About

Rich Shavelson is an Emeritus Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. His current work focuses on the design of assessments and assessment systems that measure college students' learning, including their development of competence, achievement, and soft skills such as perspective taking. He co-created the Collegiate Learning Assessment with Steve Klein and developed statistical models for estimating value added for the CLA and other college-level assessments. His work in this area is summarized in the book 'Measuring College Student Learning: Accountability in a New Era' (2010, Stanford University Press) and in recent papers on the measurement and statistical modeling of competence. Shavelson's research interests include assessment, testing and measurement, higher education, psychology, and research methods.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Mathematics education
• Political Science
• Psychology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Data science
• Knowledge management
• World Wide Web
• Management science
• Engineering
• Systems engineering

Selected publications

• Collaborative cross-national performance assessment development and adaptation

  Universität Zürich, ZORA · 2026-01-01

  book-chapterOpen accessSenior author

  International assessments often serve to inform education policy making and transfer and to index student learning. Cross-national assessment development and adaptation are essential for validity. This chapter presents a culturally sensitive and collaborative approach to designing international performance assessments of global learning outcomes in higher education (e.g., critical thinking). Reflecting on past challenges and successes, the authors recommend that international assessment teams, across sites: (1) address and document construct equivalence; (2) embark on collaborative test design, including student input; and (3) acknowledge challenges and propose solutions to enhance future assessments.

  PublisherDOI

• What Have We Learned About Modelling and Assessing Mathematics Teachers’ Competence?–Insights from a Literature Review

  ZDM · 2025-05-06 · 3 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Abstract Sigrid Blömeke and colleagues developed a model in 2015 that describes teacher competence as a continuum moving from dispositions such as knowledge and beliefs, to situation-specific skills such as classroom decision-making to (observable) performance. In this paper, we investigate its application and continued development in research by focusing on pre- and in-service mathematics teachers. To this end, we conducted a comprehensive, systematic review of studies that further developed this model conceptually and/or empirically and expanded it to other areas. The developments concern the specification of the central components of this model such as dispositions, skills, and performance, the relationship between these components, and the inclusion of further factors such as student mediation. Through a systematic synthesis of these further developments, we create an expanded model of teachers’ competence. Our systematic review reveals some strong methodological deficits in empirical studies testing the Blömeke et al. model, which need to be addressed in further research.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Construct overlap in cross-national assessment: critical thinking in the teacher education curricula of two countries

  Journal of Curriculum Studies · 2024-02-08 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access

  Primary objective: The significance of critical thinking (CT) has grown worldwide in recent years. In teacher education, for example, educators are expected to impart this skill to students but we lack comprehensive international comparative research on CT in pre-service teachers. To begin to develop such assessments, we comparatively analysed CT in Colombia’s and Switzerland’s teacher education intended curricula. Research design and methodology: We examined 384 curriculum documents at the national (macro), institutional (meso), and course-specific (micro) levels. The documents included 73 from Colombia and 311 from Switzerland. We also conducted interviews with nine teacher educators, four from Colombia and five from Switzerland. Results: Our analysis revealed that while both countries provide similar opportunities for student teachers to acquire CT skills, there are differences in the percentage of documents that reflect CT or any of its facets, and few university courses include several CT facets. Conclusion: Our findings suggest the possibility for international CT assessment with appropriate cultural and contextual adaptations. However, the results also highlight the need for better alignment within training curricula and a more cohesive approach to CT, ensuring that CT is not only mentioned in official macro-level documents but is also comprehensively integrated into the micro level.

  PublisherDOI

• Modeling and Measuring Domain-Specific Quantitative Reasoning in Higher Education Business and Economics

  Frontline Learning Research · 2023-03-22 · 6 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Quantitative reasoning is considered a crucial prerequisite for acquiring domain-specific expertise in higher education. To ascertain whether students are developing quantitative reasoning, validly assessing its development over the course of their studies is required. However, when measuring quantitative reasoning in an academic study program, it is often confounded with other skills. Following a situated approach, we focus on quantitative reasoning in the domain of business and economics and define domain-specific quantitative reasoning primarily as a skill and capacity that allows for reasoned thinking regarding numbers, arithmetic operations, graph analyses, and patterns in real-world business and economics tasks, leading to problem solving. As many studies demonstrate, well-established instruments for assessing business and economics knowledge like the Test of Understanding College Economics (TUCE) and the Examen General para el Egreso de la Licenciatura (EGEL) contain items that require domain-specific quantitative reasoning skills. In this study, we follow a new approach and assume that assessing business and economics knowledge offers the opportunity to extract domain-specific quantitative reasoning as the skill for handling quantitative data in domain-specific tasks. We present an approach where quantitative reasoning – embedded in existing measurements from TUCE and EGEL tasks – will be empirically extracted. Hereby, we reveal that items tapping domain-specific quantitative reasoning constitute an empirically separable factor within a Confirmatory Factor Analysis and that this factor (domain-specific quantitative reasoning) can be validly and reliably measured using existing knowledge assessments. This novel methodological approach, which is based on obtaining information on students’ quantitative reasoning skills using existing domain-specific tests, offers a practical alternative to broad test batteries for assessing students’ learning outcomes in higher education.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Same same but different: The role of subjective domain similarity in the longitudinal interplay among achievement and self-concept in multiple academic domains

  Learning and Individual Differences · 2023-02-01 · 12 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The present study examined the associations between grades and self-concept within and between four academic domains from an intraindividual perspective. Further, we explored whether students' subjective domain similarity moderated intraindividual between-domain effects of achievement on self-concept and vice versa. A sample of 756 Swiss high-school students reported on their academic self-concept in mathematics, German (native), English, and French on three measurement occasions across high school. Students reported on the subjective domain similarity. School administrators reported students' grades. Achievement in one domain had a positive effect on self-concept within the same domain and a negative effect on cuncurrent and later self-concept in other domains. Conversely, self-concept in one domain had a positive effect on achievement in the same domain and a negative effect on cuncurrent and later achievement in other domains. Further, subjective domain similarity attenuated the negative effect of achievement in one domain on self-concepts in another domain on the same measurement occasions. However, subjective domain similarity was not found to moderate the effect of achievement in one domain on change in self-concepts in another domain or vice versa. Academic achievement leads to a better academic self-concept within a given domain (e.g., mathematics) and vice-versa. However, higher achievement in one domain (e.g., mathematics) can lead to worse self-concept in another domain (e.g., first language). The present study shows that between domain effects of achievement on self-concept might be more pronounced if the student that is evaluating her/his self-concept in the two domains perceives the two domains at hand as different rather than similar. Accordingly, teachers might want to make the similarities and links between different academic domains more visible to students to avoid negative effects of positive feedback in one domain on self-concept in other domains.

  PublisherDOI

• Same same but different: The role of subjective domain similarity in the longitudinal interplay among achievement and self-concept in multiple academic domains

  Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2023-02-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The present study examined the associations between grades and self-concept within and between four academic domains from an intraindividual perspective. Further, we explored whether students' subjective domain similarity moderated intraindividual between-domain effects of achievement on self-concept and vice versa. A sample of 756 Swiss high-school students reported on their academic self-concept in mathematics, German (native), English, and French on three measurement occasions across high school. Students reported on the subjective domain similarity. School administrators reported students' grades. Achievement in one domain had a positive effect on self-concept within the same domain and a negative effect on cuncurrent and later self-concept in other domains. Conversely, self-concept in one domain had a positive effect on achievement in the same domain and a negative effect on cuncurrent and later achievement in other domains. Further, subjective domain similarity attenuated the negative effect of achievement in one domain on self-concepts in another domain on the same measurement occasions. However, subjective domain similarity was not found to moderate the effect of achievement in one domain on change in self-concepts in another domain or vice versa. Public significance statement: Academic achievement leads to a better academic self-concept within a given domain (e.g., mathematics) and vice-versa. However, higher achievement in one domain (e.g., mathematics) can lead to worse self-concept in another domain (e.g., first language). The present study shows that between domain effects of achievement on self-concept might be more pronounced if the student that is evaluating her/his selfconcept in the two domains perceives the two domains at hand as different rather than similar. Accordingly, teachers might want to make the similarities and links between different academic domains more visible to students to avoid negative effects of positive feedback in one domain on self-concept in other domains.

  PublisherDOI

• Reflections on transfer of competence assessment to teaching and learning in higher education

  Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft · 2023-06-01 · 8 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Challenges and Advances of Performance Assessment of Students' Critical Thinking Across Countries

  Proceedings of the 2022 AERA Annual Meeting · 2022-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Advantages and challenges of performance assessment of student learning in higher education

  Elsevier eBooks · 2022-11-18 · 11 citations

  book-chapterSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Pruebas internacionales de desempeño para la evaluación del pensamiento crítico: Marco para la traducción y adaptación

  Journal of Supranational Policies of Education · 2021-01-01

  article

  espanolEn todo el mundo, las instituciones de educacion superior afirman que influyen en el aprendizaje de los estudiantes dentro y a traves de distintas areas academicas. El pensamiento critico destaca entre las areas de mas interes (Braun et al., 2020). En este contexto, existe un interes creciente en pruebas de desempeno de pensamiento critico que sean ecologicamente validas y que se pueden utilizar internacionalmente (Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al., 2018). Varios estudios internacionales han tenido como objetivo medir y comparar el pensamiento critico entre paises, pero empleando preguntas de opcion multiple. Pocos estudios involucran la traduccion y adaptacion de pruebas de desempeno y los resultados que han producido apuntan a la necesidad de mejorar el proceso de adaptacion (Braun et al., 2020). Basados en una revision critica de enfoques y marcos previos relacionados con la adaptacion de pruebas, y con el fin de superar las dificultades para logra una mayor sensibilidad cultural, proponemos un nuevo marco conceptual para la adaptacion de pruebas de desempeno de pensamiento critico para estudios internacionales. El marco propuesto distingue dos etapas y tres disenos de adaptacion. La primera etapa presenta un enfoque colaborativo para el diseno de las pruebas. La segunda ofrece tres opciones de diseno con diferentes grados de enfasis en aspectos linguisticos y sensibilidad cultural. Aunque el articulo se enfoca a las pruebas de desempeno de pensamiento critico para educacion superior, se le puede aplicar en contextos preuniversitarios. EnglishHigher education institutions worldwide claim they impact students’learning outcomes within and across academic domains. Critical thinking (CT) is prominent among the intended outcomes (Braun et al., 2020). In this context, there is increasing interest in ecologically valid performance assessments (PAs) of CTthat can be used internationally (Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al., 2018). While several studies have aimed to measure and compare CTskills across countries, this typically has been doneusing multiple-choice questions.Only a fewstudiesinvolveadaptation of PAs. Their results point to the need fora more refined adaptation process (Braun et al., 2020), especially in terms of functionally equivalent adaptation and redesign. Based on areview of previous approaches related to test adaptation, with focus onthe challenges of achieving cultural responsiveness, we propose a conceptual framework for adaptingPAsof CT for international studies. The framework differentiates between two stages and three adaptation designs. The first stage involvesa collaborative approach to the design of PAsof CT. The second stageoffers three design alternatives whichdiffer in their emphasis on linguistic considerationsand cultural responsiveness.While thispaper focuses on PAs of CT for higher education, it may be applicable to pre-college education.Key words: Critical thinking; Performance assessment; Translation; Adaptation; International assessment.RESUMENEn todo el mundo, las instituciones de educacion superior afirman queinfluyen en el aprendizaje de los estudiantes dentro y a traves de distintas areas academicas. El pensamiento critico destaca entre las areas de mas interes (Braun et al., 2020). En este contexto, existe un interes creciente en pruebasde desempeno de pensamiento critico que sean ecologicamente validas y que se pueden utilizar internacionalmente (Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia et al., 2018). Varios estudios internacionales han tenido como objetivo medir y comparar elpensamiento criticoentre paises, peroempleando preguntas de opcion multiple. Pocos estudios involucran la traduccion y adaptacion de pruebas de desempenoy los resultados que han producido apuntan a la necesidad de mejorar elproceso de adaptacion (Braun et al., 2020). Basados en una revision critica de enfoques y marcos previos relacionados con la adaptacion de pruebas, y con el fin de superar las dificultades para logra una mayorsensibilidadcultural, proponemos un nuevo marco conceptual para la adaptacion de pruebas de desempeno de pensamiento criticopara estudios internacionales. El marco propuesto distinguedos etapas y tres disenos de adaptacion. La primera etapa presenta un enfoque colaborativo para

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Recent grants

• Frontier Research Empirical Study Proposal: Understanding Academic Performance in Organic Chemistry: An Investigation Examining Underrepresented Groups

  NSF · $805k · 2008–2011

Frequent coauthors

• Gail P. Baxter

  Stevens Institute of Technology

  193 shared

• Maria Araceli Ruiz‐Primo

  94 shared

• Xiaohong Gao

  66 shared

• Jerry Pine

  66 shared

• Susan R. Goldman

  65 shared

• Noreen M. Webb

  University of California, Los Angeles

  51 shared

• George C. Stanton

  39 shared

• Michael M. Ravitch

  27 shared

Labs

• Rich Shavelson LabPI