edCount, LLC, is a federally registered woman-owned small business and a certified Woman-owned Business Enterprise. Since its founding in 2003, edCount has provided direct or advisory services to all 50 states and seven US territories. edCount staff have extensive experience assisting SEAs and LEAs with designing, developing, and evaluating their assessment systems and technical documentation; providing professional development; conducting external and ED reporting; and coordinating multi-state collaborative groups. edCount is a lead vendor on SCILLSS, an EAG project dedicated to science assessment development for local and large-scale assessment purposes. The American Education Research Association (AERA) recently recognized SCILLSS products as the first place winner of the AERA 2020 Division H’s Outstanding Publications Competition in Category 4: Assessment & Accountability. The award is a testament to the significant contributions that SCILLSS has made in developing assessment system evaluation protocols and an accompanying digital workbook.
Ellen Forte – Co-principal Investigator
Ellen Forte, Ph.D. is the CEO & Chief Scientist at edCount and has over two decades of experience conducting research, providing advice and reporting on standards, assessments, and accountability, and assisting SEAs and LEAs in the successful interpretation and implementation of education policies. As co-principal investigator she will provide oversight to all project tasks, including advisement for the involvement and contributions of the expert panel.
Erin Buchanan – Project Director
Erin Buchanan, M.A. is a Senior Associate with edCount and has extensive experience in project management. She serves as the Deputy Project Director and Reporting Lead for the SCILLSS project, managing all project phases and assisting with the application of a principled-design approach. As project director, Ms. Buchanan will provide oversight to all project tasks, including leadership for the Management Team.
Antoinette Melvin – Deputy Project Director and Reporting Lead
Antoinette Melvin, M.A. is an Associate at edCount with experience leading projects focused on professional development and training. She also has facilitating and supporting assessment development projects in New York and Indiana. As deputy project director and reporting lead, Ms. Melvin will support the project director in providing oversight to all project tasks.
The National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Inc. (The Center for Assessment) is a Dover, NH based not-for-profit (501(c)(3)) corporation. Founded in 1998, the Center’s mission is to improve the educational achievement of students by promoting improved practices in educational assessment and accountability. The Center for Assessment does this by providing services directly to states, school districts, and partner organizations support state and district assessment and accountability systems. The Center pursues the dissemination of best practices through their annual conference, through extensive work with state TACs, through work with organizations that do similar research, development, and dissemination, and through numerous publications and presentations at professional conferences.
Scott Marion – Measurement Specialist
Scott Marion, Ph.D. is a national leader in designing innovative and balanced assessment systems to support instructional and accountability uses and is working to better conceptualize and implement high-quality balanced systems of assessment and accountability. Dr. Marion coordinates and/or serves on several state and district Technical Advisory Committees (TAC) and has served on multiple National Research Council (NRC) committees to support designs for next generation science assessments.
Nathan Dadey – Measurement Specialist
Nathan Dadey, Ph.D. is an associate at the Center for Assessment and is interested in the design, scaling, and use of educational assessments. He aims to produce methodological and applied work that contributes to improved understanding and use of assessment results in policy contexts. Dr. Dadey has been focusing recently on the measurement of the NGSS and has supported multiple states in developing conceptualizations of their NGSS statewide systems of assessments.