Lead Assessment Strategist

If you're passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country-and you're committed to working hard to play your part in building that future-consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities:

• Participates in the development of assessment-driven learning pathways, diagnostic assessments, and competency-based assessments for college programs.
• Consults on or develops models for both formative and summative assessments, as well as rubric-driven performance assessments.
• Ensures that production goals for assessments are clearly conveyed through educational design, interface and navigation, and production values of the deliverables.
• Collaborates to ensure alignment of assessment traverse with course learning material and student engagement strategies.
• Ensures alignment of assessment traverse with proficiencies, skills, and competencies in programs and courses.
• Provides thought leadership and advocacy for innovative, valid, reliable, cost-effective formative and summative assessment approaches.
• Collaborates with the technology and design and development teams to ensure the creation and adoption of flexible, valid, reliable, data-driven assessment tools.
• Translates requirements into defined specifications.
• As required, provides training, consultation, or guidance to team members and partners on assessment models, assessment design and development practices, and data-driven, evidence-based practices in assessment.
• Consults with program development and the psychometrics team on validity studies, scoring methods, rubric development, and other assessment tools, models, and issues.
• Collaborates with executive leadership and cross-functional teams to decide on innovations and improvements to the existing student experience and processes, based on data, key performance indicators, current practice, and emerging trends.
• Provides thought leadership and vision for the continuous improvement of student outcomes and overall health and quality of assessments.
• Contributes to establishing best practices for assessment design, development, and continuous improvement.
• Ensures a consistent strategy for assessments is deployed across all colleges.
• Responsible for achieving college AQI (Assessment Quality Index) goals.
• Monitors assessment portfolio health across the assessment lifecycle.
• Produces timely, consistent, and accurate reports for stakeholders and executives.

Knowledge, Skill and Abilities:

• Demonstrated technical knowledge of high-stakes assessment development and management practices.
• Demonstrated ability to proactively and creatively solve problems related to assessment design and development.
• Practical understanding of teaching and learning, educational trends and research
• Demonstrated skill in providing technical training as well as persuasively explaining complex assessment policy and best practices to a lay audience.
• Ability to work effectively in a highly matrixed organization.
• Ability to build relationships and influence at all levels.
• Ability to be an agent of change in a rapidly changing environment.
• Proven ability to analyze data to identify trends and drive innovative process improvement.
• Excellent organizational and project management skills, including the ability to effectively handle multiple tasks and pay attention to detail.
• Sound judgment and decision-making skills.
• A self-starter who can quickly jump in without a lot of direction and learn by asking questions.
• Relentless attention to quality and evangelistic passion about authentic, high impact, engaging, valid assessment tools and techniques.
• Ability to be an agent of change in a rapidly changing environment.

Job Qualifications:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master's degree in a relevant field
• 3 years of relevant professional experience developing high-stakes educational or licensure assessments at the course or program level.
• Experience with three or more of the following: adaptive assessment, competency-based assessment, psychometrics, rubric development, technology-enhanced items, prototyping and validating new item types and/or test designs.
• Experience facilitating workshops and leading training in assessment development.

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Physical Requirements:

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

How to apply: apply online

Full-time Regular Positions(FT classification, standard working hours = 40)

This is a full-time, regular position that is eligible for bonuses; medical, dental, vision, telehealth and mental healthcare; health savings account and flexible spending account; basic and voluntary life insurance; disability coverage; accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity supplemental coverages; legal and identity theft coverage; retirement savings plan; wellbeing program; discounted WGU tuition; and flexible paid time off for rest and relaxation with no need for accrual, flexible paid sick time with no need for accrual, 11 paid holidays, and other paid leaves, including up to 12 weeks of parental leave.

The University is an equal opportunity employer.All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.