Steering Committee Conference Call

April 20, 2007

Downloadable version: Conference Call Notes, April 20, 2007 (128 KB)

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Participants

Derrick Lindsay, Forum Chair, Mississippi Department of Education
Linda Rocks, NESAC Vice-Chair, Bossier Parish Schools (LA)
Robert Beecham, PPI Chair, Nebraska Department of Education
Levette Williams, PPI Vice-Chair, Georgia Department of Education
Jeff Stowe TECH Chair, Arizona Department of Education
Kathy Gosa TECH Vice-Chair, Kansas State Department of Education
Ghedam Bairu, National Center for Education Statistics
Mary McCrory, National Center for Education Statistics
Lee Hoffman, National Center for Education Statistics
Nzinga Damali-Cathie, Council of Chief State School Officers
Erin Dahlberg, Westat
Tom Szuba, Quality Information Partners
Beth Young, Quality Information Partners

Discussion

Winter 2007 Forum (Atlanta) - Evaluation Results

Planning Response to Evaluations

• Disaster Recovery Planning (Opening Session) – Derrick and Linda will prepare a check list of lessons learned.
• The Forum website will post PPTs shared in general sessions either directly or as linked to in the MIS Conference presentation site.
• Proposed Summer 2007 Forum Voice article: What is EDEN and Why Should LEAs Care? Perhaps Ross Santy or another knowledgeable person could be asked to draft it. We should also prepare (and post to the Forum website) some PPT slides that focus on EDEN and LEAs.
• We should send the evaluation comments about the NCES Teacher/Staff Compensation Survey to Frank Johnson, and let members know that their opinions have been shared.
• When speakers are asked to address general sessions as well as individual standing committees, we should try to schedule them in the general sessions first. This keeps their talks from sounding repetitive to the standing committee audience. It also serves as an opportunity for follow-up Q&As.
• Roundtable Directions: Prior to the Winter 2007 Meeting, speakers were given guidance to keep their prepared remarks short and spend more time receiving member input. This request was not always followed. We should continue to send Roundtable Directions that emphasize this important point.

Planning for the July 2007 Forum

Potential Speakers

• Mark Schneider will be asked to provide an update on NCES activities.
• Leroy Rooker could be asked to deliver a Q&A general session, but should not be asked to all standing committees unless there is new information to share.
• Jennifer Dozier should be asked to update the Forum on the MSIX project. She could provide an overview that updates all states given that this will eventually be a national initiative. It would also be interesting to share advice about selecting vendors to create interfaces between state systems and MSIX.
• CCSSO’s National Education Data Partnership (NEDP) funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: This is a substantial topic and is appropriate for a general session. A speaker could address high profile issues such as variation in graduation rate formulas, policy issues like how key indicators are identified, and technical issues such as how LEP and SPED kids are to be counted when is it improbable that they will graduate in four years under even the best of circumstances.
• USDA update on using and sharing free- and reduced- meal status as a proxy for poverty status.
• EDEN/OCR representatives with whom Forum members can meet prior to the Forum meeting (on Sunday). The goal would be for Forum SEA and LEA representatives to give input on whether and how SEAs might be able to supply LEA data for the OCR survey during state EDEN submissions.

Deborah Newby will be asked to keep the Steering Committee informed on how Forum-EIMAC communications are progressing.

There will be a full Orientation Session in July.

Roundtables: Consider scheduling them as we regularly do (two sessions back-to-back one morning) but then add 1-2 lunch time brown bag sessions as well. The idea is to try to provide more opportunities for attending roundtables so that members don’t have to choose one topic over another when they are often interested in all of them.

Other Issues

Several members mentioned that they were concerned about the presence of vendors in standing committee meetings during the Winter 2007 Forum. Some members were uncomfortable mentioning certain state needs and plans when there were people in the room who might be “looking for work.” For now, the Steering Committee will advise chairs/members to say: “We wish to discuss a procurement issue and, therefore, ask that any potential bidder leave the room so as not to disqualify his or her company.” There may need to be more review of this approach depending on whether and how the issue arises at the Summer 2007 Meeting.

The contract with the Mayflower Hotel is changing, and the Hotel asked that we move the Forum to the second week in August (2008). The Steering Committee was concerned that this might adversely impact LEA attendance. We will use the Forum Voting Tool to ask members about their preference: (1) stay with the Mayflower and move the meeting date to the second week of August; or (2) change hotels to one that can accommodate our traditional schedule (the last full week of July).

Next Call

Friday, May 18, 1:00 PM Eastern Time. Dialing instructions will be sent prior to the call.

Steering Committee Notes

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