UBC and Paragon Partnership

In September 2015, Paragon Testing Enterprises entered into a partnership with the University of British Columbia (Vancouver Campus), Faculty of Education and Office of the Provost. Together Paragon and UBC are investing $1.8 million over a period of five years to enhance UBC’s standing as a global leader in research and graduate student training in the statistical science of measurement.

The UBC-Paragon partnership provides student financial support and an opportunity for students in the graduate program in Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology (MERM; Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education, Faculty of Education) to interact with international leaders in testing and language assessment.

This initiative is led by Professor Bruno Zumbo, the Paragon UBC Professor in Psychometrics and Measurement. Professor Zumbo is an internationally renowned research methodologist, measurement theorist, and applied statistician and mathematician. His program of research has had wide influence in language testing, psychometrics, validity theory, and educational and behavioural statistics. Professor Zumbo began his academic career in 1990 as a professor at the University of Ottawa in the Measurement and Evaluation Program, with an affiliated appointment in the Department of Mathematics. In 1994, he moved to the then newly opened University of Northern British Columbia where he was Professor of Psychology and Mathematics. In the spring of 2000, he was recruited to the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, with an eye toward further developing UBC’s Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology (MERM) Program in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education. At UBC, his primary appointment is in the MERM Program, with additional appointments in the Department of Statistics and the Institute of Applied Mathematics. For more information about Professor Zumbo click here.

Activities associated with the UBC and Paragon Partnership include the following:

• In July 2016, Dr Yan Liu joined the Department of ECPS, MERM Program as an Assistant Professor (grant tenure track) in advanced quantitative methods. Dr Liu came from Harvard University where she was a Lecturer and Assessment Fellow at Harvard Medical School. Her research interests include psychometrics, exploring innovative online assessment and pedagogy, and educational assessment. For more information about Dr Liu click here.
• Post-doctoral Research Fellow positions for early-career researchers. Dr Ed Kroc started in January 2016. Dr Kroc is a pure mathematician and applied statistician working on a new mathematical theory of measurement calibration, as well as other fundamental problems in measurement, modelling, and statistical inference. Dr Kroc is working with Professor Zumbo on mathematical and statistical models in measurement and measurement error. For more information about Dr Kroc click here.
• Dr Junli Wei started in November 2016. Dr Wei recently completed her PhD in educational psychology (with a focus on measurement and language testing). She spends up to 50% of her time at Paragon’s offices, working on collaborative research projects.
• Graduate Student Research Assistant positions for students working on psychometric and statistical science research that will result in published papers and conference presentations.
• Collaborative research and publications. For details click here.