Curry School of Education

Education

• Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 2004
• M.S., Augusta State University, 1996
• B.A., University of Georgia, 1994

Personal Statement

Mentoring

“If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.”
Mark Twain

This quote succinctly summarizes my mentoring philosophy. I believe that experience is the best way to understand material taught in the classroom. As such, I provide my advisees and graduate assistants with structured experiences outside of the classroom. Students working with me will have the opportunity to analyze data for operational testing programs, design and implement psychometric research, and present papers at professional conferences. I aim to scaffold these experiences so that by the time a student is ready to graduate, he or she can autonomously engage in scholarly work.

My advisees and graduate assistants have won competitive internships and/or full time employment at the Educational Testing Service, GED Testing Service, Law School Admissions Council, Pacific Metrics Corporation, and the College Board. Educational measurement is an exciting field. Please contact me if you are interested in pursuing a degree in this field.

Research Interests

My research focuses on technical and applied aspects of educational measurement and psychometrics from the perspective of classical test theory, generalizability theory, and item response theory. In particular, my research evaluates aspects of test equating, reliability estimation, and item response time modeling. I also develop a psychometric software application for practitioners called jMetrik.