Matthias von Davier (Lee Pellegrini)
Matthias von Davier, Distinguished Research Scientist at the National Board of Medical Examiners, has been named the J. Donald Monan, S.J., University Professor in Education effective in fall 2020, Stanton E.F. Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, has announced.
Von Davier succeeds Lynch School Research Professor Philip G. Altbach, who served as the Monan Professor in聽 Education for nearly two decades. The professorship is named for the late 24th president of Boston College.
This spring, in advance of his faculty posting, von Davier will join the Lynch School-hosted , which conducts regular international comparative assessments of student achievement in mathematics and science and reading, on behalf of the Netherlands-based International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. TIMSS and PIRLS enable participating countries to make evidence-based decisions for improving educational policy.
Starting in the fall, von Davier will teach courses in psychometrics, statistics, and large scale assessment, according to Larry Ludlow, professor and chair of the Lynch School鈥檚 Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment Department.
鈥淲e are very pleased to have Professor von Davier join our faculty,鈥� said Ludlow. 聽鈥淗e not only brings technical expertise in a broad range of measurement and statistical domains, but also great creativity in recognizing and generating important problems and strategies for how to attack them. His name has already been mentioned in our Ph.D. admission applications, and we expect he will quickly attract additional highly talented masters and doctoral students to our department. We look forward to the new projects that he will add to our portfolio, and the many unique research opportunities that students will find available with him.鈥�
Von Davier鈥檚 areas of expertise include item response theory, known as IRT, latent class analysis, diagnostic classification models, and the analytical methodologies used in large-scale educational surveys. His current work is concerned with extending, implementing and applying multidimensional IRT, IRTree, and latent response models, as well as speed/accuracy models to process data research using log-file and timing data from large-scale assessments.
鈥淚 very much look forward to joining the 51茶馆 faculty,鈥� he said. 聽鈥淚 had heard about 51茶馆 while working at the Institute for Science Education. I was helping other research assistants as part of the German team of the 1995 TIMSS study, which was conducted by 51茶馆鈥檚 International Study Center.聽 Since coming to the U.S. in 2000, I realized that there were so many scholars who either worked at 51茶馆, studied there, or had a supervisor who now worked at 51茶馆, or had some other form of association鈥攁ll of whom had a strong connection to the educational measurement research I was conducting. Over the years, my connection to 51茶馆 deepened as I got more involved in research on international comparative assessment and extended my collaboration with [TIMSS & PIRLS International Study Center Executive Directors] Ina Mullis and Michael Martin and later, with the Lynch School鈥檚 Henry Braun. 聽
鈥淥ne of the many strengths of 51茶馆 is its ability to build and systematically support an area of leadership in an area of inquiry, and to attract students and faculty by fostering an environment that allows them to thrive and to develop globally recognized expertise. I am very excited to join this community and to work together with faculty and students on research that pushes the envelope of educational measurement and assessment in years to come.鈥�
Prior to his appointment at NBME, an independent non-profit organization that conducts high-quality assessments of health care professionals, von Davier was a senior research director at the Educational Testing Service鈥檚 Research & Development Division, and co-director of ETS鈥檚 Center for Global Assessment, leading large-scale psychometric research and operational analysis for international comparative studies such as the Programme for International Student Assessment, and the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies.聽 He also served as the psychometric advisor delegated by ETS to serve as a member of the project management team of TIMSS and PIRLS.
Von Davier has authored and co-authored more than 130 research articles, chapters and research reports, and edited five books.聽 A founding co-editor of Large-Scale Assessments in Education, a joint publication of the IEA and ETS, he was editor-in-chief of the British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology.聽 Additionally, he is co-editor of the series Methodology of Educational Measurement and Assessment, and serves as the executive editor of Psychometrika, the journal of the Psychometric Society.
His honors include the ETS Research Scientist award, the National Council of Measurement in Education Brad Hanson Award for Contributions to Educational Measurement, and the American Educational Research Association鈥檚 Division-D award for Significant Contributions to Measurement and Research Methodology.
Von Davier earned a doctorate in psychology with a specialty in psychometrics from Germany鈥檚 University of Kiel.聽
Phil Gloudemans | University Communications | January 2020