Public Policy and Technical Reports Release – Today

PUBLIC RELEASE OF THE REPORTS OF THE GORDON COMMISSION @ George Washington University

Date: March 11, 2013
Venue: George Washington University

SESSION I: Hosted by ETS
Release of the Technical and Public Policy Reports
Opening Remarks: Kurt M. Landgraf, Educational Testing Service (ETS)

Presenters: Edmund W. Gordon, Teachers College, Columbia University and Yale University
James W. Pellegrino, University of Illinois at Chicago

Moderator: Roberto Rodríguez, White House Domestic Policy Council

Discussants: Eva L. Baker, University of California, Los Angeles
Robert J. Mislevy, ETS
Elena Silva, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Closing Remarks: Gov. Robert Wise, Alliance for Excellent Education
SESSION 2: Hosted by the National Academy of Education and George Washington University

Symposium: Critique and Discussion with Critical Friends
Moderator: Susan H. Fuhrman, Teachers College, Columbia University

Discussants: Robert M. Hauser, National Research Council and National Academies of Science

Robert L. Linn, University of Colorado at Boulder

Closing Remarks: Michael J. Feuer, George Washington University

The Learning Virtues, Op-ed by David Brooks

Comments from Professor Gordon:

I usually disagree with Brooks’ perspective on things since he has a much more conservative view of the world than I do. I find myself monitoring his writing because he is so very bright. He thinks about important aspects of problems. In this opinion piece, which appeared in the New York Times in February 2013, he is writing about the problem that Jim Greeno and I struggle with in our efforts at combining intellective character and intellective competence. Clearly there are strong elements of cognition involved, however in understanding the quality of one’s performance, factors concerning human agency and disposition must also be considered. Jim and I are trying to establish the relationships between character and competence in human intellective performance, since we feel that the product is the result of the interaction of the two. In reference to assessment in education, the problem concerns capturing both, and even more important is to capture and understand the interactions between the two in the contexts of their expression in human adaptation and problem solving.