Xia Mao Email & Phone Number

Greater Chicago Area

Oversee and direct a dynamic team of psychometricians and data analysts on test development and psychometric activities for seven NBOME products. Manage and optimize resources for operational and developmental work on these products, coordinating with other functional teams and vendors to evaluate, create, and enhance complex processes and methodologies across departments. Provide leadership or support for various committee meetings for item and test development, strategic planning, and organizational initiatives. Design, conduct, and coordinate psychometric research and projects, disseminating findings and best practices through professional presentations and publications. Provide mentorship, supervision, and management for internal staff and external consultants, including hiring and onboarding new team members.

Greater Chicago Area

• Managed and directed test development and psychometric operations, overseeing test design, test development, standard setting, item and test analysis, key validation, calibration, scaling, equating, scoring and reporting for the NBOME examinations• Developed robust and defensible psychometric procedures, models, and methods for existing and new examinations.• Coordinated internal departmental planning and cross-functional teams to support test development and psychometric activities• Led the design, execution, and coordination of psychometric research and projects; disseminated research findings and best practices through professional presentations and publications• Provided training, supervision, and management of internal staff and external consultants/contractors to support operational or research activities

Greater Chicago Area

• Planned, developed and implemented psychometric procedures for a newly launched national standardized medical licensure examination with mixed item types, including form assignment plan, new score report development, calibration and equating procedure, score reporting, standard-setting, automatic test assembly and evaluation, pretest analyses, and item bank maintenance support• Provided critical strategies and conducted analyses and evaluation to solve operational problems in several standardized licensure examinations• Worked collaboratively with the IT team and the Test Development team to develop and enhance functionalities of the rating tool and item bank system for innovative items

Bloomington, Mn

Led or supervised test development and psychometric activities and provided consulting services for professional certification and licensure clients. Responsible for test design, test form construction, item pool sculpting, item analysis, calibration, scaling, equating, standard setting, and writing technical report for four licensure, certification or admission examinations with different test designs and psychometric models

Iowa City, Ia

• Led or supervised test development and psychometric activities for large scale educational assessment programs, primary responsibility for psychometric, technical and customer support functions to large scale educational assessment clients• Managed, designed and conducted research and psychometric activities for large-scale educational assessment programs, coordinated activities and processes across difference functional areas and subcontractors to deliver state assessment programs• Collaborated with a team to plan and implement pilot computer adaptive tests (CAT) and supported the initiative to transition the state assessment program to CAT• Conducted applied research on various topics related to educational assessment, such as CAT, equating and linking, vertical scaling, structural equivalence of educational assessments, and ELL and non-ELL students’ performance on standardized assessments

Iowa City, Ia

Designed, conceptualized, conducted, reviewed and facilitated all aspects of psychometric activities in the entire assessment cycle, including test design, test construction, sampling, item calibration, equating, scaling and linking, field test analysis, data review, standard setting, generation of technical manuals, and customer requested research and studies for large scale educational assessment programs

Iowa City, Iowa Area

Provided psychometric services to large-scale state assessment programs

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Educational Measurement And Statistics

Master'S Degree, Applied Linguistics And Tesol

Bachelor'S Degree, English As A Second Language