Here is a list of our invited speakers:
1. Andrew Ho, Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
2. Jonathan R. Alger, President, James Madison University
3. Kurt Geisinger, Director of Buros Center for Testing & Meierhenry Distinguished University Professor at the University of Nebraska
4. John W. Young, Director of the Higher Education Research Group, ETS
5. Michael Kane, Samuel J. Messick Chair, ETS
Abstracts follow.

Dinner Presentation
Wednesday, October 22^nd
Andrew Ho, Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Made to be Broken: The Paradox of Student Growth Prediction
Andrew Ho is a psychometrician interested in educational accountability metrics: an intersection between educational statistics and educational policies. He has studied the consequences of "proficiency"-based accountability metrics, the validation of high stakes test score trends with low stakes comparisons, and the potential for alternative accountability structures—like "growth models" and "index systems"—to improve school- and classroom-level incentives.


Lunch Presentation: Keynote Address
Thursday, October 23^rd
Jonathan R. Alger, President, James Madison University
Educational Research, the Law, and Public Policy:  Perfect Together?
President Alger is a nationally recognized scholar and speaker on higher education policy and law, and has given presentations across the United States and abroad on a range of topics including access and opportunity, diversity, intellectual property, and academic freedom. Prior to becoming president of James Madison University, he was a senior vice president and the general counsel at Rutgers University. At the University of Michigan, he played a key leadership role in the university’s efforts in two landmark Supreme Court cases on diversity and undergraduate and professional school admissions.

Keynote Interview
Thursday, October 23^rd, 4:00pm
Kurt Geisinger, Director of Buros Center for Testing & Meierhenry Distinguished University Professor at the University of Nebraska
In his 37-year career in higher education, Dr. Geisinger has fulfilled several roles and has brought his leadership acumen to several institutions and organizations.  He has previously been professor/chair of the psychology department at Fordham University and psychology professor/dean of arts and sciences at SUNY–Oswego, and psychology professor/vice president for Academic Affairs at two institutions. His academic interests lie in validity theory, admissions testing, outcomes assessment, accreditation, proper test use, testing individuals with disabilities, testing language minorities and the translation or adaptation of tests from one language and culture to another. Kurt has also been an active member and leader AERA, NCME, and APA.  He has recently been nominated as a candidate for APA President.

Dinner Presentation: Presidential Address
Thursday, October 23^rd
John W. Young, Director of the Higher Education Research Group, ETS
Ensuring Equality of Opportunity: The Role of Education and Research
John W. Young is the Research Coordinator for the Graduate Record Examinations and the Director of the Higher Education Research Group in the Center for Validity Research at the Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, New Jersey. Prior to returning to ETS in 2006, he was a faculty member for 17 years at Rutgers University and served as the program coordinator of the Educational Statistics, Measurement, and Evaluation group. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Measurement from Stanford University in 1989, and in 1999, he received the Early Career Contribution Award from the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Committee on Scholars of Color in Education for his research on academic achievement and minority students.

Closing Presentation
Friday, October 24^rd
Michael Kane, Samuel J. Messick Chair, ETS
Asking the Right Questions
Created in 2008, The Samuel J. Messick Chair honors a pioneer in the field of educational measurement and a leading authority in validity theory who worked at ETS for over three decades. Michael T. Kane was appointed to the Messick Chair in 2009. In his talk, Dr. Kane will argue that we are not always as careful as we should be in defining the intended uses of test scores and in matching the evaluative criteria to these uses; as a result, we sometimes generate precise answers to the wrong questions.