2022 ATP Innovations in Testing Global Conference

March 20-23, 2022

Hyatt Regency Orlando

Booth #201

We are excited to learn about the possibilities at this year’s global ATP conference. Stop by to say hello and start your day with Alpine at our booth in Orlando! We look forward to seeing you all in March!

Be sure to add these sessions to your ATP agenda:

Monday, March 21

FEATURED SPEAKER SESSION: Let’s Talk about the Solution Rather than the Problem: Recommending Changes for Educational Assessment Policy

11:20 am – 12:10 pm ET
Session Type: Panel Discussion – In-Person
Karen Barton (Edmentum), Kristen Huff (Curriculum Associates), Ye Tong (Pearson VUE), Tracey Hembry (Alpine Testing Solutions)

As an industry, we commonly bemoan the requirements of educational assessment and accountability policies as hindering the way in which we practice. Let’s assume that these policies will evolve over time. What changes could be made to such policies that would yield improved outcomes for students? How would assessments be different and in what ways would we, as a field, advocate for changes to the way in which they are being used? This will be the focus of discussion across this 3-part series at the 2022 meetings for ATP, the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), and the National Conference on Student Assessment (NCSA), with each session highlighting the membership perspectives of each sponsoring, professional organization. In this first session in the series, the panel includes speakers from various testing organizations who provide assessments used across the country. The panel will speak from their operational experiences, specifically related to test development and delivery, and provide their input on the changes to policy that could contribute to improved outcomes for students and teachers.

“Each One, Teach One”: Your Psychometric Questions Answered by a Panel of Psychometricians

3:20 pm – 4:10 pm ET
Session Type: Peas in a Pod – Virtual
Amanda Dainis (Dainis & Company), Keith Wright (The Enrollment Management Association), Brett Foley (Alpine Testing Solutions)

Do you have a psychometric question? Are you seeking clarity on psychometric-related accreditation standards? Join this session to get answers to any of your psychometric questions from a panel of passionate psychometricians, representing varying perspectives and experiences. This audience driven session will be in a question-and-answer format. Questions may range from the first steps of designing a program, to exam maintenance, to accreditation, or anything in between. Join us to contribute to, and learn from, a discussion with your psychometric community!

3:20 pm – 4:10 pm ET
Session Type: Sponsor Session – In-Person
Tracey Hembry, Gina Raney, and Steve Hegerhorst (Alpine Testing Solutions)

In this session, learn about the customizable and automated security offering that provides ongoing and comprehensive security support, including candidate follow-up. Alpine works hand in hand with programs to select security analyses from a series of psychometrically sound options that align with the program’s purpose, use, and specifications. Next, the analyses are customized for the program, including the establishment of appropriate criteria and rules for the analyses. Finally, a program can choose the actions to be taken for various outcomes which may include warning letters, candidate registration restriction, and credential suspension. Alpine’s industry-proven psychometric talent, years of experience providing security support, and best-in-class credentialing management platform, are all available to develop and implement security monitoring on your behalf. Once established, this service allows programs to engage as much or as little as desired with the security analyses and follow-up actions. Updates can be provided at your desired cadence, and in the interim, no news is good news.

Join us and get in on the good news.

Tuesday, March 22

Crowdsourced Item Generation: Practical Considerations and Strategies to Harness the Power of Your Credential Holders (and Others!)

10:00 am – 10:50 am ET
Session Type: Presentation – In-Person
Marco Alves (NVIDIA), Sarah Hughes and Laura Brooks (Alpine Testing Solutions)

The “standard” item development process can be quite strenuous for subject matter experts (SMEs). The level of effort required to generate sufficient new items for a new exam, or for pretesting to attach to an existing exam, can be burdensome and may make SME recruiting and retention quite challenging. High quality SMEs may be unable to participate at all in the item development process due to the high level of time and effort required. What if there was a way to reduce the barriers to entry for busy SMEs, and reduce the overall time and effort required to participate in item writing? Using the knowledge and experience gained through crowdsourced item writing for an NVIDIA program, panelists will discuss considerations relating to the following questions:

What are the best use cases for engaging in this type of item generation model?
How can you reduce barriers to increase wider SME participation?
What operational aspects must you consider before implementing crowdsourced item writing?
How do crowdsourced items’ quality compare to items development in a more “standard” fashion?
How can you manage the security of your items?

Not the Same Ol’ Job Analysis – Innovating for an Analysis of Practice

10:00 am – 10:50 am ET
Session Type: Peas in a Pod – In-Person
Andy McEntyre (National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB)), Susan Cooley and Brett Foley (Alpine Testing Solutions)

Are you making full use of the job analysis process? Is your current job analysis capturing the full essence and diversity of the practice? Do you wish you could do more with the information you learn during a job analysis? Join us for an interactive discussion on ways to bring innovation to an analysis of practice. The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) is currently undergoing such an analysis and will share some of the approaches they are using and open the floor for programs to share ideas and innovate together.

Select Your Own Certification Path: A Case Study of Program Design (Part 2)

11:20 am – 12:10 pm ET
Session Type: Presentation – In-Person
Ken Salchow and Heidi Schreifels (F5 Networks), Jill van den Heuvel (Alpine Testing Solutions)

This program design case study examines how one highly regarded IT certification program redesigned their program. The redesign intentionally emphasized flexibility for candidates’ lifelong learning journeys by focusing certifications on both job roles and technology areas. Avoidance of assessment redundancies and the need to keep content relevant and accurate were of paramount importance. The program redesign bridged opportunities with virtual meetings to incorporate global input in real time across a variety of time zones. This session explores program design and how intentional activities add value for all stakeholders. The audience will learn more about program design, implementing a new program when a program already exists, and how to emphasize relevance for all stakeholders with flexibility for candidates in their learning, assessment, and career paths.

Your Raters Don’t Always Agree, Now What?: Learn How to Get Tangible Feedback and Identify Ways to Improve.

1:20 pm – 2:30 pm ET
Session Type: Presentation – Virtual
Andrew Strait (Google), Zac Henrich (MZD), Tracey Hembry and Corina Owens (Alpine Testing Solutions)

This session will provide support to an operational challenge in implementing rubric-based scoring: actionable and timely feedback on the quality of the scoring and the measure. Presenters will begin by providing an accessible introduction to the many facet Rasch measurement model, an extension of the popularly used Rasch model that includes modeling of numerous factors such as raters (Linacre, 2020). The remainder of the session will focus on the application of the model, as computed by FACETS software, to two distinctly different programs. Attendees will gain insights into the vast amount of feedback provided by the software with translation of the technical information into practical application to support programmatic improvements of rubric-based scoring, including the comparability of prompts, the consistency of rater scoring, improvements to rater training, and the clarity of rubrics. Ideally this session will leave panelists with increased knowledge and tools to support the attainment of higher quality of items and exams that utilize rubric-based scoring.

Bridging Opportunities for Better Assessment.

To learn more about the 2022 ATP Innovations in Testing Global Conference, please click here.