NCDAE Webcast - Computer-based Assessment and Testing: Access or Accommodation
Overview
The National Center on Disability and Access to Education is pleased to announce another in our series of webcasts. The broadcast, held Wednesday, April 20th, 2005 was entitled "Computer-based Assessment and Testing: Access or Accommodation". Panelists discussed topics ranging from reliability and security of computer-based high stakes tests to accessibility barriers in current electronic testing technology.
Panelists
Carol Price - CTB McGraw Hill
Carol Price is a Development Manager for CTB/McGraw-Hill, the leading assessment company in the US . She has been a professional educator for more than 20 years with certifications in English Language Arts, Special Education, Early Childhood, Elementary Grades, and Leadership and Supervision. As a classroom teacher, Carol became a Master-Mentor Teacher who provided technical assistance to special education teachers throughout the state of Louisiana; this work led her to the Louisiana State Department where she was in charge of the development and administration of the Alternate Assessment. Carol has experience working with students at every age, grade, and ability level from pre-school to post-secondary. As Director of the Early Intervention Program, she managed three facilities serving children with disabilities and their families in the metro New Orleans area. As an Adjunct Professor at the University of New Orleans, she was appointed to the UNO Speakers Bureau.
Carol has two Master of Education Degrees from the University of New Orleans, Louisiana: one in Educational Administration with concentrations in Leadership and Supervision, and the other in Special Education with concentrations in Deaf Education and Mild Moderate Disabilities; her Bachelor of Education Degree is from Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas; and she is a certified Program Management Professional.
Ruth Loew - ETS (Educational Testing Service)
Dr. Loew is the Assistant Director of the Office of Disability Policy at Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, New Jersey. She earned a B.A. in Linguistics from Brown University, an M.A. in Education of the Hearing Impaired from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Minnesota, focusing on the structure and acquisition of American Sign Language. Before coming to ETS, Dr. Loew served on the faculty of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, New York and held research positions with Rutgers University (Newark, New Jersey) and Children’s Seashore House (Philadelphia). Her current responsibilities include consultation on adapting tests for individuals with disabilities; coordinating activities of ETS’s Disability Policy Team; representing ETS on the National Task Force on Equity in Testing Deaf and Hard of Hearing Individuals; participating in test-accessibility research; and training staff involved in testing individuals with disabilities.
Preston Lewis - Kentucky Department of Education
Mr. Lewis has serves as Manager for the Program Services Branch, Division of Exceptional Children Services, Kentucky Department of Education (KDE). While at the KDE he has served as the SEA lead on the Kentucky Universal Design for Learning initiative (UDL), which has been implemented statewide since 1998. This includes the development and implementation of Kentucky’s accessible statewide assessment for students with disabilities, known as “CATS Online”. CATS Online first opened as an accessible electronic assessment accommodation in 2002 with about 200 students, and included over 500 students with disabilities in 2003. It is anticipated approximately 1400 students with disabilities from about 150 schools will take their test online in spring of 2005. (Go to www.education.ky.gov and enter CATS Online in the Search box).
Mr. Lewis has served a total of 30 years in the field of special education. Mr. Lewis recently served as Principle Investigator on a Phase 2 Steppingstone project with UK, known as Project CARE (Curriculum Access through Reading Electronically). He also recently served as a liaison for the KDE on another Steppingstones project with UK and CAST, Universal Design of Assessment- Applications of Technology. Mr. Lewis has also served as Principle Investigator on a Phase I and Phase 2 Steppingstones project (1998-2002), known as Project STATUS (Student Technology Assessment Through Unique Strategies) Project STATUS has examined and validated the use of distance-based technologies for providing "tele-assessments" for students in rural areas in need of assistive technology evaluations. In addition, he has extensive experience in the development and implementation of other state and federal projects including Kentucky Statewide Systems Change Project, Kentucky State Improvement Grant, and Kentucky Statewide Transition Project. Mr. Lewis also served as the SEA lead in the development of the Assistive Technology Guidelines for Kentucky Schools (1997).
Archives
The archives for the audio broadcast from Wednesday, April 20th, 2005 entitled "Computer-based Assessment and Testing: Access or Accommodation" are available below.
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