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Keynoters Bring Passion and Inspiration to ATP Innovations in Testing Conference 2005

Two keynoters, two individuals, two very different paths in life -- both shared with attendees of thesixth annual Association of Test Publishers conference one very similar trait -- passion.

Gaston Caperton,  former  Governor of West Virginia, and current President of the College Board, opened the conference with his passionate keynote address on education in America. 

“Everyone in public office today should be ashamed,” Caperton told the audience.  “We are breaking our promise for a free, quality education for every  student.  Today, out of every 100 students in the U.S. --  68 graduate on time.  Out of every 100 ninth graders today --  40 will enroll in college and only 27 will still be there for sophomore year,” he warned.

Caperton reviewed some of the great milestones in American education, tracing its roots from the early 1900s when only two percent of the population attended college to the end of World War II where the G.I. bill made a college education available and affordable for over two million students to today’s educational landscape in which 16 million students are currently attending
college or post graduate schools in the U.S.

But the point of Gaston’s talk was not to deliver a history lesson or to quote statistics.  He reminded the audience that the American educational system - one of the finest in the world - came about because of passion. He told the story of James Meredith, the first black student to attend college in Mississippi --

“ He (Meredith) walked four miles each to way to school every day...while the white school bus bus passed him by,” Caperton said. “And on the way he passed large farms with boys his own age plowing fields and tending cattle, something they would do for their entire lives, because they couldn’t read or write.”  But rather than be deterred, Caperton intoned, Meredith was inspired even more so to learn and pursue an education against all odds. 

And although he didn’t mention it in his address, Caperton,  revealed to audience members later, during a question and answer session,  how familiar he was,  as a person with dyslexia, with overcoming odds in order to learn.

But Caperton also went on to reveal his fears for education in America.

“(On the high school level)  we have the highest drop out rate of all industrialized nations...with India graduating one million more students than the U.S. and China graduating twice as many as that,” Caperton warned.  And his most ardent concern? “I believe we have lost our passion for education in America,” Caperton stated.

Caperton went on to list a number of improvements he saw as integral to restoring educational passion -- and the educational framework of America -- from making education a more appealing profession to go into, to promoting technology in public schools, to not patronizing or giving up on disadvantaged students.

And although he spoke in terms of passion and not necessarily about money -- Caperton praised recent philanthropic efforts of Bill Gates in the area of education and then volleyed a shot at the nation’s political leaders -- “ Any politician who promises not to raise taxes is not going to do a damn thing for education,” Caperton stated, to the applause of the audience.

Caperton went on to tell test publishers that they need to be passionate about their work in measurement and in technology. He stated his belief that adding a writing section to the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) will drive an improvement in writing skills among American students. “Writing,” he said,” is essential for success.”

Caperton concluded his speech with an anecdote about his mother -in-law who, he said, hung the diplomas -- including two Ph.D.’s --  of her children on her bedroom wall.  And now, he said, it is her grandchildren who are sending her their diplomas.

“That,” he said,” is passion for education...we’ve got to create that passion in America once again.”

Wally Amos - another man, another passion

At the conclusion of the conference, attendees were treated to yet another individual with a passion and a vision  to share -- Wally Amos -- multimillionaire and founder of Famous Amos cookies. 

Amos opened his closing keynote address with a warm “Aloha” from his home state of Hawaii. And he tipped his signature watermelon hat at the audience and waved about his watermelon shoes -- both symbols of defiance. Just as Caperton overcame dyslexia to gain an education and a place of honor in the world, Wally Amos overcame the stereotypes of his dark skin to become a successful entrepreneur and innovator.

“You see, he said, “a black man who eats watermelon is automatically assumed to be lazy and shiftless,” Amos explained.  “And I am here to tell you that I am neither lazy or shiftless -- I am Wally Amos -- my own person.”

Amos told his listeners that he never really saw himself as an innovator -- just a man with an idea. “My goal was to do something I loved,” he said.  “And I loved everything about chocolate chip cookies.” And so he decided to open a bakery with just one product.  But as all innovators soon learn, there were a lot of nay sayers.

“For so much of our lives we are listening to other people telling us what we can and cannot do. I heard it all the time. My accountant told me that I needed thirty types of cookies to open a bakery. But I said, if you have one product that everyone wants -- you don’t need the other twenty nine.”

And so Wally Amos, flying in the face of conventional business wisdom opened his storefront with only one product to sell...and sell it did to the tune of millions of dollars.

But Wally admitted that his one good idea came sandwiched between a lot of other ideas that did not pan out so well.  In his earlier life as a Hollywood agent he was one of the first to sign on the as-yet-unknown singing duo of Simon and Garfunkle.  And, he said, he was among the first to lose them, because he was unable to convince his colleagues in the music business that this pair of unconventional nobodies had something worth
promoting.

Later on, after selling off his famous Amos cookie business to Kelloggs, Amos once again tried to open a bakery selling muffins. This time, however, he was not as lucky and the fledgling business quickly foundered into bankruptcy.

“But we got out of it without assistance,” Amos proudly related. And they did so, he said, because of persistence and teamwork. “If you really want to innovate, get a group together on a team -- and you will find that the sky is the limit...it’s all about collaboration.” And once again, Amos repeated, success is about avoiding the nay sayers. “A cynic never created anything yet, shut them out of your lives,” he said.

Amos went on to relate his newest venture which employs a pair of dolls - Chip and Cookie - created by his wife, for the promotion of literacy in children.  Amos related how he has once again put together a “team” -- in this instance it is the Savannah College of Art and Design -- which has agreed to take on the promotion of Chip and Cookie as a social awareness project. “They will be
doing animations and other promotions,” he said, surrounding the concept of reading aloud to children.

But once again Amos pointed out that his Chip and Cookie idea was eighteen years in the making -- and nowhere at all until, through the urging of a friend, he found a “team” at Savannah College.

Amos concluded his speech with a children’s book about a box of crayons who decide to put aside their differences and collaborate on the creation of a rainbow. He used it as an example to remind the audience that no matter what arena in life they are in --  they must hold true to their ideas, avoid the nay sayers, and seek out teamwork.

“I don’t know if I’m an innovator or just plain stubborn,” Amos admitted. “But I do know that attitude is the most important thing in life. Your belief in yourself is everything.”

ATP FOCUS ON -- The Lighter Side of Testing

The famous poet EE Cummings once said, “the most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”  And no one knows that to be true better than former ATP Chair, John Fremer who freely admits that when it comes to collecting cartoons on testing he’s “an obsessive compulsive.”

Fremer, a founder and senior director of security services, Caveon Test Security, recently showcased his cartoon expertise in a Poster Session at ATP’s Innovations in Testing Conference, has been collecting testing cartoons for more than 30 years -- and has amassed a collection of more than a thousand pieces, which he keeps carefully indexed in his home.

It all began, he said, in the 1970s when he enrolled in a continuing education program to improve his presentation skills.  He learned there the value of using cartoons to entertain an audience. “I learned that my voice range wasn’t very good (for engaging an audience), but cartoons worked well.” Shortly after that he was “hooked.”

Fremer found most of his cartoons just reading the daily newspapers on a regular basis, as well as a few periodicals such as The New Yorker.  Several years into collecting he “hit it big” when he ran into a fellow collector who was willing to share his collection of several hundred cartoons.

Two of Fremer’s favorite cartoons include a vintage World War I cartoon poking fun at test items on a survey given to recruits which included the question "How many legs does a Zulu have?” -- and another favorite is a cartoon drawn especially for his collection by a visiting cartoonist from Czechoslovakia.

Fremer noted that cartoons about testing “come in waves whenever there is a major new trend or initiative such as teacher certification or No Child Left Behind.”  And, he added, there are seasonal waves brought on by the start of school each year or college admissions testing in the spring.

Fremer admitted that some of the cartoons are unfair, but overall he prefers to laugh it off -- and use the majority of his cartoons to promote learning about testing.  He has used his cartoons in presentations given in many countries and has always found that a sense of humor is universal.

ATP’s Innovations in Testing Conference 2005 breaks attendance records

ATP’s 2005 Innovations in Testing Conference held at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona February 28-March 2, was attended by over 700 individuals representing more than 14 countries.

“It was by far our most successful Conference yet, not just in numbers but by the quality of the programs that were presented and the involvement of so many different areas of the testing industry,” reported ATP Executive Director, Dr. William G. Harris.  He added that the Conference exceeded expectations in attendance, sponsorship and membership support.

 

Conference Scrapbook
Innovations in Testing/ Conference 2005
Westin Kierland Resort, Scottdale, AZ

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2005 Conference Pictures
Quinn Sutton, of TestOut Corp., gets some pointers before engaging in an old fashioned “shoot out” at a “Wild West” party sponsored by Pearson VUE.	ATP Division Chairs each held a meeting at the conference. (From l to r) David Waldschmidt (I/O), Phil Young (Education), Gerald FitzGerald (Clinical) and Julia Leahy (Certification).

Dr. Plake Receives ATP Career Achievement Award

Barbara Plake, Ph.D., Director of the Oscar and Luella Buros Center for Testing, was presented with the 2005 Career Achievement Award at the ATP  Conference.

Plake, a distinguished professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has authored more than 100 publications and serves in an advisory capacity to numeous educational agencies and professional associations.


 

Legislative Updates

Legislative Win for ATP... ATP was instrumental in securing a veto of HB 42 in Utah which, would have allowed parents to receive copies of mental health tests prior to their administration in school settings. This would have inhibited the proper use of the tests, crippled the meaningfulness of test results and compromised the security and future usefulness of the assessments being used.  ATP wrote to the Governor of Utah urging him not to sign this bill and energized local school psychologists to lobby for a veto of this bill as well.

In other government related news...

•  ATP has sent a letter to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (“NICHD”) expressing concern about a new project.  The project being contemplated by the federal government calls for the building of products that clearly are intended to compete with test products that are already available in the commercial marketplace ATP will continue to monitor this initiative.

• Senator Hinojosa (R-TX)...  sent a letter of thanks to ATP for assistance with the National Reporting System for Head Start.  He wrote: “I would like to personally thank… the Association of Test Publishers for providing me and my colleagues with an excellent technical analysis of the responses from the Secretary of Health and Human Services to our questions about the assessment used for the National

Reporting System for Head Start. It is absolutely essential that the assessments administered to our neediest children meet the highest professional standards for quality. Your analysis has provided us with invaluable, objective guidance on this critical issue…I hope that I can continue to call on the Association of Test Publishers for expert analysis and guidance on this important topic.”

• At the ATP Conference, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs held a meeting with selected ATP members.  The topic was a recently enacted federal law enabling veterans to use their GI Bill benefits to pay for national admissions exams and national exams.  The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs met with ATP members to develop criteria for identifying these exams.

 

Association Notebook

ATP Welcomes its newest member... Cito, headquartered in the Netherlands

Next ATP Conference... The 2006 ATP Conference will be held February 6-8, at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee, Florida.

Electronic copies of  the Guidelines for Computer-Based Testing are available free of charge to members on line at the ATP website (www.testpublishers.org).  Go to the Members Only Section and scroll down to Computer-Based Testing Guidelines.
Hard copies of the publication are also available for $5.00 for Members and $15.00 for  Non-members. Go to the Publications section and scroll down to In Print.  Want to order by phone using a credit card? Call toll free 866-240-7909

The Test Publisher newsletter is posted with the understanding that the content of the newsletter does not constitute the rendering of legal, accounting or other professional opinions.  If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
 

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