Thursday, July 12, 2001

WILMINGTON, N.C. – Nationally prominent “movers and shakers” in teacher and student evaluation and assessment will share their expertise with 200 educators, policymakers and business people from across the country at the 10th annual CREATE National Evaluation Institute, co-sponsored by UNC Wilmington and SERVE, the education research lab for educators serving six southeastern states. SERVE is affiliated with UNC Greensboro.

The conference is July 19-21 at the Hilton Wilmington Riverside. CREATE, the Consortium for Research on Educational Accountability and Teacher Evaluation, is an international, non-profit professional organization linking educators and evaluators in an effort to help schools address educational issues.

Throughout the three-day, 70-session conference, participants will be looking at assessment from a variety of viewpoints, not just end-of-grade testing or linking teacher evaluations with student achievement, explained Karen Wetherill, assistant dean at the UNCW Watson School of Education, who is coordinating the program. The conference theme is “Using Assessment to Inform Improvement: Creating an Alliance among Educational Practitioners, Policymakers and the Business Community.” Areas of discussion include educational accountability, program and personnel evaluation, evaluation and policy, evaluation and technology and evaluation and business.

The opening keynote speaker will be John Dornan, president and executive director of the Public School Forum of North Carolina. He will speak at 8:15 a.m. Friday on the pressures of high stakes testing and the consequences of public policy.

Kati Haycock, director of The Education Trust in Washington, D.C., will discuss “Achievement in America and What We Have to Do to Improve It” in her keynote address at 12:30 p.m. Friday. A panel discussion follows with Dornan and Bill Sanders, manager of value-added assessment and research for SAS inSchool. Michael Scriven, professor at the Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University will receive the Jason Millman Award and provide his perspective on these important issues.

“We’ve got some of the major players in evaluation and assessment coming to the conference. From a faculty standpoint, it’s pretty exciting to have the people we reference in our teaching here in Wilmington,” Wetherill said. “The topics are so cutting edge and so critical to our state and nation.”

“When we talk about the Watson School of Education and UNCW being on the national scene, we are, and this conference is just an example,” she said. “The turnout attests to the fact that we have a lot to offer nationally, and we are being recognized for that.”

Examples of other presenters from across the nation are Peter Airasian, professor from Boston College; Joyce Annunziata, assistant superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools; Chad Ellett, researcher from Georgia; Arlen Gullickson, chief of staff from the Evaluation Center in Western Michigan; Ken Peterson, professor from Portland State University; and Del Schalock, research professor from Western Oregon University.

Among the participants will be eight teachers from across the United States, including several from North Carolina, who are certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. At the conclusion of the conference they will lead a discussion and share their insights on the conference sessions from the perspective of classroom teachers.

“We’re trying to appeal to a variety of audiences and engage them in a topic that’s so current and critical now,” Wetherill said.

UNCW faculty presenting at the conference include: Cathy Barlow, dean of the Watson School of Education, Diane Calhoun, Ann Crawford, Tracy Hargrove, Rich Huber, Richard Pratt, Laura Rogers, Brad Walker and Wetherill.

Also during the conference a joint commission will be reviewing student evaluation standards that will be adapted nationally.

Additional support for the conference is being provided by the UNCW Chancellor’s Office and Division for Public Service and Extended Education, State Farm, Corwin Press and the Hayden-Harman Family Foundation.

NOTE TO THE MEDIA: Please contact Marybeth Bianchi in UNCW University Relations, 910.962.4164, for a complete conference schedule or to arrange an interview with any of the program participants.