Learning Progressions
in Science Conference

Structure of the Conference

The LeaPS conference will begin on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 with registration and a welcoming reception. The conference will conclude at 2:30 pm on Friday, June 26, 2009.

The conference will be organized around four strands, each representing an aspect of work on learning progressions:

1. Defining learning progressions: This strand concerns both the construct represented by the learning progression and the way in which student progress is conceptualized and operationalized. Possible questions to be addressed include:
   • What progresses in a learning progression?
   • At what grain size are components of a learning progression defined?
   • Is it useful to use a construct of levels� in defining learning progressions? If so, how are levels of a learning progression defined and tested? If not, what are alternative ways to characterize students' progress in learning?
   • What evidence is needed to evaluate learning progressions?
   • How are learning progressions different from other frameworks?
2. Developing assessments to elicit student responses relative to a learning progression: This strand addresses the multiple ways of eliciting evidence of students' understandings and skills. Possible questions to be addressed include:
   • What types of tasks could be used to elicit student understandings (and skills)? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each type?
   • What makes a task more or less difficult? How do the context and other characteristics of a task affect its difficulty?
   • How does the learning progression inform the scoring of tasks?
   • What criteria are particularly important for tasks to elicit student understandings (and skills) relative to a learning progression?
   • What evidence is needed to evaluate the quality of assessments for this purpose?
3. Modeling and interpreting student performance relative to a learning progression: This strand concerns the inferences which are made about students' learning progression levels, based upon their responses to assessment tasks. Because this work is currently underrepresented in science education, we hope to involve psychometricians whose work has bearing on modeling issues with respect to learning progressions but who have not to date been directly involved in learning progressions work. Possible questions to be addressed include:
   • What techniques could be used to relate student performance on a set of assessment tasks to interpretations relative to the learning progression?
   • How should students' inconsistency across task characteristics be modeled when making interpretations relative to a learning progression?
   • What criteria could be used to compare differences between observed and expected student responses?
   • What are the implications of differences between observed and expected student responses for refinement of the learning progression and associated assessment tasks?
4. Using learning progressions: This strand addresses the many different ways in which learning progressions are expected to impact science education. Learning progressions have been proposed as tools to inform the development of standards and curricula, teacher preparation and professional development, as well as classroom and large-scale assessments. Possible questions to be addressed include:
   • What implications might learning progressions work have for designing curricula and standards?
   • What implications might learning progressions work have for teacher education and professional development?
   • What are the requirements for learning progressions to be useful in designing curricula and standards as well as for the structure of teacher education and professional development?
   • What is needed from research on learning progressions to ensure their utility in designing curricula and standards as well as for the structure of teacher education and professional development?
   • How are learning progression-inspired applications different from other carefully designed products?

The conference will be consist of four types of sessions, designed to give participants opportunities to both hear about ongoing work across different aspects of learning progressions work and to focus on discussion of a single challenge and possible solutions:

1. Plenary sessions: Plenary sessions will be used to highlight each of the four challenges. Several papers from each challenge will be selected for presentation during these sessions to give all conference attendees a chance to hear about different aspects of learning progressions work.
2. Breakout sessions: Much of the discussion during the conference will occur in breakout sessions. Each conference attendee will be asked to identify one challenge on which to focus his/her attention during the LeaPS conference and to attend the breakout sessions associated with that challenge. There will be time in the breakout sessions for both formal presentation of additional work related to the challenge and discussion of questions critical to that challenge. During these discussions, all participants will be encouraged to share questions, concerns, examples, and suggestions from their own work.
3. Keynote address: Richard Shavelson (Stanford University) will deliver a keynote address, challenging conference participants to consider particular issues in their work on learning progressions.
4. Graduate student poster session: All conference attendees will have the opportunity to hear about graduate student and postdoctoral scholars' work on the four challenges during a special poster session.