Merve Sarac, PhD

I am a psychometrician in the Office of Research and Psychometrics - Learning & Assessment at the College Board since 2023, focusing on Advanced Placement (AP) psychometrics. I received my PhD from the Quantitative Methods within the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2023, specializing in measurement. I work on the theory and application of psychometric methods (e.g., latent variable models, mainly item response theory (IRT)) in education and psychology. I am trained to develop measuring instruments, design and conduct experiments and surveys, and analyze data resulting from these activities for providing evidence-based insights. I conduct research on statistics and psychometrics in education- and psychology-related fields. My research focuses on (1) statistical modeling of aberrant test-taking behavior in educational and psychological measurement and (2) psychometric methodologies for the item- and person-level anomaly detection in the form of test collusion and item preknowledge as well as their potential to provide insight into valid and fair testing. More recently, I work on test security, IRT calibrations, and modern standard setting methods as well as using AI to improve research and operations in these domains.