• Drs. Susan Loomis of the National Assessment Governing Board and Mary J. Pitoniak of the Educational Testing Service presented a session on fundamentals of standard setting; and,
• Dr. Caroline Wylie, of the Educational Testing Service presented a session on effective professional development, translating research into reality and lessons learned along the way, and evaluating the impact of teacher learning communities.

Over the next two days, participants heard two exceptional keynote addresses:

• Can Research Help Teachers? Why Are There Doubts? Dr. Mary Kennedy of Michigan State University discussed the history of educational research in the context of the schizophrenic relationship between researchers and practitioners and evaluated a collection of hypotheses to explain the role that research has in the classroom.
• Who’s Going to Tell the Truth?
  Dr. George Pruitt, President of Thomas Edison State College described the plethora of assessment methodologies intended to provide educators, administrators, and politicians with the answer to the question Where are the outcomes of these initiatives? And pointed to the need for changing the politics of education and creating a shared culture of meaningful, useful, actionable assessments.

Additional in-conference sessions included: Grant writing with Drs. Stan Shaw and Michael Coyne, University of Connecticut; mixture modeling to classify persons into groups with Dr. Dena Pastor from James Madison University; and using NVivo 8 for qualitative analyses with Dr. Kelly Godfrey of The College Board.

In a session sponsored by the GSIC, a panel of seasoned researchers explored the question “If you were in graduate school now, what would you be learning and what skills would you try to develop?" Panelists included Dr. Judy Robb, University of New Hampshire; Dr. John Young, ETS; and Dr. April Zenisky, University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

After a long day of educational research and a delicious dinner, festive social events provided a chance to relax a bit in the low-key atmosphere of some smooth jazz or to enjoy laughing together and dancing in a jovial, up-beat atmosphere to the music of the Glamour Girls!

41st Annual Conference
Building Research Partnerships

Be sure to check back after the holidays and read about the plans the 2010 conference committee have in store for the 41st annual conference. The theme for next year is Building Research Partnerships so mark your calendars now for October 20-22, 2010 to join us at the Hartford Marriott Rocky Hill in Rocky Hill, CT for another great NERA conference.