Mr. Beck provides advisory and consulting services for assessment development and psychometrics at Questar. He also advises clients regarding test development implementation, helps plan and direct standards-setting projects and leads Questar’s test development activities for textbook publishers.
During his decade-long tenure at Questar, Mr. Beck has directed product planning and development; conducted corporate research and development activities; overseen long-term corporate planning; and directed the development of catalog assessments. He was instrumental in the revision of the Maculaitis English Language Evaluation series; conception and construction of SSSMART, a middle-school diagnostic assessment of reading in the content areas; and the direction of all Questar test and item development projects. In 2008, he relinquished direction of the assessment development division of Questar and now serves as an advisor to the firm.
Prior to joining Questar, Mr. Beck founded and directed Beck Evaluation & Testing Associates, Inc. (BETA), an independent assessment company that was acquired by Questar in 1997. BETA provided consulting and contractual services to school districts, state education agencies and test and textbook publishers. Projects involved aspects of test development and interpretation or use, mostly related to large-scale test-development and psychometric activities. In this role, Mr. Beck conducted test development for more than a dozen states and nearly 40 test or textbook publishers. He also advised state departments of education in 25 states including standard setting in 17 of these states.
Previously, Mr. Beck served for more than a decade in several professional and management roles in the measurement division of The Psychological Corporation, then the country's leading publisher of commercial educational and psychological assessments.
Mr. Beck is a long-time active member of the International Reading Association (
www.reading.org), serving as committee member and chair and as a publications review board member for many years. For more than 30 years he has been a member of the National Council on Measurement in Education (
www.ncme.org) and the American Educational Research Association (
www.aera.net) and has contributed more than two dozen presentations to these organizations. Other professional memberships include Division 5 of the American Psychological Association (
www.apa.org), Sigma Xi (
www.sigmaxi.org) and the New York Academy of Sciences (
www.nyas.org).
A frequent writer and speaker on assessment development and interpretation issues, he has presented professional talks or workshops in 46 states. His published research and assessment policy articles have appeared in more than 20 professional journals and edited books.
Mr. Beck earned his Master of Arts degree in Psychology from Fordham University, where he also completed doctoral coursework and comprehensive examinations in psychometrics. He received his Bachelor's degree in Psychology at John Carroll University, with minors in Mathematics and Education.