Queries Student Perspectives

Usama Ali

My name is Usama S. Ali and I entered the doctoral program in the department of Educational Psychology at UIUC in fall of 2006. I have a 4-year scholarship from the Egyptian Government, the Ministry of Higher Education till August 2010. I am enrolled in the Studies in Interpretive, Statistical, Measurement and Evaluative Methodologies for Education (QUERIES) division. I received my BS degree in Mathematics and graduated with a Masters degree in educational measurement from the College of Education at Qena, South Valley University, Egypt. My Masters thesis was about Equating in Multidimensional Item Response Theory. At UIUC, I am specializing in quantitative research methods and I am seeking a Master of Science in statistics from the department of Statistics that will give me more skills toward my PhD in psychometrics.

I am currently working with Dr. Hua-Hua Chang in a big project that is related to evaluation of accountability and assessment system in the State of Illinois. My research interests are large-scale assessment, computerized adaptive testing (CAT), differential item/test functioning (DIF/DTF), and time response modeling.

Ayesha Boyce

I received my Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Arizona State University and my Master of Arts in Research Psychology from California State University, Long Beach. I am currently working on my doctoral degree in Educational Psychology in the College of Education with an emphasis on Evaluation in the QUERIES division. Prior to coming to Illinois, I worked for two years as an education research associate in the Research and Evaluation Section of the Arizona Department of Education. My research interests include understanding how federal policies play out in state and local arenas; the capacity of untrained versus trained evaluators; and using the Educative, Values-Engaged (EVEN) approach to STEM evaluations.  

The work I do with my advisor, Dr. Jennifer Greene, includes field testing the EVEN approach to evaluation and revisiting it's theoretical framework. I also work as graduate research assistant in the Illinois Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics Initiative (I-STEM), under the direction of Dr. Lizanne DeStefano, on a study funded by the Spencer Foundation and the Teagle Foundation: Enhancing Traditional and Innovative Approaches to Advanced Composition in Academic Disciplines. I entered the QUERIES division in Fall 2009 and have been very pleased with the Educational Psychology department here at UIUC. I find the coursework challenging yet engaging, the faculty supportive and the students focused, but friendly.

Outside of my academic pursuits, I enjoy going to the movies, talking to my family and friends in Arizona, trying out local restaurants and baking. Most of my 'free' time is spent with my 17 pound dog Goliath and as a blocker in the local women's roller derby league the Champaign Urbana Rollers.

Tim Cash

I received my Bachelors of Arts degree from Valparaiso University, where I primarily studied History, Literature, and Theology.  I then attended Boston College, where I received a Master’s in History, focusing primarily on late 19th and early 20th century Irish and American labor and nationalism.  For the next several years I taught high school History, English, and comparative religions.  In addition to teaching, I served as a curriculum committee member, mapping and evaluating school curriculum.  Outside of the classroom I coached football, basketball, and softball.  I left my life, although not my heart, as a high school teacher and coach and joined the QUERIES division in the fall of 2008, where I currently work with my adviser Dr. Thomas A. Schwandt as the Managing Editor for the American Journal of Evaluation.

My research interests generally are in examining the roles of evidence in policy and practice.  In particular, broadening our understandings of evidence use and questioning possible assumptions surrounding evidence based policy and practice.  I am also interested in professional education and the ways in which liberal education and practical wisdom can be incorporated into various professional education curricula.  As others point out, what makes the QUERIES division at the University of Illinois so great are the diversity of people and interests.  Whatever your research interests might be, there are many excellent voices and perspectives to guide, challenge, and inspire your work.

Outside of school, I enjoy raising my daughter, cooking and eating, spending time with my wife, reading, listening to music, and avidly follow Chicago sports, particularly the Chicago Cubs in their quest for that world championship.

Sun Joo Chung

My name is Sun Joo Chung and I started the doctoral program in Fall of 2009. For my Master’s program, I studied Teaching English as a Second Language at UIUC. which was an extension from my background in English Education. I received a BA in English Education from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul, Korea. I am currently enrolled in the Studies in Interpretive, Statistical, Measurement and Evaluative Methodologies for Education (QUERIES) division. I am working with Dr. Fred Davidson to study more about Language Testing and I am also interested in Second Language Writing .  I am currently working as a Graduate Assistant to the English Placement Test (EPT) at UIUC.

Michael Culbertson

A native of Dallas, Texas, I first came to the state of Illinois in 2000 to attend Wheaton College, where I studied French and Ancient Language (classical and koine Greek, classical Hebrew). After completing my undergraduate studies, I spent some time in France introducing English as a foreign language to elementary students, followed by two years in the International Educational Development Program (Ed.M.) at Boston University. Finally, I returned to Illinois to enter the QUERIES program at UIUC in 2008. While working toward a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, I received an M.S. in Statistics in 2010.

My overall career aim is to help educational decision-makers understand and make use of research, evaluation, and data pertaining to their programs in order to make better decisions to improve quality of and access to education, broadly construed. I am particularly interested in rich ways of measuring student learning, including cognitive diagnosis, computerized adaptive testing, and growth modeling.

I believe a strength of the QUERIES program is the diversity of our students and faculty. We have scholars interested in statistics, measurement, econometrics, evaluation, policy, and qualitative research methods. In QUERIES, no single research method holds hegemonic status; rather, researchers are free to find and apply the methods most suited to any particular problem. Moreover, the diversity in interests yields the potential for enriching collaborations from different perspectives.

Beyond my work, I volunteer at the King Elementary School in Urbana and am involved in the InterVarsity Graduate Christian Fellowship (RSO). I enjoy reading, playing board and card games, and spending time with my cat.

Tysza Gandha

I had long known that I want to contribute to improving K-12 education, but didn’t know what role to play. When I was introduced to the processes, tools, and habits of mind of social science research as a psychology major at Oberlin College, I found a powerful means to better understand and think about educational problems and possible responses. My involvements with several applied research and evaluation projects in service to the local area schools and for the college helped me figure out my career aspirations: I can contribute to education reform as an evaluation professional. After a few more years of experience as a research analyst and evaluator in K-12, higher-, and medical-education settings, I enrolled in QUERIES at Illinois to learn from some of the best evaluation theorists and practitioners known to the field.

In addition to the courses, my research assistantships have been invaluable learning opportunities. Currently, I am part of a team that studies the consequences of No Child Left Behind implementation in Illinois; we are also charged with developing research-based recommendations for improving the state’s educational assessment and accountability system. My dissertation examines how teachers’ professional learning mediates the use of student assessment data for instructional improvement.

My friends know that I love food (photo of me at ramen-ya in Tokyo – my heaven on earth). I enjoy hanging out with friends for their company and to eat. I also love to read (Jhumpa Lahiri, Julia Alvarez, David Sedaris…), listening to music (Joni Mitchell, Indigo Girls, John Mayer…), and visiting Southeast Asia where I grew up (Jakarta, Indonesia and Singapore).

Jeremiah Johnson

The heart of my research agenda is to understand and improve the field of math education for P – 16 students and teachers. As a former high school math teacher, my research interests continue to revolve around the topics of evaluation, educational assessment, and measurement. During my time as a graduate student at the University of Illinois I have participated in and/or lead evaluation and research projects relevant to local, state, and national audiences.  After graduation, I plan to pursue a career in higher education.

I am currently a Research Associate for the Illinois Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education Initiative. My primary duty (at the moment) is to coordinate evaluation activities for EnLiST, which is a Math Science Partnership funded by the National Science Foundation that provides professional development for K-12 science educators. I am also in the process of completing a research project which main purpose is to conceptualize, design, and field test an accommodation block alliterative for the 4th and 8th grade National Assessment of Educational Progress mathematics assessments.

Away from school I love reading and puzzles, and I am the proud father of two beautiful children. I received a M.Ed. in Educational Psychology from the University of Illinois in 2007 and a B.A. in Mathematics from Whitworth College in 2004.

Chih-Kai (Cary) Lin

Before coming to the US, I was a high school English teacher in southern Taiwan. I received my MA in Teaching English as a Second Language from UIUC, during which I taught English academic writing to newly admitted international students. I am currently working toward a Ph.D. degree in Educational Psychology with a research specialization in educational measurement. My research interests include validation studies in language testing, test accommodations for English language learners, and machine-rating modeling of performance assessments.

I work with my advisor, Dr. Fred Davidson, on a project in which we conduct studies to examine the degree of alignment between a state’s academic content standards and academic language proficiency standards. Such alignment studies, required by the NCLB Act (2001), provide states with formative information to classroom instructions and assessments for English language learners. I also work as a graduate teaching assistant for Dr. Jinming Zhang in applied regression analysis.

I play basketball and tennis in my free time. I am also a huge fan of the ocean and I enjoy snorkeling.

Haiyan Lin

My name is Haiyan Lin. I was born and grew up in Shanghai, China. In the fall of 2007, I entered the QUERIES Division in the department of Educational Psychology at UIUC.  Prior to coming to the United States, I received my Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Electric Engineering at Fudan University, Shanghai, China. After several years’ teaching and administration in higher education in China, I came to the United States for pursuing graduate degrees. In U.S.A, I first received Master of Education (Ed.M.) in Postsecondary Educational Administration and Student Affairs from University of Southern California (USC). At USC, besides experiences in international program and affairs, I also worked as a counselor providing counseling service to undergraduate students at USC for one year. When I got actively involved in a nation-wide survey study as a Research Assistant, I found I had strong interests in evaluation and measurement, which made me decide to join QUERIES at UIUC.

QUERIES provides an encouraging environment for PhD students to learn whatever they have interests in. Hence, I am able to not only take courses in evaluation and measurement offered by QUERIES, but also those courses offered by departments of Statistics and Psychology. In December, 2009, I received Master of Science (M.S.) in Statistics from UIUC.

I am particularly interested in cognitive diagnosis and computerized adaptive testing and how to apply them in large-scale assessment. I am also interested in conducting survey study in the context of large-scale assessment. I got precious opportunities of working with Dr, Katherine Ryan and Dr. Hua-Hua Chang to get involved in a five-year state project of large-scale evaluation and measurement in K-12 circumstances. Besides terrific research experiences, QUERIES also provides students teaching opportunities to build up a comprehensive curriculum vita. I have been teaching a course “EPSY280: Elements of Statistics” as an independent instructor assisted by a grader for two semesters so far. Student body of the course consists of undergraduate students from different departments and graduate students studying in a variety of master and doctoral programs throughout UIUC. Supervised by Dr. Katherine Ryan and Dr. Carolyn Anderson, I have the freedom of developing the course independently and constructing and giving lectures and lab sessions on my own.

I have an adorable daughter Aileen, who will be four-year old in May, 2010. Another baby will join my family in 2010 too. I am trying my best to squeeze more time for my children and my supportive husband who sacrificed greatly for me and my family.

Teck Yong Lawrence Neo

Before joining the QUERIES program in Educational Psychology, I was working for the Ministry of Education in Singapore.  I am on a scholarship from the Ministry of Education, Singapore to pursue a MA degree with an emphasis on educational measurement in UIUC.  I received my BS and Masters degree in Mathematics from National University of Singapore. My research interests include large-scale assessment and computerized adaptive testing (CAT).

Besides my academic interests, I enjoy playing badminton, listening to music, watching movies, taking photographs and hang out with my friends.

 

Julie Patterson

After I received my Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics with a minor in Spanish from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (Belton, Texas) I spent a year teaching math at a central Texas high school. After getting married, my husband and I then moved to New York City to attend Teachers College, Columbia University where I got a MA and EdM in Mathematics Education. We then returned to central Texas and I once again taught math at a central Texas high school. I began attending UIUC as a Statistics PhD student, however, after receiving my MS in Statistics in 2009, I decided to transfer to the Ed. Psych. (QUERIES) PhD program.

My research interest is in cognitive diagnosis and I am working with Professors Jeff Douglas and Bill Stout (Statistics Department). Currently I am working to map the skills required for success in introductory statistics and constructing items to measure these skills. The items will then be used for the final exam for some Stat 100 courses and then I hope to be able to apply cognitive diagnosis models to investigate skill acquisition and to study the transitions between mastery and nonmastery of skills.

My favorite pastime is spending time with my husband. I also enjoy golfing, reading, and hanging out with friends. I try to travel to my “hometowns” of Seattle, Washington and central Texas to hang out with family and friends as often as I can.

Yeonsook Yi

Before joining the QUERIES program in Educational Psychology, I studied in MATESL program at UIUC and also taught and worked in the second language acquisition field. My focus in the program has been on measurement theories and practices, particularly on IRT-based measurement models, including models for cognitive diagnostic assessment and computer adaptive testing. My endeavor is also in unfolding these models in the context of language data. Studying in our program has been very rewarding in pursuit of these interests in particular, thanks to many renowned faculty members in the fields and many graduates who also work as the faculty and researchers across the globe as well as in the States, most of whom are fairly easily reachable within the research community. The research climate that fosters collaboration across disciplines has also greatly benefited me since I returned to UIUC to pursue a more advanced degree.

Mountain-climbing was what I loved to do back home in Korea, which I can not do in this Midwestern town. So I am learning yoga and meditation instead, to keep energy and strength in my mind and body. I also love to listen to music, play the piano and enjoy reading and watching old movies as well.

Chanjin Zheng

Before joining Queries Division as a PhD Student in 2010 fall, I have gained my master degree of Education in Beijing Normal University (BNU) in China. Prior study/research experience in BNU is mainly concerned with reading achievement measurement in the regional/national monitoring and evaluation. It is my major motivation of pursuing a PhD study at Queries with an emphasis on quantitative methods. Moreover, I was an English major in college and have worked in the English teaching and publishing industry for about six years.

The underlying theme for my experience since college is the language testing, so I hope my future research would be the application of cutting-edge quantitative methods in language testing. IRT, Computer adaptive testing, and cognitive diagnosis are the most intriguing terms on my list.

Besides my academic pursuits, I love reading English novels, especially some of African-American literature, which is an outgrowth of my college education. I am a regular movie-goer and I play tennis. I hope I can learn how to play guitar in my UIUC years.

Yi Zheng

Before joining QUERIES in 2009 Fall as a Ph.D student, I obtained my Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. I received a comprehensive training in all branches of psychology in BNU, and I found myself most interested in Educational Psychology. Because I was born to a family of professors, I have always been familiar with the education field, and interested in the development of a better education. So I decided to come to UIUC for further study and research. I believe that a solid and broad foundation in mathematics and statistics will strongly support the research and work in the educational measurement, assessment and evaluation projects. So I am currently working on the courses for M.S in statistics and stretching out for various research exposures. I hope that by completing a substantial pool of related courses, engaging in research projects and doing my own exploration in this field, I could finally become a professional on educational measurement and be able to solve the conundrums that block the way of a gearing growth of the fair, effective and efficient modern education measurement.

Besides my academic pursuits, I have a broad interest in art and sports. I play most of popular sports and several musical instruments. I enjoy a colorful life with all kinds of activities and with my friends.