Steering Committee Conference Call

October 4, 2006

Downloadable version: Conference Call Notes, October 4, 2006 (101 KB)

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Participants

Derrick Lindsay, Forum Chair, Mississippi Department of Education
Bill Smith, Forum Immediate Past Chair, Sioux Falls School District (SD)
Sonya Edwards, NESAC Chair, California 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
Ghedam Bairu, National Center for Education Statistics
Tolani Adeboye, Council of Chief State School Officers
Nzinga Damali-Cathie, Council of Chief State School Officers
Tom Szuba, Quality Information Partners

Discussion

Strategic Plan

• A review of the Forum’s charter shows that expanding the Forum mission to include postsecondary education is not an option. However, renewed emphasis on coordinating with postsecondary education is permissible and makes sense.
• Ghedam will revise the draft of the strategic plan and share it with Steering Committee members (including some explanatory text) prior to sending it to the entire Forum.

Forum Voting Procedures

• While discussion and debate are a healthy part of Forum voting, the Steering Committee wishes to develop an online voting tool that affords more privacy and individual accountability. Ghedam and Tom will work with Westat to develop such a tool. If possible, when an issue comes to a vote in the future, Forum members will receive an email that points them to a website (with a log in) that might include information as presented in Figure 1.
• The listserv will remain a tool for discussion issues, including impending votes, but would no longer be used to submit votes.
• Ghedam and Tom will report on the progress to develop a web voting tool during the October 20 Steering Committee call.
• At the request of the Steering Committee, letters were sent to the Family Compliance Office (offering Forum support during their efforts to update FERPA.
• Copies of the letter are included.

Other Issues

Action Plan Items will be reviewed during our next Steering Committee conference call.

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, October 20, 2:00 PM Eastern Time. Dialing instructions will be sent a few days prior to the call.

Steering Committee Notes

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