Welcome to ERB’s 88th Annual Conference and our 2nd at the historic Hotel del Coronado. Our conference planning team has provided an engaging program in which the inspiration of the presenters coupled with the wisdom and experience of participants will undoubtedly lead to meaningful insights. The insights we gain from each other at our conference and throughout the year are among the most valuable of all as we Discover New Horizons together.

A VUCA World—Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous—As you all know we live in times that are both exciting and parlous. In ERB’s case, to stand still in our service to our schools is

to fall behind. Schools face a similar challenge/opportunity. Our market consists of those schools and organizations worldwide that have world-class aspirations and that seek to help learners lead highly impactful lives in the service of the common good. ERB’s goal is to light the pathways to fulfill those aspirations, through feedback from valid and reliable assessments.

Our Mission and Strategic Driver—ERB has anchored our business in service to our members, all of whom have the highest expectations for their learners, by providing assessment products and instructional supports of the highest quality and rigor to inform learning, curriculum, professional development and admission decisions. ERB strives to reinvent ourselves as the needs of our members evolve. And we are doing just that, as you will learn in the next few days.

Cooperative Evolution—In this spirit of cooperative evolution, our 88th annual conference will highlight the following:

Ready, Willing, and AABL—Experience ERB’s engaging, cost-effective, and easy-to-use iPad-based Admission Assessment for Beginning Learners (AABL) and associated reports that address early childhood development in Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Early Literacy, and Mathematics, as well as report informative behavioral observations. AABL is currently in its 2nd year and serves thousands of applicants nationally.

For a Stimulating Experience—Learn about the WrAP with stimulus (engaging, passage-based prompts across multiple genres), which challenges students to use analytical skills to inform their written responses to age-appropriate reading passages.

And We Have Other Key Components that Support our Budding Authors—Learn how all of ERB’s writing components harness the power of real-time feedback, personalized learning, and real-world application. Complementing the quantitative external scores available through WrAP or WPP, Word Voyage helps to build the vocabulary needed to write well. WPP also supports writers through online tutorials and quick feedback. Our latest web-based application, WriterKey, is designed to help writing teachers give qualitative, detailed formative feedback to students on teacher-designed assignments at key points in the learning process, helping students to grow into better writers. The data analytics offered through each of these brings clarity to student growth in writing.

PRESIDENT’S WELCOME

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You Can Bank on it—Experience ERB’s online formative content bank, with CTP items included, that makes it easier for teachers to create their own instantly and externally scored math and ELA assessments, as part of the classroom formative learning process.

MiSELF©—Mindful Insights into Social and Emotional Learning Factors—Join with ERB on our creative odyssey as we develop an instrument that provides feedback on how social and emotional learning factors shape performance in school and life. As is the case with all of ERB’s development, ERB is working closely with our member schools and experts in the field of social/emotional learning to create a product that can provide feedback to learners to help them navigate successfully the ebbing and flowing tides of their rich emotional lives.

SEALS—A highlight of our conference is our optional visit to the Navy SEAL Training Facility just a short jog down the beach, but a world apart when it comes to persistence, determination, and grit, and where the stakes are off the chart. Talk about high-stakes testing!

Flagships—ERB’s CTP (Comprehensive Testing Program) and our ISEE (Independent School Entrance Exam) serve the achievement and admission assessment needs of our member schools and are ERB’s flagship products. Both are wrapped in a web of services that members cherish. Learn more at the conference about how both assessments will evolve over the next few years in response to member feedback and changes in the world of learning and assessment.

Sincerely,

David Clune, Ph.D.President and CEO ERB

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