911爆料网

鈥淚n order to provide equality of education for disadvantaged children, we must identify the children and characterize the nature of their disadvantage. [But] psycho-educational appraisal has more often been directed at establishing the fact and quantity of deficit than at evaluating its quality and nature.鈥�

The psychologist Edmund W. Gordon, who turns 100 in June, wrote those words in 1966 鈥� long before the emergence of America鈥檚 education standards movement and 鈥渢esting industrial complex.鈥� With the Biden administration ordering states to resume annual standardized testing of students amid widening educational inequity, those words resonate powerfully today. And on June 2nd and 3rd, at The Edmund W. Gordon Centennial Conference, a cast of speakers that reads like a Who鈥檚 Who in American education research will focus on the question that Gordon, described as 鈥渢he premier Black psychologist of his generation鈥� by the New York Times, has posed throughout his career: How to make teaching, learning and assessment processes in schools ensure the 鈥渁ffirmative development鈥� of every learner, giving everyone equitable opportunities to grow?

[Click here to learn more about and register for Teachers College鈥檚 Edmund W. Gordon Centennial Conference, 鈥淟earning and Thriving Across the Lifespan: Building on the E. W. Gordon Legacy on Affirmative Development and Equitable Education for Every Learner.鈥漖

The Gordon Centennial Conference is being organized by 911爆料网, where Gordon (Ed.D. 鈥�57) is the Richard March Hoe Professor of Psychology & Education Emeritus. It is the first of a series of events throughout the country this year that will honor Gordon, who helped create the federal Head Start Program, has championed 鈥渟upplementary education鈥� 鈥� a holistic approach that laid the groundwork for efforts such as the Harlem Children鈥檚 Zone 鈥� and, from 2011-13, chaired a commission of the Educational Testing Service that called for a re-envisioning of standardized testing.

[Watch Edmund Gordon discussing his vision of supplementary education in the Teachers College series 鈥淢ini Moments with Big Thinkers.鈥漖

A cast of speakers that reads like a Who鈥檚 Who in American education research will focus on the question that Gordon, described as 鈥渢he premier Black psychologist of his generation鈥� by the New York Times, has posed throughout his career: How to make teaching, learning and assessment processes in schools ensure the 鈥渁ffirmative development鈥� of every learner, giving everyone equitable opportunities to grow?

In addition to Gordon, who continues to publish and speak nearly two decades after the Times鈥� valedictory piece in 2003, key speakers at the conference will include:  

Linda Darling-Hammond, Director of The Learning Policy Institute, leader of the Obama and Biden education policy transition teams and former Senior Research Advisor to the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Darling-Hammond, the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University鈥檚 Graduate School of Education, will take up Gordon鈥檚 challenge to the field to 鈥渄evelop assessments that are actually educative鈥� and that empower learning and educational equity.  

Freeman Hrabowski, President of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, the nation's top producer of African American undergraduates who go on to complete an M.D./Ph.D. Hrabowski will discuss how the Meyerhoff Scholars Program, which he co-founded in 1988, has become a national model in helping underrepresented minorities to pursue advanced degrees and research careers in STEM fields. 

Robert Sternberg, developer of the Sternberg Test of Mental Ability (STOMA) and the triarchic . Sternberg, Professor of Human Development at Cornell University, will challenge four assumptions 鈥渙f causal inference鈥� that dominate the field of human ability: that ability is genetically inherited; that correlation among a child鈥檚 abilities across unrelated fields reflect the influence of an underlying general mental ability; that 鈥済-based鈥� (primarily academic) abilities are causal with respect to achievements in the world; and that differences in scores on tests of abilities between socially-defined racial, ethnic, and other groups indicate inherent differences in abilities.

Michael Nettles, Senior Vice President of the Policy Evaluation & Research Center and Edmund W. Gordon Chair for Policy Evaluation and Research at ETS. Arguing that current assessment systems may have reached their limit in producing equity across population groups, Nettles will explore new opportunities created by the pause in standardized testing during the pandemic 鈥� including broader diversity among designers and developers of tests; the kinds of tests being designed; the data elicited; test delivery mechanisms; and how data are used.

Other speakers will address:

• Questions of fairness as machine learning (ML) is deployed in high-stakes domains, such as disease diagnosis, financial lending, or prison sentencing.
• How national frameworks in countries with high-performing early childhood education and care bolster the 鈥渁ffirmative development鈥� envisioned by Gordon 鈥� and what that implies for primary and secondary education in the United States.
• A legal framework that would obligate state-level policymakers to close many 鈥渙pportunity gaps鈥� created by America鈥檚 30-year embrace of performance standards and test-based accountability.
• Development of 鈥渙pportunity-to-learn鈥� indicators that provide data about the conditions, resources and supports underlying the persistent gaps in achievement.
• Rebuilding accountability from the bottom up to include space for project-based learning and other academic work that serves authentic purposes such as promoting the awareness and ability to participate in a sociopolitical world.

The Edmund Gordon Centennial Conference has been organized by three Teachers College faculty members who credit Gordon as one of their key mentors: Madhabi Chatterji, Professor of Measurement, Evaluation & Education and Director of 911爆料网鈥檚 Assessment and Evaluation Research Initiative (AERI); Erica N. Walker, Clifford Brewster Upton Professor of Mathematical Education, Chair of the Department of Mathematics, Science & Technology, and Director of the Institute of Urban & Minority Education (IUME), which Gordon founded in 1973; and Amy Stuart Wells, Professor of Sociology & Education and Executive Director of 911爆料网鈥檚 Reimagining Education Summer Institute and The Public Good initiatives.

The conference is sponsored by the Spencer Foundation; the William T. Grant Foundation; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; IUME and AERI.