April 23–24, 2026 TAC Meeting
Two days at The Graduate, 133 Evergreen Ave., East Lansing, Michigan — Lemon Tree Room. Five substantive sessions, four of them on day one.
What the meeting was about
Three of the five sessions were, underneath their different subject matter, the same question: when a measurement system is asked to carry more weight than its precision can bear, what should the state do?
- Session 3 — Accountability Growth Methodology Targets — high school growth targets are more aggressive than elementary ones because there is less time to remediate, and the accountability index is consequently identifying high schools at a rate OEAA does not believe reflects reality.
- Session 4 — Michigan Test for Teacher Certification — a licensure program must produce “meaningfully different” test forms for fields that do not generate enough examinees to equate them.
- Session 5 — Simulation Studies on Subtest Indicators — the field wants subscores from a test deliberately engineered to be unidimensional.
The committee’s answers rhymed across all three: be honest about what the numbers can support, define the inference you are actually defending, and prefer less information accurately reported over more information reported badly.
The other two sessions were adoption and operations — Session 1 — Using the Smarter Balanced Interim Assessment and Session 2 — Michigan Department of Education Update.
Sessions
| # | Session | Presenter(s) | Day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Session 1 — Using the Smarter Balanced Interim Assessment | Jennifer Paul | 4/23 |
| 2 | Session 2 — Michigan Department of Education Update | Andrew Middlestead | 4/23 |
| 3 | Session 3 — Accountability Growth Methodology Targets | Chad Bailey, Jessalyn Smith | 4/23 |
| 4 | Session 4 — Michigan Test for Teacher Certification | Bridgett McDowell, Nancy Hahn, Heather Klesch, Jackie Thompson | 4/23 |
| 5 | Session 5 — Simulation Studies on Subtest Indicators | Ji Zeng | 4/24 |
Session numbering follows the minutes, not the agenda; the two disagree. The agenda ran growth (item 2) before the crosswalk (item 3) and placed the MDE update at 11:15am between them. The minutes renumber so that the crosswalk is Session 1 and growth is Session 3. See TAC Meeting Notes, April 2026 for the full list of discrepancies.
Attendance
TAC members — Mark Reckase, Jennifer Randall, Gregory Cizek, Damian Betebenner, Martha Thurlow. All five on 4/23; Jennifer Randall did not attend 4/24.
OEAA — Andrew Middlestead, Ji Zeng, Kelley Holcomb, John Jaquith, Phoebe Gohs, Chris Janzer, Kate Cermak, Jessica Fenby, Abigail Bies, Jennifer Paul, Matthew Gleason, Chad Bailey, Eric Lipinski. Five returned on 4/24: Middlestead, Holcomb, Fenby, Gohs, Jaquith.
OEE — Bridgett McDowell.
Vendors — Kyle Fagan and Jessalyn Smith (Data Recognition Corporation (DRC)); Nancy Hahn and Heather Klesch (Evaluation Systems, Pearson / Evaluation Systems); Jackie Thompson (Pearson Professional Assessments).
What carried forward
Open Recommendations from April 2026 lists everything the committee left on OEAA’s desk. Two items were explicitly promised for the next meeting: a sample subscore score report, and the WIN Work Readiness Assessments vendor — psychometric team included — attending in the fall.