Gregory Cizek, Ph.D., the Guy B. Phillips Professor at the UNC School of Education, has been named the recipient of the 2022 Test Validation Research and Evaluation Award for a Senior Scholar.
The honor was bestowed by the American Educational Research Association’s Test Validity Research and Evaluation special interest group. 
Cizek is a national authority on educational measurement and evaluation, having conducted research for more than 30 years in the field of applied assessment with specializations in validity, standard setting, and test security.
He has written extensively on the subjects, including authoring or editing books such as “Setting Performance Standards: Foundations, Methods, and Innovations.”
Cizek’s most recent book, “Validity: An Integrated Approach to Test Score Meaning and Use,” explores the two most fundamental aspects of defensible testing practice: the evidence that must be gathered to support the intended meaning of a test score, and the evidence necessary for justifying the use of a test for some intended purpose.
Cizek has been active in leadership positions in his field. He has served as chair of the National Assessment Governing Board’s Committee on Standards, Design, and Methodology. The NAGB, to which Cizek was appointed in 2017, helps set policies guiding the use of data to measure U.S. student achievement. Among the other leadership positions he has held, Cizek also has served as president of the National Council on Measurement in Education.
At the UNC School of Education, Cizek teaches courses in applied psychometrics, statistics, program evaluation, and research methods.
Prior to coming to Carolina in 1999, Cizek managed national licensure and certification testing programs for American College Testing, served as a test development specialist for a statewide assessment program, taught educational research and management at the University of Toledo and graduate-level statistics courses at Michigan State University, where he had earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. Early in his career, Cizek taught for five years at the elementary and middle school levels in Michigan and served as a vice president of a local board of education in Ohio.
Cizek is scheduled to be the featured speaker at the Test Validity Research and Evaluation special interest group meeting at the 2022 AERA Annual Meeting in San Diego in April. His presentation — titled “Tugging on Superman’s Cape” — will examine components of defensible testing practice, including sources of evidence and standards for supporting conclusions about test score meaning, and sources of evidence and standards for supporting conclusions about the justifiable uses of test scores. He also plans to discuss proposed next steps for moving the practice of validation forward.