Research Scientist
EDUCATION, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE:
Doctoral degree in educational measurement, educational psychology, cognitive science or a related field from an accredited institution of higher education and at least one year of relevant job experience, preferably with a 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—in a testing program setting.
For some positions, ability to apply learning and instructional theory to applied education settings.
Knowledge of and ability to articulate national and state trends in education and their implications for assigned programs.
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 all research-related aspects of a small-to-medium program or a portion of a large and complex program.
Communication skills necessary to function effectively as a primary contact with internal project teams and external clients with guidance from more senior researchers.
Experience with applying 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)
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
May serve as the primary technical research contact for a small-to-medium program or for a portion of a large and complex program.
Updates and develops new specifications and plans for research analyses.
For some positions, designs and conducts analyses for sampling design, DIF analyses, item calibration, linking, and equating.
Contributes to the description of psychometric designs for projects and testing programs as part of proposals, and may cost the work for smaller-scale proposals.
For some positions, facilitates and conducts item review meetings with clients and educators.
For some positions, designs and facilitates workshops for determining cut-off scores and performance level descriptors.
Maintains documentation and data files related to research analyses.
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).
May present technical information to different audiences (e.g., client groups or technical advisory committees) with guidance from more senior researchers.
Designs and conducts research and special studies on behalf of clients.
Contributes to technical designs for proposals and writes associated text under guidance from more senior researchers.
Works closely with other researchers, research associates, research assistants, subject-matter experts, and/or the client in different aspects of research programs.
Works with software developers and QA analysts to ensure the integrity of the data used for research analyses.
Provides support to and consults with other departments and customers regarding research issues.
Willingness to travel as necessary.
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