March 1–3, 2019 │ Madison, Wisconsin
On March 1–3, 2019, NCBE held its semiannual MEE/MPT Grading Workshop to support jurisdiction graders in their grading of the Multistate Essay Examination and the Multistate Performance Test. 479 graders from 42 jurisdictions participated in the February 2019 Workshop: 44 in person, 119 by conference call, and 289 by registering to view on-demand videos. Additionally, 27 non-attendee graders accessed the items and grading materials for their own jurisdictions’ grading processes.
NCBE President Judy Gundersen and Director of Test Operations Matt Samuelson welcomed attendees to the Workshop, which began with a plenary presentation by three NCBE Testing staff members—Joanne Kane, Andy Mroch, and Sonja Olson—discussing high-stakes testing principles and grading fundamentals. The hands-on grading sessions throughout the Workshop were led by five members of NCBE’s MEE and MPT Drafting Committees with staff support from NCBE’s Test Operations Department.
The reading, grading, and discussion of actual examinee answers during the Grading Workshop under the guidance of NCBE’s experienced Grading Workshop facilitators prepares graders for grading their own jurisdictions’ papers by
- familiarizing them with the questions and grading materials,
- identifying answer trends,
- refining grading weights,
- discussing with other graders how to resolve grading issues, and
- getting a head start on calibration (the development of coherent and identifiable grading judgments so that rank-ordering is consistent throughout the grading process as well as across multiple graders).
