Contact: Lauren Scheib 866-240-7909
 

ATP to host fourth annual conference
Technology in Testing: Application and Innovation

January 27, 2003 -- The Association of Test Publishers will present its fourth annual conference, Technology in Testing: Application and Innovation, February 24 - 26, 2003. The site of this year’s conference will be the Amelia Island Plantation located in Amelia Island, Florida (outside of Jacksonville).

"There are several new and exciting tracks at this year’s conference including: Program Management, Integration of Learning and Testing, Test Development and Alternative Testing Technologies," said Conference Co-Chair Bill Cramer, of Chauncey Group International. "Another added feature at this year’s conference will be poster sessions designed to allow attendees to get a glimpse of the most current technology in testing," he added.

Among the keynote speakers at this year’s conference will be Senator Chris Dodd, Senior Senator from Connecticut, who will talk about the challenges and opportunities facing America's workers; and, Randy Bennett, Ph.D., Distinguished Presidential Appointee, Educational Testing Service ("ETS"), who will talk about advances in technology, which will force fundamental changes in the format and content of assessment.

Sessions for this year’s conference have been sponsored by all four of ATP’s divisions (Certification, Clinical, Educational, Industrial/Organizational) and include such titles as: The Reality of Testing Technology in the Classroom Today; Growing your Certification Program Internationally; Proven Strategies for Protecting Intellectual Property; and Unproctored Employee Recruitment and Selection.

ATP Chair Cyndy Fitzgerald, of Microsoft Corporation announced that the 2003 Career Achievement Award in Computer-Based Testing will be given to Ronald Hambleton, distinguished professor and chairperson of the Research and Evaluation Methods Program and co-director of the Center for Educational Assessment at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

"Professor Hambleton's research has focused in recent years on several topics of interest to ATP -- computer-based test designs, setting performance standards on credentialing exams, translating credentialing exams for uses in multiple languages and cultures, applications of item response theory, and test score reporting," Fitzgerald said. She also also noted that Professor Hambleton is an author of several texts including Fundamentals of Item Response Theory and Item Response Theory: Principles and Applications, as well as having served as a Past-President of the National Council on Measurement in Education, Division 5 of the American Psychological Association, the International Test Commission, and Division 2 of the International Association of Applied Psychology.

"Without a doubt this conference keeps getting better," said Conference Co-Chair, Don Wagner, of Pearson Professional Testing. "The attendance keeps going up each year. We’ve grown from 350 attendees three years ago to an anticipated attendance of 550 this year, and we’ve sold out every year." Wagner urged individuals interested in the conference to register early in order to avoid being shut out. Registration and information is available on line at www.testpublishers.org

Established in 1992, The Association of Test Publishers is a non-profit organization representing providers of tests and assessment tools and/or services related to assessment, selection, screening, certification, licensing, educational or clinical uses and dedicated to the highest level of professionalism and business ethics within the test publishing community.