CERA

Letter from the 2013 President

Dear Colleagues,

The 92nd Annual California Educational Research Association (CERA) Conference is coming to the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California, for two full days on December 5 – 6, 2013. There will also be pre-conference sessions on December 4, 2013. The theme for this year’s conference will be Implementing the Common Core: Opportunities, Challenges and Innovation.

Indeed, as the California educational community moves toward the full implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and continued pilot testing of Smarter Balanced Assessments, it is important for CERA members to understand the unique role we play in this highly significant change to public education. From teacher educators to researchers to policy makers to data systems developers to LEA administrators, our roles are critical to facilitate this change to produce positive outcomes for the 6.2 million California public school students.

This year’s conference will feature keynote addresses from prominent researchers and policymakers in the CCSS community including Margaret Heritage from the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards and Student Testing (CRESST) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), who will return to CERA with an address focusing on the key role of formative assessment practices in Common Core implementation. Stanley Rabinowitz from WestEd will provide the latest information on development of the Smarter Balanced Assessment system. Joe Johnston and Lynne Perez from the National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST) at San Diego State University (SDSU) will speak to effective building level practices they have identified through their research program, and Deborah Sigman from the California Department of Education will give us the an update on policy development around implementation of Smarter Balanced Assessments in California.

As always, we encourage you to consider submitting a presentation proposal for the conference. One of our goals for this year’s conference is to provide even more rigorous and timely paper presentations and breakout sessions aligned to our conference theme. Your participation will aid in building a program that helps CERA members learn which practices are effective and which strategies can be replicated.

The program continues to strengthen our connection with graduate students by highlighting graduate student presentations. Announcements requesting presentation proposals will be e-mailed to CERA members in the upcoming weeks. Proposals will be due June 28, 2013.

On behalf of the Executive Board, thank you for your continued participation in CERA and your individual contributions to the advancement and application of knowledge related to educational research, evaluation, and assessment to improve outcomes for our students. I personally look forward to seeing you at the conference in December.

Best Regards,

Wendell J. Callahan, Ph.D.

CERA President