Committee Members

Diana C. Pullin (Chair), Boston College, MA

Joan Herman, National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, Los Angeles, CA

Scott Marion, National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Dover, NH

Dirk Mattson, Minnesota Department of Education, Roseville

Rebecca Maynard, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

Mark Wilson, University of California, Berkeley

Biographical Sketches

Diana C. Pullin (chair) is Professor of Education Law and Public Policy at Boston College. She also coordinates the Joint Degree Program in Law and Education at the Law School and the Lynch School of Education at the University. She has served as Dean of the School of Education at Boston College and as Associate Dean of the College of Education at Michigan State University. Dr. Pullin was staff attorney, co-director, and then President of the Center for Law and Education of Cambridge, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. The relationship between law and education in the pursuit of equality of educational opportunity and educational excellence has always been the cornerstone of Dr. Pullin's work as a practicing attorney, scholar, and teacher. The focus of her scholarship is the impact of legal requirements on educators and educational institutions, as well as the impact of social science theory and research on judges, legislators, and public policy-makers. She has also made contributions to the development and implementation of ethical and professional standards of practice in education. She served as a member of the Committee on Educational and Psychological Testing of the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education. She has served as an expert advisor to the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences on panels addressing issues concerning minority students in special education and gifted education, the impact of standards-based education reform on students with disabilities, the pursuit of educational excellence and testing equity, and is currently serving as a member on the Board on Testing and Assessment. Dr. Pullin received her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Iowa.

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Joan Herman is Director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) at University of California, LA. Her research has explored the effects of testing on schools and the design of assessment systems to support school planning and instructional improvement. Her recent work has focused on the validity and utility of teachers' formative assessment practices in science. She also has wide experience as an evaluator of school reform. Dr. Herman is noted in bridging research and practice. Among her books are Tracking Your School's Success: A Guide to Sensible School-Based Evaluation; and A practical Guide to Alternative Assessment, both of which have been popular resources for schools across the country. A former teacher and school board member, Dr. Herman also has published extensively in research journals and is a frequent speaker to policy audiences on evaluation and assessment topics. She is past president of the California Educational Research Association; has held a variety of leadership positions in the American Educational Research Association, National Organization of Research Centers, and Knowledge Alliance; and is current editor of Educational Assessment. She served on the National Academy's Committee on the Design of Science Assessment, and is currently serving on the Roundtable on Education Systems and Accountability. Dr. Herman received her Ed.D. in Learning and Instruction from the University of California, Los Angeles.

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Scott Marion is the Vice President of the non-profit National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, Inc. As Vice President, Dr. Marion consults with numerous states on such issues as optimal design of assessment and accountability systems, creating or documenting legally defensible approaches to accountability, gathering validation evidence for accountability programs, and designing programs to support low-performing schools. His most recent work has involved helping state assessment programs meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, including helping states develop growth models for use as alternatives to the status models currently required for NCLB adequate yearly progress measures. Dr. Marion is well acquainted with the policy issues related to enacting growth models and is familiar with value-added methods used in the Tennessee Value-Added Analysis System (TVAAS) developed by William Sanders. Dr. Marion is a regular contributor to the annual conferences of AERA, NCME, and CCSSO. Previously, Dr. Marion served as Wyoming’s Assessment Director (1999-2003), where he managed the K-12 testing program, the Wyoming Comprehensive Assessment System, overseeing the state’s Uniform Reporting System, and generally overseeing all assessment-related activities at the Wyoming Department of Education. Wyoming’s innovative high school competency assessment system—The Body of Evidence System—was the most ambitious project of his administration. Before assuming the position with the Wyoming Department of Education, Dr. Marion was a research assistant at the School of Education, University of Colorado at Boulder, working on a variety of projects funded by the Center for Research on Student Standards and Testing (CRESST) under supervision of Lorrie Shepard and Robert Linn. Prior to moving west to earn his doctorate at the University of Colorado, Dr. Marion was a part time faculty member in the College of Education, University of Maine where he received his Master’s of Science in Science and Environmental Education. Dr. Marion is currently serving on the Committee on Value-Added Methodology for Instructional Improvement, Program Evaluation, and Accountability.

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Dirk Mattson is the Director of the Research and Assessment Division at the Minnesota Department of Education, which oversees the development, administration, and reporting of the statewide assessments that fulfill both state and federal requirements. Prior to assuming the role of Director, Mr. Mattson served as the Manager of Test Development within the Division of Research and Assessment. Before joining the department, he was a middle school teacher in English and social studies and served as a district-level administrator in Hibbing, Lakeville, and Prior-Lake Savage where he was responsible for programs from Title I to gifted & talented, as well as a curriculum coordinator and testing director. He has published in several national journals and presented at national conferences on teaching and assessment. He holds a M.S. degree in Education from Minnesota State-Mankato and a Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from Arizona State University.

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Rebecca Maynard is University Trustee Professor of Education and Social Policy, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Maynard is a leading expert in the design and conduct of rigorous randomized controlled trials in the areas of education and social policy, and she has conducted influential methodological research demonstrating empirically the limitations of quasi-experimental research designs. In recent years, she has been a leader in the development and application of methods for conducting systematic reviews of evidence on program effectiveness, with a focus on their application to education. She is co-author on several Campbell Collaboration Reviews. She has taught graduate courses in methods for systematically reviewing intervention research, consulted with the Institute for Education Sciences in the design of the What Works Clearinghouse approach to reviews and presentation of evidence, and, presently, serves on the Technical Review Team for the What Works Clearinghouse.
Dr. Maynard is currently completing a manuscript on the costs of teen childbearing, directing a study of distributed leadership training and professional support funded by the Annenberg Foundation and a study of the 21st Century Skills Project funded by the William Penn Foundation; co-authoring a hands-on graduate-level text on designing and conducting randomized controlled trials in education (with support from the Institute of Education Sciences); and conducting comparative research in education, with an emphasis on U.S., Asian, and Middle Eastern systems. Dr. Maynard previously served on the Committee on Performance Levels for Adults. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin System.

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Mark R. Wilson is Professor of Policy, Organization, Measurement, and Evaluation Cognition and Development in the Graduate School of Education at University of California, Berkeley. He is also the developer of the Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research Center. His research focuses on educational measurement, survey sampling techniques, modeling, assessment design, and applied statistics. He currently advises the California State Department of Education on assessment issues as a member of the Technical Study Group. Dr. Wilson has recently published three books: Constructing Measures: An Item Response Modeling Approach, which is an introduction to modern measurement; Explanatory Item Response Models: A Generalized Linear and Nonlinear Approach, which introduces an overarching framework for the statistical modeling of measurements that makes available new tools for understanding the meaning and nature of measurement; and Towards Coherence Between Classroom Assessment and Accountability, an edited volume that explores the issues relating to the relationships between large-scale assessment and classroom-level assessment. He is founding editor of the new journal Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives. Dr. Wilson served on the Committee on the Foundations of Assessment, the Committee on Development Outcomes and Assessment for Young Children, and he chaired the Committee on Test Design for K-12 Science Achievement. He is currently serving on the Committee on Value-Added Methodology for Instructional Improvement, Program Evaluation, and Accountability and the Board on Testing and Assessment. He has a Ph.D. in measurement and educational statistics from the University of Chicago.

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