Conference on "Standard-setting: International state of research and practices in the Nordic countries"

The conference will be organized by Sigrid Blömeke, Director of the Centre for Educational Measurement, Faculty of Education, University of Oslo (CEMO), Norway, and Jan-Eric Gustafsson, Professor at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Main audiences of the conference are - policy makers at all levels of the school system concerned with national tests in the Nordic countries - crucial school representatives vocal in the public discussion about national tests in the Nordic countries - test developers from all substantive fields in which national testing occurs - experts, institutions and stakeholders in the field of educational measurement from the Nordic countries - scientific communities with research interests in the field of national testing The first day of the conference will be focused on broader issues of standard setting such as accountability, validity or policy controversies. The second day will be focused on specialized methodological issues including questions how to validate the choice among standards-setting methods in one strand with psychometric colleagues as the main audience. A second strand will focus on standard-setting practices including how to report its results in a fruitful way, teachers? learning needs and policy implications. Policy makers are the main audience of this strand. The outcomes of the conference will be three-fold: 1) Scholarly dissemination of its debates and results in terms of a book publication "Current issues in research on standard setting" that includes review papers by high-profile experts enriched by high-quality research papers about most recent advancements in research on standard setting 2) Public dissemination of its policy-related debates and results in terms of public relation work with the national media in the Nordic countries 3) Strengthening the research collaboration within the Nordic countries by building up a topic-related network and providing a chance to exchange personnel