Research & Expertise - NWEA

Michael Gaddis, PhD

Taylor Riordan — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 19:50:28 +0000

Broadly, Michael Gaddis’s work provides evidence of inequality in the US related to race/ethnicity, social class, and education. He studies educational inequality across five dimensions: (1) the effects of educational credentials on important life outcomes, including employment and health; (2) when and how educational credentials attenuate or exacerbate racial/ethnic discrimination; (3) intergenerational mobility as it relates to the direct and indirect effects of educational attainment across generations; (4) differences in students’ mental health and campus-level stigma across college and universities and the subsequent impact on academic achievement and attainment; and (5) racial/ethnic and SES inequalities in cultural capital and social capital and their effects on academic achievement and attainment among K–12 students.
Dr. Gaddis published a 2018 book on the experimental method used to investigate discrimination titled Audit Studies: Behind the Scenes with Theory, Method, and Nuance. His research has been published in numerous journals. In 2020, he was named Honorable Mention for the Distinguished Early Career Award by the American Sociological Association’s Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities. Prior to joining NWEA, Dr. Gaddis was an associate professor of sociology at UCLA, a Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in health policy research at the University of Michigan, and an assistant professor of sociology and demography at Penn State University. He received a PhD in sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Scott J. Peters, PhD

Melissa Hay — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 18:20:26 +0000

Scott J. Peters specializes in educational assessment and data use, gifted and talented student identification, equity within advanced educational opportunities, and effectiveness of educational policy. His research focuses on how schools can leverage assessment data for maximum school and student benefit. His ongoing projects relate to balancing cost, sensitivity, and equity in gifted and talented student identification, how to proactively screen students for advanced learning opportunities, examining growth trajectories for advanced learners, and how to ensure all students have access to advanced learning opportunities.

Prior to coming to NWEA, for 13 years, Dr. Peters served as a professor of assessment and research methodology at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. His scholarly work has appeared in the Australian Educational Researcher, AERA Open, Teaching for High Potential, the British Journal of Educational Psychology, Exceptional Children, and Gifted Child Quarterly, and many other publications. He received his PhD from Purdue University in educational psychology and applied research methodology.

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Ayesha K. Hashim, PhD

Melissa Hay — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 18:06:19 +0000

Ayesha K. Hashim draws on interdisciplinary and mixed-methods research designs to study the impacts of district-level school policies on student learning, as well as the leadership, organizational, and implementation conditions that can explain observed results. Her research covers a range of topics including the integration of technology with standards-based instruction, school choice and accountability, teacher professional development, and COVID recovery. Ayesha’s work has been published in Education Finance and Policy, Economics of Education Review, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Computers and Education, American Journal of Education, and Peabody Journal of Education.

Prior to joining NWEA, Ayesha was an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She completed her PhD in urban education policy, MA in economics, and master’s in public policy at the University of Southern California. She received the New Scholar Award in 2017 from the Association for Education Finance and Policy for her dissertation research.

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Miles Davison, PhD

Melissa Hay — Wed, 10 Aug 2022 23:55:26 +0000

Miles Davison specializes in using quantitative and mixed-methodologies to examine how K-12 intervention policies and programs impact equity in schools. His research is driven by a desire to assist schools in creating optimal learning environments for students. He is particularly interested in understanding how particular processes and mechanisms associated with school policies ultimately impact student behavioral and academic outcomes. Specifically, his recent work has focused on changes in school disciplinary practices and disparities after the implementation of restorative justice policies. Through this work, Miles has gained a passion for producing research that is actionable and relevant to policymakers and practitioners.

Dr. Davison holds a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Irvine.

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Susan Kowalski, PhD

Melissa Hay — Wed, 25 May 2022 17:16:44 +0000

Susan Kowalski began her career in science education teaching high school physics and physical science in Bloomington, MN. She completed her PhD in curriculum and instruction from the University of Minnesota and the spent several years developing and researching curricula and professional learning experiences at BSCS Science Learning. Her current work investigates new approaches to three-dimensional assessment in support of the Next Generation Science Standards. She is focused on how teachers might learn to more effectively use assessment data to inform their day-to-day science instruction and enhance equitable learning opportunities for students.

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Fang Peng, PhD

Melissa Hay — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 15:24:24 +0000

Fang Peng works with the MAP Reading Fluency assessment. Among her interests and areas of expertise are computerized adaptive testing, measurement validity, early childhood development, and applications of natural language processing and machine learning in assessment contexts. Prior to joining NWEA in 2022, Fang worked as a psychometrician at the National Council of State Boards of Nursing where she gained extensive operational and research experience in large-scale licensure examinations. Fang holds a PhD in Educational Psychology with a concentration in Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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Patrick Meyer, PhD

Melissa Hay — Wed, 12 May 2021 02:58:24 +0000

Patrick Meyer manages the team of psychometricians, statistical analysts, and project managers involved in the district division of NWEA. This team conducts psychometric research for assessments such as MAP Growth and MAP Reading Fluency. His research interests include IRT, psychometric software design, and the psychometric characteristics of teaching measures. Dr. Meyer is the inventor and lead developer of jMetrik, an open-source software program used in over 20 countries. He has authored two books and published over 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Educational Measurement, Applied Psychological Measurement, and Educational and Psychological Measurement. He has conducted 25 standard-setting workshops in the licensure and certification field, as well as numerous workshops on psychometric theory and the use of jMetrik for data analysis. Prior to joining NWEA in 2018, Dr. Meyer worked as an associate professor with tenure in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, where he taught courses in educational measurement and applied statistics. He began his academic career in 2004 as an assistant professor at James Madison University’s Center for Assessment and Research Studies. Dr. Meyer holds a PhD in educational psychology and research from the University of South Carolina.

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Xueming (Sylvia) Li, EdD

Melissa Hay — Wed, 12 May 2021 02:57:19 +0000

Xueming (Sylvia) Li focuses on psychometric issues related to MAP Growth. Her research interests include computer-based testing, applications of IRT, test validity, cross-cultural assessment, and test score linking and equating. Prior to joining NWEA in 2015, she received a doctoral degree in research, educational measurement, and psychometrics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

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Ann Hu, PhD

Melissa Hay — Wed, 12 May 2021 02:56:25 +0000

Ann Hu works mainly on MAP Growth assessments. Her research interests include linking studies between formative and summative assessments, item bank development and maintenance, adaptive testing engines, test security, and norms studies. She has extensive experience in conducting psychometric analyses and research based on Rasch models and IRT, constructing fixed forms and CATs, and designing and conducting standard settings. Prior to joining NWEA in 2017, Dr. Hu worked at Data Recognition Corporation (DRC) on multiple large-scale achievement testing programs for Pennsylvania, Michigan, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alabama, and Minnesota. Dr. Hu holds a doctorate in measurement, evaluation, and cognition from the University of Alberta. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a MEd in educational psychology.

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Tyler Matta, PhD

Melissa Hay — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 02:06:59 +0000

Tyler Matta is motived to improve the tools used for educational decision making to support the building of equitable educational systems. His work spans computational psychometrics, learning theory, and education policy, and has been published in journals such as the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, Structural Equation Modeling, and Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. Prior to joining NWEA, Tyler was a senior research director at Pearson; a Gustafsson & Skrondal Scholar at the Centre for Education Measurement, University of Oslo, Norway; and a middle school art teacher in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. He holds a PhD in education leadership with a specialization in quantitative research methods from the University of Oregon.

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