Oregon's Assessment & Accountability Technical Advisory Committee

Overview

Oregon’s Assessment & Accountability Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) serves as an advisory body to the Oregon Department of Education’s (ODE) Office of Research, Assessment, Data, Accountability, and Reporting (RADAR). The TAC makes recommendations and provides guidance on technical aspects of large-scale assessments pertaining to the state’s assessment and accountability systems. Recommendations and guidance focus on assessment and accountability topics such as ensuring that the item development, test construction, administration procedures, scoring and equating methodologies, and standard-setting of the state’s assessment system provide valid, reliable, and fair scores for use within the school accountability system.

The TAC also provides guidance on other technical matters, such as practices not already described in the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, and continues to provide advice and consultation on the implementation of other state assessment Initiatives and meeting the federal requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

TAC members include educational measurement, assessment, and policy experts. The committee convenes at least three times a year. Meetings are strategically scheduled to support the needs of the state.

Members

	Dr. Jennifer Randall Dr. Jennifer Randall is the Dunn Family Chair of Psychometrics and Test Development at the University of Michigan and the founding President of the Center for Measurement Justice. Dr. Randall received her bachelor’s (1996) and master’s (1999) degrees from Duke University and her doctoral degree from Emory University (2007). She began her career as a public-school teacher in secondary history working with historically marginalized students. Her work seeks to disrupt white supremacist, racist logics in assessment through culturally sustaining practices that are explicitly and unapologetically antiracist. She is committed to working with minoritized communities and our co-conspirators to explore the ways in which we can create a justice-oriented assessment system culture in which the sociocultural identities of students are deliberately considered and valued - not as an afterthought, but rather - in the planning and development phases of assessment. Her work has been published in journals such as Educational Measurement: Issues and Practices, and Educational Assessment. She teaches courses in measurement theory, statistics, and classroom assessment.
	Dr. Scott Monroe Dr. Scott Monroe is an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the Research, Educational Measurement, and Psychometrics program. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Sciences and his M.S. from UCLA's Statistics Department. Generally, Dr. Monroe's methodological research focuses on latent variable modeling, often using item response theory. His recent applied research has concerned state testing and related topics, such as student growth. His work has been published in journals such as Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, Journal of Educational Measurement, and Multivariate Behavioral Research. Prior to his doctoral training, Dr. Monroe was a high school mathematics teacher in Brooklyn, New York, and Culver City, California.
	Dr. Bob Dolan Dr. Bob Dolan is a neuroscientist and learning scientist, and the principal of Diverse Learners Consulting which he founded in 2013. With his expertise in instructional design, educational measurement, user experience design, and software development, Bob designs, implements, and evaluates flexible and effective solutions for diverse learners, including those with disabilities and those from traditionally underserved populations. He has served as principal investigator on research and center grants funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Education, as well as private foundations. Bob also serves as adjunct professor at Landmark College where he teaches educators about learning technologies appropriate for diverse learners. Bob received a B.S. in Biology from Cornell in 1984 and a Ph.D. in Brain and Cognitive Science from MIT in 1992.
	Dr. Gerald Tindal Dr. Gerald Tindall is an Emeritus Professor of Education from the College of Education at the University of Oregon. Before becoming Emeritus Professor in 2019, Dr. Tindal was the Castle-McIntosh-Knight Professor in the College of Education – University of Oregon. He was also the Director of Behavioral Research and Teaching (BRT). His research focuses on integrating students with disabilities in general education classrooms, curriculum-based measurement for screening students at risk of learning problems, monitoring student progress, and evaluating instructional programs. Dr. Tindal also conducts research on large scale testing and development of alternate assessments, as well as teacher decision-making on test participation, test accommodations, and extended assessments of basic skills. He publishes and reviews articles in many special education journals and has written several book chapters and books on curriculum-based measurement and large-scale testing. He teaches courses on assessment systems, data driven decision-making, professional writing, research design, and educational program evaluation. His research and teaching form the basis for developing digital assessments: easyCBM© (serving 140,000 teachers and one million students across the U.S.), WriteRightNow©, and CBMskills®.
	Aneesha Badrinarayan Aneesha Badrinarayan is Director of State Performance Assessment Initiatives at the Learning Policy Institute, where she leads projects related to state performance assessments. For the last decade, her work has focused on supporting states, districts, and educators to develop and implement student-centered systems of assessment that support all learners. Her passion for coherent and balanced systems of assessment stems from a commitment to high-quality teaching and learning for all and a deep interest in helping practitioners and leaders navigate their systems to achieve that vision. Prior to LPI, she was the Director for Special Initiatives at Achieve, a museum professional, and a neuroscientist. Her portfolio includes leading several multi-state teams of leaders and experts to redefine "alignment" in the era of new state standards; developing criteria for innovative large-scale and classroom assessments; providing professional learning and strategic guidance for state leaders; and conducting analyses of state, local, and expert efforts to design and implement performance assessments and systems of assessment in science. Badrinarayan earned a M.S. in Neuroscience at the University of Michigan, where she served as a research fellow for the National Institute of Mental Health, and a B.A. in biology from Cornell University.
	Dr. Karen Thompson Dr. Karen D. Thompson is an Associate Professor in the College of Education at Oregon State University, Her research addresses how curriculum and instruction, teacher education, and policy interact to shape the classroom experiences of multilingual students in K-12 schools. Her work has been funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the Office of English Language Acquisition, and the Spencer Foundation. She was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. Her scholarship has been published in venues such as Educational Researcher and the American Educational Research Journal. Prior to entering academia, she was a bilingual elementary school teacher.