ACT’s Nancy Petersen Receives Career Achievement Award from Association of Test Publishers

Nancy Petersen, distinguished research scientist, Measurement and Statistical Research at ACT, is the recipient of the Association of Test Publishers (ATP) 2010 Career Achievement Award. Marten Roorda (left), chair of the 2010 ATP Board of Directors and chief executive officer of Cito, presented the award to Petersen during the ATP’s annual conference in Orlando, Florida.

Nancy Petersen, distinguished research scientist, Measurement and Statistical Research at ACT, has been awarded the Association of Test Publishers (ATP) 2010 Career Achievement Award for her contributions in the field of psychometric theory and applications in the areas of validity and equating. Petersen accepted the award at the ATP annual conference held in February in Orlando, Florida.

“Nancy is a brilliant thinker and researcher who has bridged applied, theoretical, and research arenas in ways that have had tremendous impact within our profession,” said ACT CEO and Chairman of the Board Richard L. Ferguson. “This recognition is a fitting tribute to her lasting legacy as an outstanding education researcher.”

ATP is a nonprofit, member-run organization that represents providers of tests and assessment tools and services related to assessment, selection, screening, certification, licensing, educational, or clinical uses.

The award honors people who have made sustained and positive contributions in testing and measurement, with preference given to those whose contributions have had a broad impact on improving testing and measurement for clinical, certification and licensing, education, or industrial applications.

Petersen is responsible for management and leadership of the Measurement Research and Statistical Research departments. She provides general psychometric leadership for staff and ACT at large, encourages the professional development of staff through informal mentoring, and oversees coordination of psychometric activities for all ACT programs.

“Nancy Petersen has made many contributions to psychometric theory and applications in the areas of validity and equating, and she has been a force in recognizing and encouraging young psychometricians and researchers,” said Betty Bergstrom, chair of the 2010 ATP Awards Committee. “She carried out groundbreaking studies to investigate the use of item response theory and classical test theory for equating, and her research has led to procedures that have been widely adopted by test publishers throughout the world.”

Petersen’s contributions include co-authoring a chapter on scaling, norming, and equating published in Educational Measurement (third edition), which has served as the standard of psychometric work within test development. She also was involved in the early work on computerized scoring of essays, and her work on selection in college admission serves as the cornerstone for understanding fairness and bias issues. In addition, she was the first to implement item response theory equating for a large-scale assessment and computerized adaptive testing for several large-scale graduate admissions tests.