6 Jan. 30, 2017 columns.uga.edu
Jori N. Hall, an associate professor in the College of Education’s lifelong education, administration and policy department, was recently named associate editor of the American Journal of Evaluation, a peer-reviewed publication that focuses on evaluation methodology, theory and practice. Sponsored by the American Evaluation Association, AJE features diverse viewpoints in evaluation practice related to a multitude of disciplines, including health, sociology and education. As the journal’s associate editor, Hall will be responsible for determining the appropriateness Jori Hall of submitted manuscripts and supervising the review process. If revisions are needed, her recommendations may include guidance on what the author needs to focus on before resubmitting the article for publication. Hall will work with the AJE editorial team for two years and apply her expertise in the fields of educational accountability, qualitative inquiry, mixed methods research and evaluation theory and practice. Clark Alexander, interim executive director of UGA’s Skidaway Institute of Oceanography, has been honored by the coastal environmental group One Hundred Miles as one of the group’s One Hundred Miles 100. The list is the first recognition of its kind to honor 100 individuals and organizations for their efforts to support the health, vitality and future of Georgia’s 100-mile coastline. Alexander was selected within the researchers and innovators category. A coastal geologist, Alexander was cited for his research efforts, which he began on the Georgia coast in 1989 when he joined the UGA Skidaway Institute. He also was cited by the environmental group for helping to advance the work of institutions across the coast. Alexander served on the Sapelo Island National Estuarine Research Reserve Advisory Board, the Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council, and the Georgia Coastal Marshlands and Shore Protection committees. Alexander and the other honorees were recognized Jan. 7 with a reception immediately following the One Hundred Miles’ Coastal Conservation in Action: Choosing to Lead Conference on Jekyll Island. Peng-Wah Chee, a professor of crop and soil sciences in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, received the 2016 Cotton Genetics Research Award during the 2017 Beltwide Cotton Improvement Conference. In recognition, Chee received a plaque and a monetary award. One nominator, Don Jones, director of agricultural research at Cotton Inc. in Cary, N.C., said cotton producers have benefited from newly released commercial varieties resistant to root-knot nematode based on findings from Chee’s research. He said a variety that Chee developed in 2016 and licensed to one of the leading cotton seed providers is proof Peng-Wah Chee that “his research drives innovations in both the science and grower communities.” Jones also noted that Chee has a stellar professional record as evidenced by 46 peer-reviewed manuscripts, four book chapters, three germplasm releases and two varieties developed. He also was part of the U.S.-led effort that published the Gossypium raimondii genome sequence in Nature, the first cotton centric paper in more than 50 years in the science journal. Kudos recognizes special contributions of staff, faculty and administrators in teaching, research and service. News items are limited to election into office of state, regional, national and international societies; major awards and prizes; and similarly notable accomplishments.
FACULTY PROFILE
Chad Osburn
Laine Bradshaw’s work is focused on developing and leveraging diagnostic psychometric methodology not currently used in assessment systems in order to design assessments that are both detailed and efficient.
College of Education faculty member develops assessment tool By Kathryn Kao kathk1@uga.edu
In education, learning is often viewed as a straight continuum of ability that represents a student’s understanding of a particular subject area. But with newly developed diagnostic assessments, Laine Bradshaw, an associate professor in UGA’s College of Education, said learning is more like a developing toolbox, and assessments can be designed to determine which tools, or skills, students have and which ones they still need to acquire. “Every educator, administrator and teacher you talk to wants diagnostic assessments that tell them what their students’ strengths and weakness are,” Bradshaw said.“One of the biggest issues in education is developing brief assessments that can be administered quickly in the classroom and also provide reliable and accurate feedback about what students know and what they don’t know.” While interning with the U.S. Department of Education as a graduate student in mathematics education, Bradshaw noticed there was a disconnect between assessment results and teacher practice. Educators wanted the information from assessments to be more timely and detailed in order to use the feedback to inform instruction and help students succeed in the classroom. “Quality research shows that assessments can be a really effective learning tool if we can get feedback to teachers in a fast and efficient manner,” said Bradshaw. “You also have to tell teachers something they don’t already know.
Teachers know who is generally high or low performing, but they often don’t know what specific skills each student may be struggling with.” Traditional psychometric methodology is not designed to give detailed feedback on student strengths and weaknesses. Giving detailed or diagnostic feedback using traditional methods would require administering a lot of items—more items than schools have time to administer—to yield accurate and reliable feedback. Bradshaw’s work is focused on developing and leveraging diagnostic psychometric methodology not currently used in assessment systems in order to design assessments that are both detailed and efficient. “My research focuses on assessments that provide a multivariate profile of what students understand,” she said.“It’s a different way to look at assessment while providing the kind of information that resonates with teachers. That’s my goal: To provide teachers with information they need, value and trust.” Bradshaw currently is an investigator on three federal grants—two from the National Science Foundation and one from the Institute of Education Sciences. For each of these projects, Bradshaw is advancing the psychometric methodology needed to design diagnostic assessments that will help researchers better understand the complex structures of how students and teachers reason mathematically. “We’ve learned from research and have been able to advance the psychometric methodology to the point where
FACTS
Laine P. Bradshaw
Associate Professor Educational Psychology College of Education Ph.D., Research, Evaluation, Measurement and Statistics, University of Georgia, 2011 M.Ed., Mathematics Education, University of Georgia, 2007 B.S., Mathematics Education, University of Georgia, 2007 At UGA: 4.5 years
we are ready to use psychometrically diagnostic assessments in practice,” said Bradshaw. “Research allows us to test the limits of assessment design and usability.” To connect her research with practice, Bradshaw collaborated with Parcc, Inc., a testing company that began as a large assessment consortium, to design a first-of-its-kind psychometrically diagnostic classroom assessment system in reading and mathematics comprehension for students in grades two through eight. After students complete a short assessment online, teachers get immediate feedback on whether the they are on-track or need improvement in certain areas. Students can retake assessments as needed, and the system tracks the areas in which they have demonstrated mastery in over the year. “We can better refine the design of the system to make it more useful for teachers and students once we have data to understand how it works in practice,” said Bradshaw.
OFFICE OF THE VICE PRESIDENT FOR INSTRUCTION
New Office of Online Learning director named
By Tracy Coley tcoley@uga.edu
Following a national search, Stephen P. Balfour has been named director of the UGA Office of Online Learning. Balfour will begin his new position Feb. 1. Balfour will provide the leadership for the Office of Online Learning and 10 full-time staff to improve development and delivery of high-quality undergraduate and graduate courses and degree programs for academic departments. UGA currently has two undergraduate online degree programs, 16 online graduate degree programs
and more than 700 online courses. “Dr. Balfour has been on the forefront of the latest technology and pedagogy in his teaching and research roles at Texas A&M UniStephen Balfour versity and therefore has a big picture of how online learning should connect with today’s students,” said Rahul Shrivastav, vice president for instruction. “He brings the vision that the Office of Online
Learning needs to advance and compete in a global online academic market.” Balfour held teaching, research and administrative positions at Texas A&M University for 24 years, most recently director of Instructional and Research Computing in the College of Liberal Arts, an office that he built from the ground up. Balfour also is a consultant for grants and contracts involving technology for both instruction and research. He authored the Liberal Arts Online Course Creation Guide and was project manager in building Texas A&M’s first Lightboard technology to enhance distance learning.