Senior Research Scientist
EDUCATION, KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:
Doctoral degree in educational measurement, educational psychology, cognitive science or a related field from an accredited institution of higher education and at least three years of relevant job experience, preferably with the complete range of assessment and/or learning and instruction issues that face large scale education programs.
For some positions, ability to effectively apply psychometric techniques-- including classical test theory, item response theory, test equating, scaling and linking-- to typical operational situations and new and unique operational testing settings.
For some positions, ability to apply learning and instructional theory to applied education settings.
Ability to identify implications of relevant national and state trends and legislation in education for large-scale educational programs and clients, and propose research plans and provide client advice based on these implications as appropriate.
Ability to conduct independent research in learning, instruction, assessment or applied statistics.
Strong technical writing skills, as demonstrated through research papers, publications, or technical reports.
Ability to effectively present and summarize technical information orally and in writing to a variety of audiences.
Project management skills necessary to lead and direct all research-related aspects of multiple programs or a single large and complex program. Understands roles of different departments and how these impact deliverables.
Communication skills necessary to function effectively in a leadership role with internal and external clients.
Ability to design and coordinate the application of software packages and programming languages commonly used in psychometric work or research (e.g., SAS, SPSS, PARSCALE, WINSTEPS, BILOG, MULTILOG, C++, S-PLUS, FORTRAN, R) to new and unique settings faced in large-scale education programs.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
May serve as the primary technical research contact for clients for multiple programs or for a single large and complex program.
Develops and coordinates others in developing specifications and plans for research analyses.
Conceptualizes and describes psychometric designs for projects and testing programs as part of proposals, and estimated staff costs for completing this work.
Designs, conducts, and/or coordinates the efforts of others in sampling design, DIF analyses, item calibration, linking and equating analyses.
Facilitates and conducts item review meetings with clients and educators.
Designs and coordinates planning details with program management, and facilitates workshops for determining cut-off scores and performance level descriptors.
Leads or takes responsibility for maintaining documentation and data files related to research analyses.
Designs, conducts and collaborates on research that contributes to theory and practice in assessment, learning, instruction and/or the Test and Measurement Services Research Agenda.
Makes presentations at national and international conferences (e.g., AERA, NCME, CCSSO, APA, Psychometric Society).
Effectively tailors technical presentations to different audiences (e.g., client groups or technical advisory committees) and provides guidance for similar presentations made by other research scientists.
Identifies areas for research and special studies on behalf of clients and coordinates the completion of this research.
Coordinates technical designs for proposals and writes associated text.
Organizes and coordinates with other research scientists, data analysts, subject-matter experts, and/or the client all aspects of research work.
Works with software developers and QA analysts to help ensure the integrity of the data used for research analyses.
Provides support to and consults with other departments and customers regarding research issues.
Travel as necessary.
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