Who We Are
Who We Are
 
The Team
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Chair (2021-2024)

Jimmy de la Torre is Professor at the Human Communication, Development, and Information Sciences Unit of the Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong. He is also currently a Chair Professor at the National Taichung University of Education in Taiwan. His primary research interests are in the field of educational and psychological testing and measurement, with a particular emphasis on item response theory, cognitive diagnosis modeling, and the use of assessment to inform instruction and learning. In 2009, he was named by the White House as one of the recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers. He also received the Jason Millman Promising Measurement Scholar Award in 2009 and the Bradley Hanson Award for Contributions to Educational Measurement in 2017 from the National Council on Measurement in Education. He was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Educational Measurement, and is currently an associate editor of Applied Psychological Measurement and Frontiers in Education. He is also on the editorial boards of Applied Measurement in Education, International Journal of Testing, and Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives. For over 15 years, Jimmy has conducted over 40 training and professional development workshops on cognitive diagnosis modeling in more than a dozen countries and four continents. His current projects include developing a cognitively-based multiple-choice proportional reasoning assessment and a diagnostic assessment for upper intermediate L2 readers.

For additional information about Jimmy’s publications and research projects, visit: https://web.edu.hku.hk/staff/academic/j.delatorre

Vice-Chair (2021-2024)

Wenchao Ma is an assistant professor at the Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling at The University of Alabama. He received his Ph.D. from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, in 2017. Wenchao is currently the vice-chair of AERA cognition and assessment SIG. His primary research interests are in the field of educational and psychological measurement, with a particular emphasis on cognitive diagnosis modeling and the use of diagnostic assessment to inform classroom instruction and learning. He has published in journals such as Applied Psychological Measurement, British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, Multivariate Behavioral Research and Psychometrika. Wenchao received the 2021 Jason Millman Promising Measurement Scholar Award and the 2017 Bradley Hanson award for Contributions to Educational Measurement (with Dr. Jimmy de la Torre) from NCME. Wenchao is also the recipient of the 2018 Outstanding Quantitative Dissertation Award from the AERA Division D.

For additional information about Wenchao’s publications and research projects, visit: wenchaoma.people.ua.edu

Secretary/Treasurer (2023-2026)

Dr. Zhehan Jiang is currently an assistant professor at the Institute of Medical Education, Peking University, as well as a guest lecturer at Tsinghua University. His main research areas are educational measurement, statistics and machine learning in the fields of education and psychology, with a particular focus on issues related to medical education evaluation and physician-related examination design. He has been involved in many funded projects, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the National Health Council, and the National Press and Publication Administration. Prior to Peking University, he had served as an assistant (tenure-track) professor (tenure-track) at the University of Alabama and Baylor College of Medicine, and has published more than 50 articles in journals such as Behavior Research Methods, Multivariate Behavior Methods, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Medical Education Online, and other journals in statistics, medical education, education, informatics, and medicine, and has made many presentations at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME). 

Program Chair (2023-2024)

Ben Shear is an Assistant Professor in the Research and Evaluation Methodology Program at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education and a Faculty Partner of the Center for Assessment, Design, Research & Evaluation (CADRE). Ben earned his PhD in Education from Stanford University and an MA in Measurement, Evaluation and Research Methodology from UBC Vancouver. Ben’s research examines the development, interpretation, and use of educational assessments, with a focus on large-scale assessments. These efforts are aimed at supporting more appropriate and fairer uses of tests and assessments in education. To date this research has focused primarily on statistical and methodological issues related to the construction and analysis of standardized test scores, informed by issues arising at the intersection of education policy and psychometrics. One strand of this work has made contributions to the analysis of aggregate proficiency data and is integral to the construction of the Stanford Education Data Archive (SEDA), a publicly available national database created to study educational opportunity in the United States. A second strand of work has evaluated novel approaches for modeling student responses on tests and investigating the properties of statistical models used in state accountability systems. A third strand of work studies the ways test scores are used in educational policy and research. Ben teaches graduate courses in psychometrics and quantitative methods.

For additional information about Ben’s publications and research projects, visit:  https://www.colorado.edu/education/benjamin-shear



 
 
Committees
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We have a few committees that work on SIG business. For more information on open positions or upcoming work, please look for messages through the listserv.
 
 
Structure & Governance
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