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Vice President - Psychometrics, Research, & Learning Sciences (PRLS)

Renaissance

Vice President - Psychometrics, Research, & Learning Sciences (PRLS)

Minneapolis, MN
Paid
  • Responsibilities

    Job Description

    COMPANY BACKGROUND/CULTURE

    Founded in 1986, Renaissance® is a global EdTech leader providing cloud-based assessment, reading, and math solutions for pre-K–12 schools and districts. Our solutions provide educators with the insights and resources they need to accelerate growth and help every student be their most amazing self. Today, Renaissance solutions are used in one-third of US schools and in more than 90 countries worldwide.

    The Renaissance mission is at the heart of everything we do:

    “To accelerate learning for all children and adults of all ability levels and ethnic and social backgrounds, worldwide.” 

    As the leader in pre-K–12 learning analytics, Renaissance occupies a unique space in education due to our scale, current footprint, and distribution. We offer market-leading and educator-friendly products with strong customer loyalty, high product usage, and high NPS scores. Over 49,000 schools and 17 million students worldwide currently utilize our subscription-based platform.

    Approximately 1,000 employees develop and support Renaissance products, which include:

    STAR 360®: Computer-adaptive interim assessments for reading, math, and early literacy, all of which provide achievement and growth data for screening, progress monitoring, and guiding daily instruction.

    ACCELERATED READER®: A data-fueled, personalized reading practice program that helps every student become a confident and engaged reader, ready to succeed in college and career.

    MYON® READER: A digital reading platform that provides every student with a personalized library of engaging books, along with embedded reading scaffolds and supports.

    MYON® NEWS, POWERED BY NEWS-O-MATIC: A daily news platform providing engaging, unbiased articles written just for kids, at multiple reading levels. 

    ACCELERATED MATH®: A personalized practice solution that helps teachers monitor and manage mathematics skills practice at just the right level for each student.

    MYIGDISTM: Early-childhood assessments for literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional learning that help educators guide pre-K instruction.

    RENAISSANCE GROWTH ALLIANCETM: A collaboration between Renaissance and leading instructional providers to support the seamless flow of data and a unified view of student mastery.

    Renaissance has invested heavily in product innovation, upgraded IT infrastructure for modern cloud delivery, and focused on the recruitment of top-level C-suite executives for continued market expansion and success.

     

    JOB SUMMARY  

    To perform this job successfully, the individual must be a world-class, practicing psychometrician. Specific and deep expertise in Item Response Theory as applied to K-12 assessment is required. In addition, expertise and a full understanding of K-12 instructional design and curriculum development is a key component of qualifications. The ability to create, review, and present scientific research will be required.  The individual will manage employees with the ability to recruit, lead, and motivate scientific, editorial, and research-oriented personnel.  Communicate and coordinate with diverse stakeholders. Chief among these stakeholders will be the Product and R&D organization, the broader company and its external K-12 community of customers, thought leaders and teachers. Expertise and reputation is required to help recruit leading psychometricians, academics, and policy-makers to participate in Renaissance Learning’s research activities.

     

    ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

    ·         Renaissance’s Chief Psychometrician, Director of Educational Research, Director of Learning Sciences, as well as their individual organizations will report to the VP, Psychometrics, Research, & Learning Sciences and the approximately 20 full-time staff in those three departments;

    ·         Own the coordination between those departments and other functions within the Product and the R&D organizations, insuring the smooth and predictable flow of work during roadmap planning and delivery;

    ·         Accountable for an integrated strategy across research, content, curriculum design, and psychometrics, linked to and driven by the overall roadmap;

    ·         Responsible for helping to represent the company in the K-12 academic, psychometric, and policy community, insuring that Renaissance is perceived as a prominent and thought-leading company with valid and reliable measurement and assessment products;

    ·         Understand the education market to guide Renaissance’s work, and help represent our products to customers and consultants who have questions around our psychometrics, research, and learning sciences;

    ·         Work closely with the Product team, Research and Development team, and the Chief Product Officer to ideate and develop means of better utilizing the company’s data to accelerate learning for all;

    ·         Be an expert in the Renaissance Learning Progression, MIRT engine, mastery, and the universal skills pool, and help others gain expertise as we prepare our customers and staff for market readiness;

    ·         Assist in goal setting for item development by product line (quality, quantity, and type of items).

     

    SPECIFIC AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

     ·         Roadmap Development

    o   Work with departmental leaders on a coordinated research roadmap, tied to the roadmap;

    ·         Roadmap Execution

    o   Insure that departments within group achieve roadmap goals;

    ·         Thought Leadership within DOE & Academic spheres

    o   Manage the company’s participation at educational conferences and key policy meetings, playing a prominent personal role in that regard. Accountable for Renaissance’s profile as a thought-leader;

    ·         Product Leadership Team

    o   As a member of the Product Leadership Team, participate in core meetings and decisions, bringing value as both a specialist and general leader;

    ·         Value-creating Research Strategy

    o   Create and execute an overall research strategy centered on Renaissance’s learning progression and growth platform strategy;

    ·         Develop charters for Learning Sciences, Psychometrics, and Research

    o   Working with product and management teams, develop charters to further our products, company expertise and recognition, and sales efforts within the department;

    ·         Validity & Reliability

    o   Working with the departmental leaders within research, insure constant and comprehensive communication about the validity and reliability of Renaissance’s products to stakeholders and customers.

     

  • Qualifications

    Qualifications

    EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

    ·         Doctorate degree in Psychometrics, Education, or related field from four-year college or university

    ·         Fifteen or more years of experience in K-12 curriculum and/or assessment development, preferably for software companies.

    ·         Five or more years of experience in managing and delivering research

    ·         Or equivalent combination of education and experience, and/or training

     

    OTHER GENERAL SKILLS

    ·         Experience working with large data sets.

    ·         Track record of creating and/or sponsoring impactful and recognized research.

    ·         Broad knowledge and understanding of education, as opposed to precision expertise around assessment or CAT.

    ·         Charisma and gravitas to represent Renaissance effectively and persuasively at conferences and Department of Education level meetings.

    ·         An advocate for the lean/agile mind-set.

     

    LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS

     

    PRESENCE: Executive-level presence, good business judgment, a comfortable, open communication style, and a willingness and ability to work with teams.

    STYLE: Ability to leverage resources, both directly and in a ‘virtual’ style, that are not under direct control will be a key success factor. Navigating and influencing in a matrix environment, prioritization and focus are essential to success. Demonstrates interest in others’ goals and objectives and a willingness to comprise to reach mutually satisfactory outcomes; practices active listening and builds commitment to decisions or plans; upfront and as changes are made. Provides honest and direct feedback, both positive and constructive, on a timely basis; spends time with team members, coaching them to higher levels of performance; has a career focus and helps team members chart their path to meet their goals.

    ANALYTICAL ABILITY: Ability to diagnose common Customer needs and issues, and to translate those needs into actionable pragmatic solutions. Grounds decisions in a deep understanding of market and customer needs; has a strong commercial focus; balances the need for short term results with patience to allow innovations to realize their potential. and achieving goals;

    _RESULTS DRIVEN: _ Holds team accountable to delivering against high performance standards of performance; establishes individual and team KPIs and consistently achieves them; allocates to resources and removes barriers to maximize team performance; demonstrates a cost consciousness and is a good steward of Renaissance’s resources.

    _CHANGE AGENT: _ Embraces change and help others embrace change; engages others in the change journey to minimize disruption and maximize engagement; empowers team members to make decisions for their areas while holding them accountable for their results.

    Additional Information

     

    • All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

     

  • Industry
    Hospitality