1998 CRESST Conference Proceedings: Comprehensive Systems for Educational Accounting and Improvement: R&D Results

Fifty sessions and nearly 70 presenters or discussion leaders thoroughly examined all aspects of comprehensive systems for accountability and improvement of education at the 1998 CRESST national conference, and it was distilled in a final comment. As chair of the last panel, Robert Glaser of CRESST/University of Pittsburgh noted that the panel’s title, reinventing assessment and accountability to help all children learn, “is the real topic of the whole conference.” That topic was all-inclusive, indeed. It ranged from national assessment studies, to innovative uses of technology, to deeper understanding of the assessment of students traditionally left out of accountability, to benefits from partnerships between researchers and practitioners. The CRESST national conference is a checkpoint in the continuing search for better assessments and school improvement strategies. The 1998 gathering began with a national context for work on assessment and school improvement, moved to specific issues, and devoted time to new and/or continuing research, often resulting from working relationships between CRESST and district and teacher partners.