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WIDA Assessment Content Specialist

Employer
Wisconsin Center for Education Research
Location
Madison, Wisconsin
Salary
Minimum $70,000 annually + benefits package, generous PTO, Health/Dental Insurance, Retirement
Closing date
Feb 5, 2025
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Job Summary: The Assessment Content Specialist position is located within the WIDA Assessment department and will report to the Assessment Content Manager. This position will be responsible for contributing to test development within WIDA focusing on:
* Reviewing and providing feedback on test content for ELLs in grades K-12 in all language domains (Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Writing) as the test content moves through various stages of development.
* Participating in formal test content review meetings with educators and test development vendors.
* Developing training resources for educators who administer and/or score the suite of WIDA English language assessments for K-12 students.

Remote work is an option for this position on a voluntary basis; however, it is important to note that this role is headquartered in Madison, WI, and the tasks of the position require occasional work-related travel. If working remotely out-of-state, travel back to UW-Madison would not be reimbursable, and other business travel will require cost comparisons between your home and Madison, WI.

UW Travel Policy and Remote Work Policies outline business travel requirements for fully remote employees, and WIDA is committed to supporting employees with their business travel and minimizing or eliminating out-of-pocket expenses whenever possible. Please review UW Remote Work Policy UW-5087, in particular, Section III, Part G which addresses an employee's Headquarters Location. We will be happy to support and address questions about remote work or travel during the interview process.

WIDA operates in a Windows-based environment, and a Dell PC laptop will be issued for use in this role. Software and virtual connection tools that are critical to our work dictate that WIDA staff work on a PC.

Responsibilities: Provides subject matter expertise in the development of assessment content and participates in the creation of assessment administration and scoring materials for one or more assessment programs.

  • 55% Assists with the design and development of assessment content, both with internal colleagues and with vendors, including reviewing testing materials, making necessary revisions to items, and recommending items to be replaced or rearranged on pilot or operational forms
  • 20% Assists with the creation and refinement of assessment scoring and assessment administration materials
  • 15% Participates in annual quality-control processes to ensure on-time and accurate delivery of one or more assessment programs
  • 10% Supports other internal stakeholder groups in providing training on one or more assessment programs

Institutional Statement on Diversity: Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.

Education: Required - Bachelor's Degree. Preferred - Master's Degree in the field of Education, Linguistics, or TESOL preferred.

Qualifications: 
Required
* Minimum 2 years' experience with large-scale proficiency language test development in English.
* Strong background in language assessment as a reviewer, editor, developer, scorer, and trainer.
* Experience creating ancillary materials for the development of language assessments.
* Experience understanding statistics to evaluate test items and make recommendations.
* Experience teaching multilingual learners from various backgrounds.
* Experience with course/lesson plan design, curriculum development, and content creation.
* Experience performing content reviews and providing constructive feedback to item writers.
* Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

Preferred
* Experience developing language assessments for K-12.
* Familiarity with the WIDA Standards and assessments.

Additional Information: What is WIDA? For over 20 years, WIDA has provided a trusted, comprehensive approach to supporting, teaching, and assessing multilingual learners. We are an educational services organization that advances language development and academic achievement for multilingual children in early childhood and grades K-12. In short, we provide educators around the world with high-quality language standards, assessments, professional learning, and research. We are proud to be a part of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) within UW-Madison's nationally ranked School of Education. Visit https://wida.wisc.edu/about/careers and watch our Introduction to WIDA video to see why WIDA is an incredible place to work!

The Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER), established in 1964, is one of the first, most productive, and largest university-based education research and development centers in the world. WCER's researchers and staff work to make teaching and learning as effective as possible for all ages and all people. WCER's mission is to improve educational outcomes for diverse student populations, impact education practice positively and foster collaborations among academic disciplines and practitioners. To this end, our center helps scholars and practitioners develop, submit, conduct, and share grant-funded education research.

For more information and news about our center, please go to https://wcer.wisc.edu/.

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