in Applied Measurement

New York, NY, August 1998 - Professional Examination Service (PES) is pleased to announce the selection of Frederic Robin as the recipient of the 1998 Doctoral Fellowship Award in Applied Measurement. Established as part of the PES public service mission, the yearlong fellowship provides an opportunity for research on measurement and public-policy issues related to the development, validation, and use of licensure and certification examinations.

The fellowship will support Robin during his third year of doctoral study in the Research and Evaluation Methods program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Working under the direction of Stephen G. Sereci, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the university, Robin will study the adaptation of credentialing examinations from one language and culture to another. His research has two main goals: to prepare a review paper on promising approaches for validating the equivalence of licensure or certification examinations developed in a second language; and to evaluate alternative methods for validating the equivalence of credentialing examinations. Robin's research will compare promising statistical techniques using data from credentialing examinations that have been developed in multiple languages. As increasing numbers of such examinations are offered in more than one language - several PES clients offer their credentialing examinations in multiple languages, including Spanish, French, Chinese, and Korean - this research will address an important need for enhanced methods of test adaptation.

Bilingual in English and French, Robin received an engineering degree in Mechanical Development from the National Institute of Applied Sciences, in Villeurbanne, France, and a Master's degree in Operations Research and Statistics from North Carolina State University. He currently holds a summer internship position at the Educational Testing Service and is the recipient of the prestigious Psychometrics Fellowship given by the University of Massachusetts. Robin has presented numerous research papers at the annual meetings of the American Educational Research Association, the National Council on Measurement in Education, and the Northeastern Educational Research Association. His research interests include comparing dual-language versions of computerized certification examinations, differential item functioning in computerized adaptive tests, and methods of standard setting.

Submissions for the award were judged by a panel of three nationally recognized measurement experts: Richard Jaeger, Ph.D., Excellence Foundation Professor of Educational Research Methodology and Director of the Center for Educational Research and Evaluation at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro; Michael T. Kane, Ph.D., Professor of Kinesiology at the University of Wisconsin; and Barbara S. Plake, Ph.D., W.C. Meierhenry Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Director of the Oscar and Luella Buros Center for Testing.

Professional Examination Service is a not-for-profit testing organization whose mission is to promote the understanding and use of sound credentialing practices. PES achieves its mission by providing comprehensive services and making contributions to credentialing stakeholders in the areas of assessment practice, educational activities, scientific research, and policy development.

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