New Gig

Big changes in my little part of the world! I didn't really discuss here on the blog, but I stopped working as a Psychometrician for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on June 1. New leadership and changing market directions led to many positions being eliminated, including my own, and I've taken the last 1.5+ months to do some professional development and writing, along with looking for a new job.

Today I started a new job as Manager of Exam Development for the Dental Assisting National Board. I'll be doing a lot of the same things I was doing as HMH: psychometric and statistical analysis. But here, I'll have the opportunity to be involved in developing exams for dental assistants from start to finish - beginning with the literature reviews and expert panels all the way up to creating and managing the item pool. It's more similar to the work I did as a Researcher with the Department of Veterans Affairs, and I'm excited to learn some new things! For instance, I'll get to learn Facets, a Rasch approach that allows you to examine two rating scales used simultaneously - such as when you have items for which you rate both frequency (Daily, Weekly, etc.) and importance (Very Important, Somewhat Important, etc.). It's very similar to the Rasch work I know and love.

I'm sure I'll have more to say about the new job and my ongoing professional development as time goes on. And be sure to check in tomorrow for my regularly scheduled Statistical Sins post.