Jack B. Huber, Ph.D.
Dr. Jack Huber is a sociologist, psychometrician, and director of testing and research. His background is social science with extensive training in quantitative research methods. For nearly 20 years he has effectively applied tools from measurement, statistics and research design to the service of nonprofit organizations dedicated to the common good.
His early work in sociology (BA, Arizona State; MS, Virginia Tech) focused on religion and politics. His subsequent doctoral work was in educational psychology (PhD, University of Washington) with a concentration in psychometrics. His doctoral dissertation (later published in the Journal of School Leadership) asked why high school teachers use data from a state achievement test to help their students. The study was a multilevel analysis of data from a survey of high school teachers to assess the contextual influences of school leadership, collaboration, and high-stakes accountability pressure on teachers’ motivation to use assessment data.
Dr. Huber’s professional career has featured leadership roles in testing and research. For over ten years he served five Washington school districts as Director of Assessment. In that role he managed his districts’ administration of state-mandated high-stakes testing programs; implemented supplemental district testing programs and data warehouses; analyzed and reported the results of all student achievement tests; assessed the technical quality of all tests; evaluated the effectiveness of instructional programs; and provided professional development on best practices in testing and assessment, educational research, data quality, data visualization, and data-based educational decision-making. Based on this work Dr. Huber pursued a research agenda focused on validity issues in educational assessments. Out of this research came numerous studies which he shared through talks at professional conferences and publications in professional journals.
Dr. Huber has also served his profession at the state and national levels through active involvement in several professional associations. At the state level, he has been for nearly 20 years an active member of the Washington Educational Research Association (WERA) by helping to plan its conferences, editing its newsletter, and chairing its committee to award research grants. At the national level, he has been a member of the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) and the National Association of Assessment Directors (NAAD), of which he was Secretary before serving a three-year term as President-Elect, President, and Past President.
Jack Huber 