Description

Senior Psychometrician

About this role

At NWEA, we believe in K-12 students and the teachers, administrators, and families who make education possible. Drawing on 40 years experience and a wealth of powerful data, our vision is to transform education by empowering students and teachers.

The State Solutions Design and Development Department at NWEA is responsible for reimagining the role of assessment in the educational system. Our mission is partnering to help all kids learn. We are at a pivotal moment in education and our strategic priority is to consider new ways for building strategic partnerships and new approaches to assessment that represent systems that not only measure learning, but also inform learning throughout the academic year. Foundational to this shift is a commitment to building evidence in learning outcomes that validate and affirms that all students have an equitable chance to engage in these new systems of learning and assessment, and that the informational outputs inform stakeholders so that each and every learner has an equitable opportunity to receive learning experiences that will support advancements in their learning and drive their educational success.

As such, the Senior Psychometricians are key contributors to the State Solutions Design and Development Department and are involved in all tasks from test design to reporting of scores. These individuals are responsible for leading activities such as item calibration, forms construction, scaling and equating, and technical documentation. Senior Psychometricians will work closely with both internal and external clients to fulfill the needs of test design and development.

Senior Psychometricians are expected to be very knowledgeable about the assessment industry and able to advise internal and external teams on best practices in test development. They should initiate conversations and projections to bring innovation, flexibility, and efficiency to NWEA processes, and work closely with all NWEA teams and clients to meet quality and service expectations. The ideal candidates should have rich experience in delivering large-scale applied education assessments, preferably with computer adaptive models.

Education and Experience

• Ph.D. or ED.D in educational statistics, measurement, psychometrics, or related field required.
• Five (5) or more years in educational assessment with increasing job responsibilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate with a team of psychometricians assigned to projects, serve as the lead psychometrician for a small or large project, and/or serve as the primary point of contact for internal NWEA teams and clients.
• Plan and oversee the work of statistical analysts and junior psychometricians.
• Design scaling and equating approaches and write associated technical specifications. Evaluate reasonableness and troubleshoot unusual equating or other analysis results.
• Recommend appropriate analysis approaches and identify advantages and disadvantages of several options.
• Construct tests, and evaluate tests built by others according to psychometric targets.
• Develop psychometric targets for test construction and create test construction specifications.
• Design and lead data review meetings.
• Plan, design, create materials and facilitate standard-setting meetings.
• Develop a psychometric solution for Response to Proposals (RFPs). Write and review associated text and provide input to costing.
• Communicate (orally and in writing) technical concepts in non-technical ways with clients, internal staff, or other external stakeholders.
• Synthesize information and produce coherent summaries and recommendations.
• Create documents, prepare presentations, and present at Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), client, and other external stakeholder group meetings.
• Deliver on-time quality results.
• Estimate completion time for various activities, review schedules and provide feedback on reasonableness.
• Mentor junior team members.
• Build capacity within the team by creating new processes, building efficiencies, and bringing in new innovations.

Knowledge, Skill, And Ability

• Ability to articulate legislative testing requirements and broader public and policy concerns about testing
• Develop a collaborative network of measurement professionals outside NWEA
• Proficient in SAS, SPSS, R, or other statistical software
• Use of WINSTEPS, IRTPRO, or other IRT-based software in a research or operational environment
• Experience implementing different IRT models
• Experience designing and conducting studies in support of educational assessment and research
• Experience with computer adaptive testing

About NWEA

NWEA® is a research-based, not-for-profit organization that supports students and educators worldwide by creating assessment solutions that precisely measure growth and proficiency-and provide timely data to help tailor instruction. For more than 40 years, NWEA has developed innovative pre-K-12 assessments, including our flagship interim assessment, MAP® Growth™; our progress monitoring and skills mastery tool, MAP® Skills™; and our reading fluency and comprehension assessment, MAP® Reading Fluency™. Educators trust our professional learning offerings to accelerate student learning and our research to support assessment validity and data interpretation. More than 11 million students in 146 countries use our solutions to support their learning and growth each year.

What we can offer you

At NWEA we not only offer a competitive base salary, we offer a 15% contribution of eligible employees' base salary to a defined contribution 403(b) retirement savings plan; career development opportunities; an awesome work culture and environment; we also offer industry leading benefits and perks that are focused on supporting our employees' holistic wellbeing. To learn more about what we can offer more, click here.

NWEA strives to make diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) practices the center of our work. Our organization's mission, Partnering to Help All Kids Learn, is the foundation for our DEIA commitment as we work to reflect, value, and support the educators, students, colleagues, and communities we serve. We seek to empower and engage all stakeholders in the research, services, solutions, and products we provide, our organizational culture, and the partnerships we establish with schools, districts, states, and countries.

NWEA endeavors to make www.nwea.org accessible to all users. If you would like to contact us regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process, please call us at (503) 624-1951 or e-mail us at [email protected] and let us know the nature of your request, your location and your contact information. This is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.

NWEA is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. For our EEO Policy Statement, please visit our website. If you'd like more information on your EEO rights under the law, please visit the EEOC website