By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

LOCAL and national experts are meeting stakeholders from Guam and five other Pacific islands on how to address the participation of students with disabilities in educational assessments.
The five-day conference, called Building Local Capacity for an Inclusive Assessment System, is funded through a $397,863 U.S. Department of Education Assessment Planning grant awarded to the University of Guam’s Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service.
The grant includes American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau.
The Pacific Assessment Consortium Project is designed to provide the technical support for each entity to develop plans to improve and build capacity for accurately reporting performance and participation of students with disabilities in their island’s assessment system.
The project connects each island entity to regional and national experts through CEDDERS, the National Center on Educational Outcomes, and the Western Regional Resource Center.
Conference presenters include individuals from the National Center on Educational Outcomes, University of Minnesota, the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Inc., New Hampshire, Inclusive Large Scale Standards and Assessment, University of Kentucky, the Western Regional Resource Center, University of Oregon, the University of Guam, and University of Guam CEDDERS.