Tuesday, November 30, 2021
2:00 - 4:00 PM (PST) in Berkeley Way West room 1212 and Zoom
Abstract:
Josh will discuss ongoing research that aims to translate large scale assessment scores into educationally relevant information supporting early childhood practice, policy, and developmental science. The Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) is an observational assessment of early childhood development used at scale for formative assessment and summative assessment in multiple US states, including California. The current research applies and extends the DRDP's design elements, focusing on strategies for communicating complex psychometric information and new psychometric methods that translate scaled scores into information about children's observable skills, capacities, and behaviors; information that may be applied to support developmentally appropriate early care and education, scientifically-informed public policy, and greater understanding of the sequence and rate of learning and development in diverse groups of children.
Biography:
Josh Sussman is an Academic Researcher at the BEAR Center where he uses quantitative and psychometric methods to examine learning and development in early childhood. His research includes secondary data analysis, policy analysis, evaluation, and psychometrics for the Desired Results Developmental Profile (DRDP) assessment. He is the principal investigator for an American Educational Research Association-funded research grant examining multilingual learnersâ early language and literacy development. He earned his Ph.D. in education (school psychology) from UC Berkeley. His dissertation was supported by an Institute of Education Sciences fellowship and focused on the use and validity of standardized achievement tests in evaluation of educational interventions in k-12 settings.