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The Test Design Project (1990-95) was a formative effort to design better selection, training and evaluation tools for the emerging mediation "industry." The project was directed by Christopher Honeyman, managing partner of CONVENOR. Others involved included internationally recognized experts in many varieties of dispute resolution; representatives of most of the national membership organizations in the field; and several representatives of the courts. The project was viewed by outside commentators as "a group of prominent scholars and practitioners" (Editor's Note, Negotiation Journal, October 1993), who attempted "an important and terribly difficult task" (Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Professor of Law, UCLA) with "a clarity and rigor of thought which is all too rare in this area" (Robert Dingwall, Professor of Social Studies, University of Nottingham). The project assisted numerous official bodies responsible for the design and evaluation of a number of mediation programs, including the U.S. Department of State; Administrative Conference of the U.S. (Washington, DC); Legal Aid Board (London, England); Massachusetts Office of Dispute Resolution; the Society of Professionals in Dispute Resolution; and other government agencies, court systems and membership organizations. The project's concluding product was Performance-Based Assessment: A Methodology, for use in selecting, training and evaluating mediators. Published by the National Institute for Dispute Resolution, this document lays out the competing perceptions of what a mediator is supposed to do, and offers performance-based tools for improving and assessing competence. An overview is followed by a sample, consisting of three chapters; the full text can be downloaded as a .pdf file. |