New CMJ-NBME Dissertation Fellow Selected to Promote Diversity and Equity in Measurement
08 Mayo 2024 - 9:40AM
Ishita Ahmed was selected as the 2024 recipient of the CMJ-NBME
Dissertation Fellowship, a program designed to promote diversity
and anti-racist assessment and measurement practices. Ahmed was
chosen because of her strong commitment toward creating a
justice-focused assessment and measurement system.
“We are so excited that our partnership with CMJ will help
support Ishita in completing her dissertation and advancing her
professional career,” Allison Acevedo, NBME Director of Community
Collaborations and Contributions, said. “Her approach to assessment
centers on examining executive functions and aims to make
measurement more inclusive of lived experiences. We look forward to
the contributions Ishita will make to the assessment field.”
Ahmed is a doctoral candidate for international comparative
education and developmental and psychological sciences at Stanford
University. She sees a great opportunity during the fellowship to
learn from a network of people who are passionate about creating
justice-focused measurement. She is excited to learn from the
community of researchers and practitioners at CMJ and NBME,
especially about how her research can translate to other
educational environments.
“Having a future where all learners, regardless of their
backgrounds, are able to experience assessments that validate their
cultural identities is crucial,” Ahmed said. “That is why I am
looking forward to learning from people who share this important
vision.”
The CMJ-NBME Fellowship is a competitive academic program for
individuals historically underrepresented in measurement. The
fellowship provides a stipend to conduct dissertation level
research on assessment justice. The fellowship helps create
opportunities to expand social networks, build research and career
skills and garner support in transitioning into professional
roles.
"I was inspired by Ishita’s comprehensive commitment to equity
and justice, broadly speaking,” Jennifer Randall, PhD, CMJ
President said. “It is an honor to support the application of that
commitment in the assessment/space."
As a Bangladeshi American, Ahmed brings a unique perspective to
the fellowship’s goal of promoting a more anti-racist assessment
and measurement field. Ahmed feels that her experiences bridging
two cultures while growing up have made her more aware of how
different contexts influence education and learning.
Ahmed’s research demonstrates the various cultural expectations
and assumptions within the learning process and the importance of
tailoring approaches to support children from diverse backgrounds
and experiences. Her goal is to transform the field of global
education policy evaluation and assessment by introducing a new
framework that modifies basic learning measures.
She has set out to identify learning situations in rural
Bangladesh where children are using Executive Functions (EFs), a
set of higher-order cognitive processes that support lifelong
social and psychological development. EFs rapidly develop during
early childhood and continue growing throughout adolescence,
helping children think, learn and behave in a goal-directed
manner.
“Most EF assessments are currently being developed in western
high-income countries and may not be able to capture the unique
ways Bangladeshi children, or other children from low- and
middle-income countries, use EFs in everyday learning situations,”
Ahmed said.
While conducting field research in rural Bangladesh, Ahmed
recognized that there were many ways that the children were using
EFs that were not being measured with the current assessments. Her
research helped her understand the contextualized ways that the
children were using EFs, such as during household chores or
religious practices. They were using these cognitive skills outside
of the classroom, but the assessments did not account for those
experiences.
“During my fieldwork, one of the most interesting things I
noticed was that there were children who were struggling with a lot
of the tablet-based direct assessments of EFs. However, in their
interviews, both the children and their parents talked about all
the different ways that the children were using EFs in their
everyday lives,” Ahmed said. “I wanted to identify the skills that
were not being captured and figure out how to create and adapt
measures that better account for the experiences the children were
having every day.”
NBME and CMJ are committed to advancing research that promotes
diversity and equity in the assessment field and are excited about
Ahmed’s research toward promoting more equitable education for all.
About Center for Measurement Justice The Center for
Measurement Justice is dedicated to advancing equity in measurement
and assessment. CMJ was founded in 2022 by Dr. Jennifer Randall who
has decades of experience as an assessment educator at several
universities. CMJ is a project of the National Center for Civic
Innovation, an organization which focuses on creating innovative
projects that improve outcomes for communities nationwide. CMJ is
specifically focused on expanding representation in the assessment
profession, supporting research in assessment and promoting
advocacy around assessment policy and systems change in assessment
so that the assessment and measurement system is socially just. To
learn more about CMJ and the other fellowships available, contact
cmj@measurementjustice.org.
About NBME NBME offers a versatile selection of
high-quality assessments and educational services for students,
professionals, educators and institutions dedicated to the evolving
needs of medical education and health care. To serve these
communities, NBME collaborates with a comprehensive array of
professionals, including test developers, academic researchers,
scoring experts, physicians, medical educators, state medical board
members and public representatives. Together with
the Federation of State Medical Boards, NBME develops and manages
the United States Medical Licensing Examination®. In addition, NBME
is committed to meeting the needs of educators and learners
globally with assessment products and expert services such as
Subject Examinations, Customized Assessment Services,
Self-Assessments, International Foundations of Medicine® and
Item-Writing Workshops. NBME also provides
medical education funding and mentorship through the Latin America
Grants Program, Stemmler Fund and Strategic Educators Enhancement
Fund, which serve to advance assessment at educators’ and health
professionals’ own institutions. Learn more about NBME at
NBME.org.
- New CMJ-NBME Dissertation Fellow Selected to Promote Diversity
and Equity in Measurement
Joseph Nole
NBME
215-590-9832
jheagerty@nbme.org