Our Team

CU Boulder campus

The Center for Assessment, Design, Research and Evaluation based in the University of Colorado Boulder's School of Education in the Research & Evaluation Methodology program, serves as a central resource where expertise in evaluation, research and assessment design can be located and engaged. The CADRE team collaborates with university departments, state agencies, districts, schools and other organizations to investigate the effects of programs and interventions on student learning and to improve upon assessment practices and design. Our team consists of core staff members, faculty partners and doctoral researchers. We also collaborate with faculty affiliates.

To learn more about our work, please contact us at CADRE@Colorado.edu.

If you are interested in working with our team, please go to the Working with CADRE page.

Center Staff

Jessica Alzen

Senior Research Associate

CADRE

Jessica Alzen is a Research Associate at CADRE. Her research focuses primarily on education evaluation in a variety of contexts including secondary and post-secondary STEM disciplines, higher education intervention programs, and teacher professional development. Jessica partners with schools, districts, and other education organizations to consider program efficacy in practical and contextual ways. She focuses on using sound methodology conveyed in clear ways to help partners make the best decisions for...

jessica.alzen@colorado.edu

Derek Briggs

CADRE Director • Professor

Research & Evaluation Methodology

Derek Briggs is a Professor of the Research and Evaluation Methodology program. He is also the director of the Center for Assessment Design Research and Evaluation (CADRE) . Dr. Briggs’s research agenda focuses upon building sound methodological approaches for the measurement and evaluation of growth in student learning. His daily agenda is to challenge conventional wisdom and methodological chicanery as they manifest themselves in educational research, policy and practice. As...

derek.briggs@colorado.edu

Kimberly Cho

Professional Research Assistant/Project Manager

CADRE

Kim joined CADRE in 2018 as a Research Assistant, managing strategy and operations for CADRE projects in partnership with school districts and education organizations. Prior to coming to CU Boulder, she spent the last ten years supporting new teacher development in New York City and Connecticut. She holds a BA in Religious Studies from Kenyon College and an MA in International Education Development from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she...

Kimberly.Cho@colorado.edu

Elena Diaz-Bilello

CADRE Associate Director • Faculty Affiliate, Research & Evaluation Methodology (REM)

CADRE

Elena Diaz-Bilello is the Associate Director at CADRE and collaborates with state agencies, school districts, and educational organizations to develop practical and sound approaches for addressing assessment and educational policy challenges. She draws on her background in measurement, evaluation and policy to help design, implement and evaluate educational reforms and initiatives, and to develop comprehensive assessment strategies to foster deeper learning for all students. Prior to joining CADRE in 2015,...

elena.diazb@colorado.edu

Mimi Engel

CADRE Faculty Partner • Associate Professor • Program Chair

Research & Evaluation Methodology

Mimi Engel is an associate professor in the Research and Evaluation Methodology (REM) program in the CU-Boulder School of Education. Through her research Dr. Engel aims to contribute to our understanding of how policies and programs affect children’s developmental outcomes and opportunities to learn. Her interest in studying how schools and other contexts influence students is informed by her training in human development and social policy and social work. Spanning...

mimi.engel@Colorado.EDU

Oded Gurantz

CADRE Faculty Partner • Assistant Professor

Research & Evaluation Methodology

Oded Gurantz is an Assistant Professor at the School of Education at the University of Colorado - Boulder. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor in the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri, a NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow , an Institute of Education Sciences Fellow in the Stanford Graduate School of Education, and an Associate Policy Research Scientist at the College Board. His research focuses on gaps in...

oded.gurantz@colorado.edu

Kaitlin Nath

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Kaitlin Nath is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at CADRE. Kaitlin partners with a variety of local and state organizations and applies her training in education research methodology and evaluation to support the evaluation of education initiatives. Her current research with CADRE focuses on the evaluation of a state-level K-5 social emotional learning grant, the evaluation of a high school project-based assessment initiative, and the evaluation of a university data science...

Kaitlin.Mork@Colorado.EDU

Benjamin Shear

CADRE Faculty Partner • Assistant Professor

Research & Evaluation Methodology

Benjamin Shear is an assistant professor in the Research and Evaluation Methodology program in January 2017. His primary research interests address topics in psychometrics and applied statistics, including validity theory, differential item functioning, and the application of diagnostic classification models. His work aims to inform our perspectives about test score meaning and use for research and accountability purposes, and to help answer questions such as, “what do test scores measure,...

Benjamin.Shear@colorado.edu

Lorrie Shepard

CADRE Faculty Partner • Distinguished Professor and Dean Emerita

Research & Evaluation Methodology

Lorrie A. Shepard, PhD is University Distinguished Professor and Dean Emerita of the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on psychometrics and the use and misuse of tests in educational settings. Her technical work has contributed to validity theory, standard setting, and statistical models for detecting test bias. Her research studies on test use have addressed the identification of learning disabilities, readiness screening for...

lorrie.shepard@colorado.edu

Adam York

Research Associate

CADRE

Adam York (he/him) is a Research Associate with the Center for Assessment, Design, Research and Evaluation (CADRE) at CU Boulder. In this work he draws on experience in qualitative research methods to evaluate educational programs and support services for students. He also contributes to projects of the National Education Policy Center (NEPC). Adam earned his PhD in educational psychology and learning sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder. He worked...

adam.j.york@colorado.edu

Faculty Affiliates

Erin Furtak

Professor • Associate Dean of Faculty

Science Education

Erin Marie Furtak is Associate Professor of Education specializing in Science Education. Dr. Furtak's research grew out of her own experiences as a public high school teacher, in which she struggled to enact science teaching reforms in her own classroom. Her work focuses on how to support secondary science teachers in improving their everyday formative assessment practices. With the support of a CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation, Dr...

erin.furtak@colorado.edu

Valerie Otero

Professor and Program co-chair

Science Education

Valerie Otero is professor of science education. Dr. Otero’s research explores the dynamic nature of the learning environment and how it influences (and is influenced by) the evolution of students’ ideas. She also studies prospective and practicing teachers’ conceptions of students’ prior knowledge, and teachers’ conceptions of the use of students’ prior knowledge for teaching and learning. Her teaching interests are in the areas of elementary science methods, the nature...

valerie.otero@colorado.edu

William Penuel

Professor

Learning Sciences & Human Development

Bill Penuel is Professor of Educational Psychology & Learning Sciences. He joined the faculty of the School of Education in 2011. Professor Penuel began his career in the field of youth development, developing expertise in program development and evaluation. In his doctoral and early career research, he developed a framework that integrated traditional psychosocial perspectives on identity formation with Vygotskian theories of development. As Director of Evaluation Research at the...

william.penuel@colorado.edu 303-492-4541

David Webb

Associate Professor and Program Co-chair

Math Education

David Webb is Associate Professor of Mathematics Education and the Executive Director of Freudenthal Institute USA , an international research collaborative for mathematics education. Dr. Webb's research interests are in the areas of the preparation of mathematics teachers, classroom assessment, and the design of professional development activities. Recent research projects have focused on studies of teacher change in classroom assessment, the impact of reform curricula on student learning and achievement,...

dcwebb@colorado.edu 303-492-0306

Graduate Research Assistants

Kyla McClure

Graduate Research Assistant

Research & Evaluation Methodology

Kyla McClure is a Ph.D. student in the Research and Evaluation Methodology Program at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education. She received a Bachelors of Arts in Political Economy from Georgetown University. A former high school math teacher, her current research interests include the intersection between large scale assessment and school level organization and culture.

Kyla.Mcclure@colorado.edu

Medjy Pierre-Louis

Graduate Research Assistant

Research & Evaluation Methodology

Medjy Pierre-Louis is a PhD student in the Reseach and Evaluation Methodology program at the University of Colorado-Boulder. She specializes in international educational assessments and brings over 5 years of experience in qualitative and quantitative research in international educational development. Medjy holds a bachelors degree in International Relations, Public Administration, and Social Science Education from Florida International University as well as a masters degree in International Education Policy from the...

Sarah Wellberg

Research & Evaluation Methodology

Sarah Wellberg is a Ph.D. student in the Research and Evaluation Methodology Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder School of Education. She received both a B.A. in Mathematics and an M.A. in Education from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She taught mathematics for eight years before beginning her Ph.D. Her main areas of interest are educational measurement and assessment, with an emphasis on assessing mathematical problem solving and...

Erik Whitfield

Graduate Research Assistant

Research & Evaluation Methodology

erik.whitfield@colorado.edu

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Our Team

Center Staff

Faculty Affiliates

Graduate Research Assistants