1996 Science Performance Standards Acknowledgements

				It is almost one and one-half years since the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) initiated the process for setting the achievement levels in science. During that time, literally hundreds of individuals have worked long and hard to implement the Board’s congressional mandate to set student performance standards in each subject measured by the National Assessment. This report is the result of those efforts. The Board would like to thank the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) staff, particularly Pascal D. Forgione, Jr., Commissioner, Gary Phillips, Peggy Carr; and Sharif Shakrani (formerly of NCES staff) for their cooperation and support. ACT played a significant role in conducting the standard-setting process for the Board. ACT designed and implemented a process to set achievement levels for the 1996 NAEP Science Assessment. In preparation for the Achievement Level Setting (ALS) process, ACT conducted three pilot studies and followed up with a validation study. In the process of assisting the Board in making the final decision, ACT conducted extensive analyses of the ALS data and provided a variety of alternative methods for estimating the final cut scores. The Board would like to thank Susan Loomis, project director, and her staff, including Luz Bay, Lee Chin, and Teri Fisher, as well as Mark Reckase and the members of the Technical Advisory Team for all of their wisdom and advice. The Board also extends its thanks to Educational Testing Service (ETS), without whose support and cooperation the analytical work required for this report would not have been possible. Special thanks go to National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) staff members John Mazzeo and Christine O’Sullivan for the many hours they spent on this project. We are also grateful to James Carlson, Steve Lazer, and Paul Williams for their sound advice. The Board extends its thanks to the many professionals under whose able direction and consultation the work of standard setting has proceeded. We owe a debt of gratitude to the Technical Advisory Committee on Standard Setting (TACSS), who provided ongoing technical advice to ACT at each step along the way. Special thanks also go to the Advisory Council on Education Statistics, whose congressional charge is to provide NAGB with technical advice. The National Academy of Sciences evaluation panel has served this project well through its thoughtful work on evaluating the levels. We wish to thank all those who participated in the standard-setting process, in the validation study, and in the development of final descriptions of the levels. Without their dedication and assistance, we would have been unable to complete this very important work. To the many teachers, curriculum supervisors, administrators, and assessment personnel at the state and local levels and to the many scientists, business and industry leaders, parents, school board members, and all others who so ably provided assistance, we extend our thanks. We wish to thank the reviewers of this report, including Sheila Barron, RAND Corporation; Robert Forsyth, University of Iowa; James Freidebach, Missouri State Department of Education; and Andrew Kolstad, NCES, whose comments provided valuable insights and improved this report. Finally, we appreciate the work of Aspen Systems Corporation, which is responsible for text editing, graphics, layout, and other production aspects of this report. We especially wish to acknowledge the work of Laura Mitchell King, Jennifer Baugh, John Calderone (formerly of Aspen), Gemma Radko, Amy Salsbury, and Munira Mwalimu, as well as Martha Firestine (formerly of Aspen), under whose direction the initial development work for this report occurred. We would also like to thank Robbyn Harris of Aspen and Jewel Bell (formerly of Aspen) for their efforts in organizing meetings of the various participants from around the country.