Francis O’Donnell is a psychometrician at the National Board of Medical Examiners. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Research, Educational Measurement, and Psychometrics in 2019. During her doctoral studies, she contributed to several projects on results reporting for K-12 and licensure assessments, which culminated in a dissertation about how teachers, parents, and students interpret achievement level labels. Francis’s research has been presented at multiple conferences and a book chapter she wrote with Dr. Stephen Sireci about reporting in credentialing and admissions contexts appears in Score Reporting: Research and Applications (Zapata-Rivera, 2018). In her current role, she oversees psychometric activities for medical education and certification examinations and researches topics such as validity, fairness, and innovative approaches to reporting results.

Contact Francis via fodonnell@nbme.org

April L. Zenisky is Research Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Policy, Research, and Administration in the College of Education at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst, and Director of Computer-Based Testing Initiatives in UMass’ Center for Educational Assessment (CEA). At UMass she leads and contributes to several externally-funded projects, and teaches courses and workshops on various topics, including test construction.  April’s main research interests include results reporting, technology-based item types, and computerized test designs. Her collaborative work on results reporting with Ronald K. Hambleton has advanced best practices for report development relative to both individual and group reporting and has explored emerging strategies for online reporting efforts. She has presented her research at various national and international conferences and has authored and co-authored a number of book chapters.

Contact April via azenisky@umass.edu