Psychometrician - Technical Director, Education, Arlington, VA
Psychometrician - Technical Director, Education, Arlington, VA
Position Summary:
The Psychometrician/Technical Director (TD) will support MSI’s international education practice area. Our current portfolio has activities in learning assessment, monitoring, evaluation, research, data analysis, and policy. The TD will have roles in three areas: technical support, business development, and management. The allocation of time will be weighted towards technical support. The TD will report to the Education Practice Area Lead and will be based in the MSI headquarters in Arlington, VA.
The Psychometrician/TD will:
- Manage projects and tasks to fulfill deliverables requiring psychometric and statistical expertise
- Lead the design and development of psychometrically valid and reliable learning assessments for international clients and projects
- Provide psychometric expertise to projects with large scale and/or classroom-based assessment activities
- Lead quantitative and mixed methods evaluations involving test design and measurement, data collection and analysis, and communication
- Utilize innovative psychometric techniques and processes that are well-researched, widely used and adapted to local contexts and needs
**Please note: Only U.S. citizens are eligible for this position**
Responsibilities:
- Adheres to the principles of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing as well as other applicable professional standards
- Designs, plans and produces achievement tests in reading and writing, math and other subject areas for clients, including ministries of education and international donor agencies
- Develops test specifications; sets test content and psychometric standards for item and test development
- Performs statistical analyses for reliability and validity measures
- Leads design of educational research and evaluation activities including developing sample design and sampling weights
- Leads capacity building and professional development workshops on measurement issues such as standard setting and benchmarking, test construction, data analysis, test equating
- Fulfills psychometric analyses including scaling, equating, item and test analyses, validity and reliability, test construction
- Develops psychometric procedures appropriate for a specific project, context, or intervention
- Works with modern item formats and test designs, including both timed tests (individually administered) and untimed tests (group administered)
- Advises international clients on sound measurement practices, including different types of linking, ranging from moderation (policy linking) to equating
- Develops reports and presentations as required by clients
- Manages team of data analysts and interacts with technology staff and project management team to fulfill project deliverables
- Travels, as required, to fulfill these responsibilities
Qualifications:
- Doctoral degree, or Master’s degree, in educational measurement, educational assessment, statistics, quantitative research methods, or closely related field
- At least 10 years of experience (15 years with Master’s degree) providing psychometric support to testing industry, departments of education, large school districts, or education programs nationally and/or internationally
- Experience working with international donor agencies, partners, and ministries of educations, preferred
- Knowledgeable about national and international trends in student assessments
- Competent in applied psychometric techniques including classical test theory, item response theory, test equating, and linking
- Experience leading performance standard setting, benchmarking, and target setting workshops
- Experience with learning assessment system designs, including content and performance standards
- Experience with educational research, including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods designs
- Knowledge of data analysis methods that support assessment, including data management with descriptive and inferential statistics
- Strong skills with statistical software such as SPSS, STATA, SAS and/or R, and psychometric software such as WINSTEPS and/or IRT Pro
- Must be able to effectively write and communicate orally in English to both technical and non-technical audiences; communications skills in other languages (e.g., French, Arabic) preferred
- Experience leading training sessions in overseas contexts, including planning, coordination and logistics with international donor agencies and ministries of education, preferred
MSI is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity and inclusion. We strive to develop and maintain a culture that honors the perspectives and identities of our employees, our communities and those impacted by our work.
We do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute, including race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital or veteran status, pregnancy or disability, or any other basis protected under applicable law. In accordance with applicable law, we make reasonable accommodations for applicants’ and employees’ religious practices and beliefs, as well as any mental health or physical disability needs.
MSI is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Affirmative Action/Americans with Disabilities/Veterans Employer.
Reasonable Accommodations:
MSI is dedicated to hiring an inclusive workforce. If you would like to request reasonable accommodations during the application process, please email MSI.Dept.HRRecruiting@tetratechinc.onmicrosoft.com with “Reasonable Accommodations” in the title. Our recruitment team looks forward to engaging in an interactive process to provide reasonable accommodations for candidates.
Only candidates who have been selected for an interview will be contacted. No phone calls, please.