or the new student response pad system. Using the response pad system (CPS) from eInstruction, students become actively engaged in any type of classroom assessment on a daily basis. The Prosper Assessment System provides easy, informative individual or cumulative reports for immediate feedback. Test items can be correlated to state standards, or with available item banks, the correlations are provided. This solution is priced for the classroom, building or district level user.

8. Helping Students Show What They Know. Lauren Armour, National Consultant, Curriculum Associates.

Strategies and lessons for helping Virginia students prepare for the SOL. This session will focus primarily on reading and writing. Samples provided to attendees.

9. How Can You Add Real Value to YOUR Formative Assessments? Dr. David Mott, Tests for Higher Standards.

Well-used, formative assessments could help direct the courses of instruction. Yet often they end up being just "more testing." How can all the effort schools put into testing actually direct students' learning along different paths, rather than simply documenting the distance along a common path each student has trodden? Connections will be made between the SOLs, data-driven instruction, assessments for learning, value-added models, and individualized instruction, all within the overarching influence of NCLB.

10. How the Data Warehouse Has Benefited PWCS. Holly Hess, Director, Planning and Assessment and Stephen George, CIO, Prince William County Public Schools. PWCS implemented a data warehouse in 2003-4. This session will demonstrate the data warehouse solution focusing on the following areas: 1. Benefits realized from the data warehouse in the Assessment and Accountability area 2. Making AYP: How schools are using the data warehouse to identify student groups and individual students requiring supplemental instructional attention 3. Program Performance: Longitudinal evaluation of student performance in various supplemental program areas

11. Investigating the Relationships Between K-3 PALS and Third Grade SOL Scores in an Urban School District. Dr. Donna Jovanovich, VCU, School of Education.

The results of a study investigating the correlations and the predictive relationships between PALS and third grade SOL English: Reading/Writing scores of third graders in an urban school district will be presented. Both linear and logistic regressions were examined. In addition, data from students with disabilities will be presented.

12. Involving LEP Parents in the Testing Process. Megan Moore, ESOL Coordinator and Amy Howard, DDOT, Manassas City Public Schools.

Presenters will share outreach programs and initiatives used to communicate testing information to LEP parents. Power Point presentations and translated documents will be shared with participants, as well as strategies for involving LEP parents in the division wide testing process.

13. NAEP 2005: Virginia‘s Results in Mathematics and Reading Grades 4 and 8. Dr. Wendy Geiger, Va DOE

As part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) conducts national and state assessments at least once every two years in reading and mathematics in grades 4 and 8. The results from these and other NAEP assessments are gaining more attention in the national media and research reports. Find out the NAEP assessment results, how data are being used, and what is being planned for NAEP.

14. New Tests = New Scale = Vertical Scale. Dr. Robert Triscari, Assessment and Reporting, VaDOE. This session will focus on the design and implementation of the vertical scales that will be computed after the Spring 2006 administration of SOL tests in grades 3 through 8. The discussion will include various uses of a vertical scale.

15. English Standards of Learning Writing Assessment. Barbara F. Jones Lead Specialist, English Division of Assessment and Reporting Va DOE.

This session will focus on the direct writing component of the English Writing assessment: prompt selection and the scoring of the direct writing using the writing rubric. The writing appeals process will be discussed. An overview of the revised writing blueprints will also be presented.

16. Online Formative Assessments - Working Simpler, Knowing More. Buzz Fowler, Peggi Moon, Pearson School Systems

The presenters will share how SOL aligned common formative assessments can be administered through Pearson’s exclusive TestNAV®, online testing system. The audience will see how interactive analysis of student achievement data from annual SOL tests can be easily compared to formative assessments and other longitudinal achievement data to inform instruction at all levels, for each individual learner. Attendees will learn how this system integrates with existing SASI and other data sources to greatly reduce the time, costs and effort associated with AYP, and other reporting, while providing more accessible, timely and relative information for all stakeholders

17. Organizing your Local VGLA Scoring Team. Barbara Speece, DDOT, Halifax County Public Schools.

Some tips from Halifax County after scoring over 200 VGLA portfolios for 2004-2005. Suggestions include how to organize notebooks, train team members, and work with teachers throughout the year as portfolios are assembled.

18. Predicting SOL Success using BART (Benchmark Assessment and Reporting Tool). Renee Vogel, Consultant, The Princeton Review; James Farrell, Instructional Technology Specialist, Linda Hamilton, Teacher, and Shawn Gardner, Teacher, Fairfax County Public Schools.

The Princeton Review K–12 Services is pleased to work with Fairfax County Public Schools(FCPS) to provide the Benchmark Assessment and Reporting Tool (BART). BART is designed to be a low-stakes, online assessment program for students in grades three through eight. In this session teachers will share how BART is providing information about their students’ strengths and weaknesses relative to Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL).

19. Roundtable Discussions: Sharing Strategies for Evaluating Programs and School Division Initiatives. Jennifer Coyne Cassata, Supervisor of Program Evaluation and Margaret Gheen, Program Evaluation Specialist, Prince William County Schools; Michelle Serafin, Program Evaluation Specialist and Kenneth Hinson, Program Evaluation Specialist, Fairfax County Public Schools.

During this one-hour breakout session, take the opportunity to float among three concurrent roundtables to learn about evaluation strategies and share your own experiences with formal and informal evaluation with others interested in evaluating programs and school division initiatives. Roundtable 1, Let's Talk About Designing Good Evaluations (of Full-Day Kindergarten), will be led by Margaret Gheen, who will talk about a variety of evaluation designs in a concrete way using full-day kindergarten as an applied example. The discussion will focus on the ways full-day kindergarten evaluation projects have dealt with the factors that impact student outcomes. Participants will share experiences with doing evaluations and learn from each other. You are invited to email Margaret in advance with specific questions or topics you'd like to address, and she will try to build them into the discussion. (email: gheenmh@pwcs.edu). Roundtable 2, And the Survey Says, will be led by Jennifer Coyne Cassata, who will discuss ways in which surveys and survey tools can be used to inform evaluation and assessment practices in our school divisions. With the advent of new technologies, surveys can provide us with powerful feedback about the successes and challenges in implementing initiatives, including state testing programs. Roundtable 3, Online Assessment Systems: Product or Program Evaluation, will be led by Michelle Serafin and Ken Hinson, who will discuss issues in evaluating alignment (content, depth, emphasis, performance, and reporting) and implementation of online assessment systems, use of the assessment data, and the impact on instruction and student achievement.

20. Staying on Target. Shannon Still, National Measurement Consultant and Karen Volkers, National Measurement Consultant, Harcourt Assessment, Inc.

More and more, educators are relying on formative assessments to monitor student achievement. To that end, Harcourt Assessment has designed a comprehensive formative assessment system to specifically identify breakdowns in student understanding of standards-based curricula. This session will discuss Harcourt's innovative approach to test item development that provides a strong link between classroom and large scale accountability testing.

21. Surviving Spring 05: Endless EOC On-line Testing. Mary Wills, DDOT and Carolyn Morton-Hall, Director of Technology and Assessment, Fauquier County Public Schools.

Reflections on the 3 in one EOC window: Term Grads, Spring, and Expedited. Topics to be discussed will be: lab and personnel resource use and rejuvenation (keeping people pumped for 6 weeks), instruction that includes remediation and differentiation (structuring the school day), and the fear factor of failure and graduation (reaching the ones being left behind). Come and reflect with us.

22. Teachers' Evaluation of eduTest as a Tool for Classroom Assessment. Dr. Ann Allen, Office of Research and Evaluation, Richmond City Public Schools.

This presentation will report the results of a survey administered to teachers during the 2004-05 school year to obtain their evaluation of eduTest as a tool for classroom assessment. Also included in the survey were items concerning the rationale for using online assessments and preferred features of online assessment systems. Discussion will include implications for designing and selecting online assessment systems.

23. Testing 101: Tools for Working Smarter Not Harder. Linda Stewart, DDOT, York County Public Schools and Laurette Carter, DDOT, Newport News City Schools.

Effective School Test Coordinator (STC) tools for gathering and tracking student demographic data as it applies to the test answer document. Getting it right up front will pay off in the end.

24. Tracking Verified Credits in SASI. Oskar Scheikl, Student Information System Supervisor, Rockingham County Public Schools.

Setup and use of the SASI Student Information System to track verified credits are explained and demonstrated. Additionally, SASI queries related to SOL testing are demonstrated.

25. Using Assessment as an Instructional Tool * Dr. Dan Mulligan

26. Using Neuroscience to Boost Achievement. Dr. Steve Miller, Scientific Learning.

This breakout will highlight the main points of the pre-session, and Dr. Miller will be available for questions and answers about his research.

27. Using Classroom Data to Focus and Align Instruction. Richard Crawford, Principal and Teresa Hoovestol, Reading Coach, Hardy Elementary School, Isle of Wight Public Schools.

Hardy Elementary has begun to systematically look at classroom-generated data to measure achievement for individual students, groups, classes, and grades as part of a unified process. Also, Hardy Elementary has developed a systematic method to analyze 9-week test data (grades 2 - 5) to ensure that instruction aligns to the SOL. The results were an increase in SOL test data, including a 37 point increase in the 3rd grade English pass rate (50% in '04 to 87% in '05.). Using samples of real data, these methods will be discused.

28. What’s in it for Me? Helping Test Directors Understand Evaluation Reports. Lidi Hruda, Fairfax and Jennifer Coyne Cassata, Prince William County Schools.

Do you know what to focus on when you pick up an evaluation report? This session will help test directors understand what to look for in evaluation reports, what questions to ask when reading reports, and what the answers to these questions can tell you about your testing program and how schools use test data. We will also discuss participatory our testing program and how schools use test data. We will also discuss participatory

evaluation and what test directors can bring to an evaluation team when they participate in the evaluation process

29. Work Keys: An Alternate Assessment for Writing. Randi Smith Instructional Specialist, Secondary Language Arts and Dr. Glen Miller, School Improvement and Instructional Support Manager, Chesterfield County Public Schools.

Work Keys is an approved alternate SOL writing assessment that has been used successfully with seniors who have been unable to pass the traditional writing SOL test. Chesterfield County has targeted seniors (with multiple SOL writing failures) and developed a successful remedial program with a 78% success rate in obtaining this verified credit.