Luz Bay Named Treasurer of International Psychometric Society 

Luz Bay, director of data processing and analysis at Measured Progress, has taken on a new responsibility. She has been appointed the treasurer of the Psychometric Society, an international organization devoted to the advancement of measurement practices in psychology, education, and social services. As treasurer, Bay is also a member of the Society’s Board of Trustees and will serve a three-year term, which began in June 2007. 

Bay said that her duties as treasurer include, “responsibility for the finances of the society—all the money that is coming in and all the money that is going out.” She continued, “In addition to revenues and expenditures, I am responsible for managing taxes, working with the Society’s auditor, and working with all board members, the president, secretary, and so forth.” 

The Psychometric Society is a nonprofit academic organization. According to Bay, “The Society addresses theoretical, technical, and quantitative research related to psychology.” As part of fulfilling its mission, the Society publishes the journal Psychometrika, which contains articles on the development of quantitative models of psychological phenomena, as well as statistical methods and mathematical techniques for evaluating psychological and educational data.

The Psychometric Society also organizes a yearly international annual meeting, which provides a research forum for contributed papers on current issues relevant to the field of psychometrics. Incidentally, Measured Progress is hosting the 2008 annual meeting, June 19–July 2, on the University of New Hampshire campus in Durham.

Bay is pleased to be expanding Measured Progress’s relationship with the Society: “For Measured Progress to have that kind of presence in the Psychometric Society is of tremendous benefit,” she said. She also explained that the relationship is not one-sided because, “Our company, which benefits so much from developments in the field of psychometrics, is also contributing to that field.” 

When discussing her new appointment, Bay noted that “psychometric” is not a term that everyone is familiar with. “If you are on a plane and somebody asks you what you do, and the answer is ‘I’m a psychometrician,’ you’re going to have to spend some time explaining what that means,” she said. 

When trying to understand the word “psychometric,” she said, “you should really look at the two words it’s made out of. ‘Psycho-’ relates to the mind and mental issues and ‘-metric’ relates to measurement. So ‘psychometrics’ is really the measurement of mental things, such as intelligence or educational achievement.” 

To help explain the relationship between psychometrics and educational assessment, Bay posed the question: “How would you measure a table?” She went on, “You’d use a ruler. But how do you measure somebody’s achievement? The measurement instrument in this case is a test. Here at Measured Progress we are measuring achievement, which falls under the larger umbrella of mental measurement, or psychometrics. Our field of educational measurement interacts with many theories that are developed and used in psychometrics.” 

Bay’s first responsibilities as a psychometrician involved leading a standard-setting project for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a nationally representative assessment of what American students know and can do in a variety of subject areas. Bay said, “Working on the NAEP was my first job out of graduate school; in fact, I was still finishing graduate school when I began.” She was chosen to lead standard-setting efforts because, “it was important that someone with a psychometric background be in charge of the NAEP standard-setting project.” 

The project was a considerable undertaking. Bay explained, “Working on a standard-setting job for the federal government is very different from working on a standard-setting job for a state. A lot of difference is in the scope. The standard-setting process for the NAEP took place over four years—we had to look at various standard-setting methods, try those out, implement a standard-setting method in pilot tests, and perform validation studies.” 

The NAEP experience gave Bay a chance to write a number of research papers and to present at various conferences. As a psychometrican, Bay also appreciated the chance to work on such a well-known and highly-respected assessment. “I got a lot of exposure in the field, and since the NAEP is a very high-profile contract, I got to have a few ‘brushes with greatness,’ working with some very famous people in psychometrics,” she said. 

After working on standard-setting for the 1994 NAEP assessments in geography and U.S history, the 1996 NAEP assessment in science, and the 1998 NAEP assessments in civics and writing, Bay decided to take her career in a different direction. “I came to Measured Progress,” she said, “because I wanted to be an ‘ordinary’ psychometrician, having worked as an assistant project director for so long. When I started, I was a senior psychometrician working on several assessment contracts. However, I wasn’t here for more that a couple of years before I began managing data analysis. So I really only got to be an ‘ordinary’ psychometrician for a very short time.” 

Bay held several managerial positions before taking up her current role as director of the data processing and analysis area within the Research and Analysis division at Measured Progress. “Our division has been very successful because the entire department is run by psychometricians,” she said. Bay oversees three different groups: data processing, data analysis, and quality assurance. The groups deal with student data from three sources—scanned, scored, and demographic—and perform analyses, equations, and calculations to produce accurate scores and reports for each student.

The groups involved have strived to become increasingly efficient at this intricate and complex procedure. Bay explained her approach to her work: “It is in our clients’ best interest that we use and develop systems that deliver quality products or services using a minimal amount of resources. Such systems have to lend themselves to customization with ease and celerity.” 

Bay shares the commitment to her work and team with husband Michael Nering, who also works at Measured Progress as the head of psychometrics. They have found their work together to be a very positive experience. Bay said: “Part of the success of our division—and I consider it to be very successful—comes from the fact that Michael and I have a very good working relationship.” 

In fact, Bay’s involvement with Measured Progress is a true family affair, since her children have attended New Horizons, the on-site day care center, another benefit Bay greatly appreciates. “I don’t feel like I am away from my children while I am at work, so there is a comfort level being provided by the day care,” she said. 

When discussing her children, Bay mentioned that she has also been appointed to another board, for an organization much closer to home than the Psychometric Society. Bay is a school board member at her first-grade son’s elementary school. Of her decision to become involved with the school board, she said, “I feel like I am so blessed in a lot of ways, and I have been looking for ways to give back to the community.” 

Bay is appreciative of many things—the opportunity to expand her horizons internationally as treasurer for the Psychometric Society; the chances she has had to continue her growth as a psychometrican; and everything she has been able to achieve since she came to Measured Progress. She said, “Measured Progress has been extremely supportive as far as offering me some excellent opportunities and also giving me the support I have needed to be successful. I am not sure I could have gotten that anywhere else.” 

Luz Bay