{"id":202617,"date":"2015-10-29T13:54:52","date_gmt":"2015-10-29T17:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=202617"},"modified":"2023-08-09T13:59:19","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T17:59:19","slug":"measurement-evaluation-assessment-doctoral-students-test-drive-their-future-careers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2015\/10\/measurement-evaluation-assessment-doctoral-students-test-drive-their-future-careers\/","title":{"rendered":"Measurement, Evaluation, Assessment Doctoral Students Test-Drive Their Future Careers"},"content":{"rendered":"

UConn students across the University, including those from the Neag School of Education, are gaining valuable experiences during summer internships. In the the measurement, evaluation, and assessment (MEA) program at the Neag School, several doctoral students spent the past few months test-driving their future careers, working hand in hand with such prestigious organizations as the College Board, the Law School Admissions Council, and the U.S. Governmental Accountability Office.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_7580<\/a>Yujia \u201cEva\u201d Li<\/strong><\/p>\n

This summer, MEA doctoral student Yujia \u201cEva\u201d Li, received firsthand experience in the social science field through her internship at the College Board Psychometrics Department in Newtown, Pa. Li says she pursued the internship in order to see what it is like to \u201cwork outside of academia and meet some professionals in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Li was part of a research team studying whether participation in advanced placement science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs predicts STEM success in college. She focused on reviewing literature, analyzing data, writing about the results, and putting together a presentation, along with submitting an journal proposal to the American Educational Research Association to share the findings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made an effort to ensure that it was a positive experience,\u201d Li says. \u201cThey invited me to team meetings, so I was able to see a little bit about other people\u2019s projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says she also appreciated that the internship \u201cgave her some freedom to choose which part of the project to work on \u2013 and how to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learning that \u201cit is important to communicate effectively with people, and remain flexible through changes,\u201d Li found the internship an invaluable opportunity to see how people work in the industry and to make professional connections.<\/p>\n

\"tbev\"<\/a>Tanesia Beverly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tanesia Beverly first became interested in the field of educational measurement and psychometrics after taking the Law School Admissions Test a few years back. She was intrigued by the security measures implemented to maintain the integrity of the test. \u201cSimilar to airport security, examinees were only permitted into the testing site with a plastic Ziploc bag with certain items: identification, one bottled water, a few pencils, and a snack,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

Beverly, who is considering a future career as a psychometrician at a testing company, subsequently decided to pursue an internship at the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) in Newtown, Pa. She wanted an opportunity to work with experts in the field of statistical methods to detect cheating on standardized assessments.<\/p>\n

\u201cLSAC is conducting cutting-edge research in this area,\u201d she says. \u201cLSAC\u2019s internship is project-based; however, they allow their interns to carve out a project that is of interest to both parties \u2013 the intern and the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beverly submitted a proposal for the National Council on Measurement in Education about minimizing errors when using different answer-copying statistics. \u201cWe were looking to control\u00a0the Type I error rate so that the cheating statistics are able to detect cheaters, but not accuse a noncheater of cheating,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Her colleagues at LSAC, she says, proved supportive and \u201censured that I had everything necessary \u2013 including the latest cheating detection books \u2013 to be successful.\u201d In addition, she received<\/p>\n

one-on-one assistance with most of LSAC\u2019s psychometric research team and had the opportunity to network and bounce ideas off of different people. For instance, she says, \u201cWe ran our ideas by two prominent researchers in educational measurements, which provided helpful feedback on our research.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MEA<\/a><\/p>\n

Laura Yahn<\/strong><\/p>\n

As an MEA doctoral student, Laura Yahn identifies most strongly with the \u201cE\u201d in MEA. \u201cI\u2019m particularly interested in accountability and the intersection between policy and evaluation,\u201d she says. Her summer internship with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in Boston was a natural fit for her interest.<\/p>\n

With a background in higher education administration, having previously served as a director of online and hybrid programs at Nichols College in Dudley, Mass., Yahn was assigned to the GAO\u2019s education, workforce, and income security team.<\/p>\n

\u201cI assisted a team of analysts and methodologists in conducting an in-depth study of a gender diversity issue in response to a Congressional request,\u201d she says. She assisted in collecting, coding, and analyzing data, and in developing data-based findings and conclusions. She also drafted a portion of the final report, which will be publicly released in December by the GAO.<\/p>\n

Yahn commends the \u201cincredibly smart, dedicated people at GAO, who are committed to improving the performance, and ensuring the accountability, of the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

She had the opportunity not only to learn about the GAO\u2019s efforts to promote good government, but also to contribute as a fully integrated team member. Her responsibilities, and the expectations placed on her, were exactly the same as those of a professional analyst. \u201cBecause GAO treats interns like regular staff, it didn\u2019t feel like an internship. It was more like I was test-driving a professional position,\u201d she says. \u201cThey made me a better researcher.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also learned about effective techniques for construction and supporting arguments, for working with data, and for indexing source material. \u201cThese skills are going to make writing my dissertation an infinitely smoother process,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve also been inspired with several ideas for future research.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn students across the University, including those from the Neag School of Education, are gaining valuable experiences during summer internships. In the the measurement, evaluation, and assessment (MEA) program at the Neag School, several doctoral students spent the past few months test-driving their future careers, working hand in hand with such prestigious organizations as the College Board, the Law School Admissions Council, and the U.S. Governmental Accountability Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1879],"class_list":["post-202617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-06 08:11:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202617"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202619,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202617\/revisions\/202619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202617"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=202617"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=202617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}