MetaMetrics Welcomes Back Dr. Gary Williamson as a Research Scientist
Durham, N.C. – Dec. 7, 2010 – Gary L. Williamson, Ph.D., has rejoined MetaMetrics® as a research scientist. Williamson previously spent four years with the Durham-based educational measurement and research organization before leaving in 2007 to become the director of Accountability Operations at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
With over 30 years of experience in educational research at the academic, state and district levels, Williamson has made numerous contributions in the areas of student achievement and growth, large-scale assessment, program evaluation and high-stakes accountability systems. As a MetaMetrics’ senior research associate from 2004-2007, Williamson used The Lexile® Framework for Reading to identify a gap between high school and postsecondary reading demands. This research has fueled some of the current national dialogue on what it means to graduate college- and career-ready and was a factor in designating text complexity as a key indicator of readiness in the Common Core State Standards for English/Language Arts. Much of this research is available in two of Williamson’s white papers, “Student Readiness for Postsecondary Options” and “Aligning the Journey With a Destination,” which are available on www.Lexile.com, and in a paper published in the “Journal of Advanced Academics” (Vol. 19, Issue 4).
“We are thrilled to welcome Gary Williamson back to our organization,” said MetaMetrics President and co-founder Malbert Smith III, Ph.D. “Having been a member of public school systems, universities and state departments of education, Williamson offers a broad, practical perspective on the value and use of educational data that will help to further our research agenda, especially in the area of student readiness for the reading and mathematical demands of their academic and professional pursuits.”
Williamson has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, Phi Delta Kappa and the North Carolina Compliance Commission for Accountability. He is a member of the American Educational Research Association, the National Council on Measurement in Education and the North Carolina Association for Research in Education. Williamson has written and spoken extensively on the subjects of educational assessment and accountability.
Williamson earned both a doctorate of philosophy in mathematical methods in educational research and a master’s of science in statistics from Stanford University. He also holds a master’s of education in educational research and evaluation from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a bachelor’s of science in mathematics from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
MetaMetrics’ reading, writing and mathematics frameworks differ from other measurement systems in that they use common, developmental scales to match students with instructional resources and activities that will meet and challenge their abilities. Each year, over half of U.S. students receive a Lexile or Quantile® measure from an assessment or instructional program. For more information, visit www.Lexile.com and www.Quantiles.com.
About MetaMetrics
MetaMetrics, an educational measurement and research organization, develops scientific measures of student achievement and complementary technologies that link assessment with targeted instruction to improve learning. The organization’s renowned psychometric team created the widely adopted Lexile Framework for Reading (www.Lexile.com); El Sistema Lexile para Leer, the Spanish-language version of the reading framework; The Quantile Framework for Mathematics (www.Quantiles.com); and The Lexile Framework for Writing. In addition to licensing Lexile and Quantile measures to state departments of education, testing and instructional companies, and publishers, MetaMetrics delivers professional development, resource measurement and customized consulting services.