Rudner pix

Lawrence M. Rudner


LMRudner [at] gmail.com

An outdated version of this page in French thanks to Vicky Rotarova

Curriculum vitae       Some Publications    
Current Research Interests - Measurement Decision Theory  Machine Scoring of Essays 

Biosketch

Lawrence M. Rudner is an independent assessment consultant specializing in item bank evaluation, computer adaptive testing and classification testing.

Dr. Rudner is a past Vice President of Research and Development, Chief Psychometrician, and Senior Advisor at the Graduate Management Admission Council. His work at GMACŪ has included test validation, adaptive testing, professional standards, QTI specifications, test security, data forensics, and contract monitoring for the GMATŪ exam. Larry additionally created a new R&D unit at GMACŪ, which now produces a large collection of psychometric research reports and numerous high visibility survey reports each year (http://www.gmac.com/gmac/ResearchandTrends)

He has conducted some of the first research on several lasting measurement topics, including the use of IRT to assess item bias (AERA,  1977; JEBS, 1980), parameter invariance (EPM, 1983), assessment of person fit (JEM, 198 3), validity of a composite measure (EM:IP, 2001), and classification accuracy (PARE, 2002).  He has served as co-editor on books about testing published by the National Education Association and the Education Writers Association.

Larry is a champion for the exchange of information, tools, and ideas. He is the founder and co-editor of the online journal Practical Assessment Research and Evaluation (http://PAREonline.net), which is now the most widely read journal in the field. His Bayesian Essay Test Scoring sYstem (BETSY) is open source. His IRT calibration and meta -analysis software are in the public domain, and his on-line interactive tutorials on adaptive testing (http://edres.org/scripts/cat) and decision theory ( http://edres.org/mdt) are widely used. In 2004, as the former Director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation, Larry received the NCME Award for Outstanding Dissemination of Measurement Concepts to the Public.

For 15 years he directed the activities of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation (formerly ERIC/TM); taught graduate levels courses on research methods; and provided statistical and proposal support. During his tenure as director, the ERIC Clearinghouse grew to be the major assessment resource on the internet and one of the most popular sites on education. Special resources at the web site are 1) a pathfinder to all major assessment resources on the internet, 2) a full text library, 3) a peer reviewed electronic journal on practical assessment issues and 4) a unique search engine for the ERIC database. He took a quantitative approach to managing the clearinghouse by routinely analyzing user surveys, progress statistics, and conducting small empirical studies.

His most visible research project was an examination of the achievement levels of a large sample of home school students (http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v7n8/). That study was reported in most major newspapers, a popular version was distributed to more than 100,000 home school families and he appeared for an hour on CSPAN's Washington Journal to discuss the report. His most useful project was the development of the Search ERIC Wizard. This was a search engine for the ERIC database that used a thesaurus as a front end. This was one of the first interactive software applications on the internet and the first on-line thesaurus used to search a bibliographic database. More than 3,000 people per day used the system. 

Other positions include Senior Fellow, American Institutes for Research where he conducted contract research; Senior Associate, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education where he served as branch chief for the agency's program of Research on Testing and Evaluation; Senior Research Scientist, Gallaudet Research Institute, where he conducted research pertaining to deaf education, and a teacher in Attleboro, MA public schools where he taught 7th and 8th grade.

Technical reviews of his work have appeared in: Colloquy, Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, Journal of Educational Measurement, Mental Measurements Yearbook, National Beauty School Journal, PCM Magazine, Sigma Theta Tau, The Sunday New York Times, and Wall Street Micro Investor.

Peer reviewed manuscripts authored or co-authored by Larry have appeared in: Baltimore Sun, Business Education, Capital Ideas, Connecticut Mathematics Journal, D-Lib, Education Policy Analysis Archives, Education Week, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Educational Measurement, Encyclopedia of Computer Programs, Government Computer News, Instructor Magazine, Interpreter's Journal, Journal of Behavioral and Educational Statistics, Journal of Educational Measurement, Journal of Official Statistics, Journal of Personnel Evaluation, Journal of Teacher Education, PC Monitor, Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation, School Administrator, and Volta Review.

Original work by Larry has also appeared in books and book chapters published by: Army Research Institute, Education Writers Association, InterAmerica, J.A.I. Press, Kluwer Academic Press, National Education Association, National Institute of Education, Springer, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Government Printing Office, University of Nebraska Press, and Wayne Green Publishing,


Last Modified: April 2015 (slightly)