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)