Going to a Conference
Being a graduate or undergraduate student interested in research, questions arise about participating in conferences.
In April, we have the annual AERA conference. Here, some of our AQM professors make the following suggestions. However, their answers do apply to just about any research conference:
It is suggested to look at 1) The program for the NCME meeting that happens concurrently with AERA. It's a lot smaller and has many interesting measurement sessions (from high flying IRT models to alternativeperformance assessments). 2) Sessions sponsored by AERA division D and 3) The list of Presidential invited sessions usually highlighted in a separate section and through the program.
Use the online search capabilities to search the program for keywords you may be interested in. There's plenty of interesting quantitative / measurement / assessment work that happens outside the 3 areas listed above, but it is hard to find it in the mammoth phone directory/printed program.
Other than that make sure to use the online search capabilities to search the program for keywords you may be interested in. In addition to searching the program on keywords, also search on names of methodologists and researchers whose work you are interested in (e.g., people who have written pieces on assessment that you thought were particularly insightful; people whose work you would like to learn more about, etc.)
Finally: network!. Don't hang out just among students from your program. Go to sessions and talk to people doing work you are interested in. Attend a AERA/NCME session for students (poster or orientation, "new directions" type).
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