Contact Information
M/C 708
Champaign, IL 61820
Research Areas
Biography
Professor Chang is a practitioner-turned professor. Before moving to academia in 2001, he had worked in the testing industry for nine years, of which six years at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, NJ, and three were at the National Board of Medical Examiners in Philadelphia, PA. He is a past Editor-in-Chief of Applied Psychological Measurement, past President of the Psychometric Society (2012-2013), a Fellow of American Educational Research Association, and a Fellow of American Statistical Association. From 2008 to 2018, he was included on the "List of Teachers Ranked Excellent by Their Students" at UIUC for 10 consecutive years.
Research Description
Hua's research has focused primarily on improving large scale assessments, specifically on issues emerging from the wide-ranging implementation of computerized testing. His interests are broad, encompassing both theoretical development and applied methodologies, including Computerized Testing , statistically detecting biased items, Cognitive Diagnosis, and asymptotic properties in item response theory. Most recently, his work has been concentrated on developing item selection algorithms for Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) to more effectively select test items sequentially that adapts to the examinee's trait level. Although the research of CAT was originally inspired by problems in high stake testing, its findings have been beneficial to other domains such as quality of life measurement, patient report outcome, k-12 accountability assessment, and survey research.
Education
- PhD in Statistics (UIUC, 1992)
- Diploma in Mathematics (East China Normal University, 1980)