This year's seminar will be in June at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. We even replicated a mini version of the Student Achievement Seminar 3 weeks ago with the New Mexico School Boards Association, where over 300 school board members convened for a day and a half to learn how to begin the process of developing a student achievement plan for their schools. For those of you, like me, who still like a good read, we published a well-received study on charter schools, an overview of legal issues related to student achievement, and, available here in our conference bookstore, our newest booklet on teacher shortage and recruitment strategies. More than 2,500 of your districts are National Affiliates and take advantage of these opportunities, including discounted registration to this conference. Through our services, programs and leadership on the Hill, we are accountable to you.
Accountability now seems to be the word of the century.
And that test is sometimes being used to punish students and schools rather than to improve learning. School board members can play a major role in making sure that the standardized tests in your states are not being used to punish low-achieving schools, but instead are helping teachers and administrators focus attention on raising student learning and using tests as a diagnostic tool that identifies gaps in students' skills and knowledge versus a reward and punishment game. Testing should be part of a comprehensive system of assessment and accountability. But I believe that there has never been a more crucial time to talk about what we mean by accountability and assessment. School board members can be the voice of reason in the debate over high stakes testing and standards.