Jessica L. Mislevy

Director of Digital Learning & Technology Policy, SRI Education

Jessica Mislevy, Ph.D., directs SRI’s Digital Learning & Technology Policy program, in which she studies highly innovative teaching and learning approaches that use advanced technology in the STEM disciplines. With a background in measurement and statistics, she leads mixed-methods research, evaluation, and technical assistance projects to improve college readiness and completion through the effective adoption of ed tech interventions and programs.

Mislevy’s work examines the intersection of technology-supported learning, student outcomes, and costs. Through the Regional Educational Laboratory Appalachia, she supports the Virginia Department of Education’s development of a comprehensive plan to evaluate the effectiveness and costs of Virtual Virginia (VVa) and leads a secondary analysis comparing the academic performance of students completing VVa courses and their place-based peers. She is co-principal investigator for the Evaluation of the OER Degree Initiative, a multifunder study of the implementation, impact, and cost of open-resource degree pathways on key postsecondary student outcomes across 38 community colleges. Previously, she was co-principal investigator on a study of online algebra I courses to identify design and implementation features associated with at-risk students’ success, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). Mislevy also supported a Michael & Susan Dell Foundation-funded evaluation of the adoption of blended learning models in charter management organizations and a BMGF-funded study of the use of Khan Academy as a supplemental mathematics resource. She provided grantees with technical assistance in developing personalized digital courseware for the BMGF’s Next Generation Courseware Challenge to support their participation in rigorous research evaluations.

Much of Mislevy’s work also centers around measuring and improving the quality of STEM education. For the National Science Foundation (NSF), she directed a project to facilitate the further study and development of K-12 STEM education indicators proposed by the National Research Council in Monitoring Progress Toward Successful STEM Education: A Nation Advancing? She also directed a U.S. Department of Education initiative to build capacity in the STEM teacher leadership community by spurring research action on common challenges and promising practices for programs to develop and support teacher leaders. Mislevy co-developed and led the psychometric analysis of a science inquiry assessment for an NSF-funded randomized controlled trial to study the implementation and impact of the College Board’s new inquiry-based AP science curriculum.

Mislevy’s publications include articles in the Journal of Educational Measurement and Journal of College Student Retention and presentations at meetings of the American Educational Research Association, American Evaluation Association, and Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, among others. She serves on a National Center of Education Statistics expert panel for its Ed Tech Equity Initiative.

Mislevy earned her Ph.D. in measurement, statistics, and evaluation from the University of Maryland, with a concentration is survey methodology. Before joining SRI, Mislevy worked in institutional research, planning, and assessment at the university. There, she supported quantitative and qualitative studies of retention and degree completion for undergraduate and graduate student populations and the development and validation of a university-wide online course evaluation system.

Key projects

• Regional Educational Laboratory—Appalachia
• OER Degree Initiative
• Enhancing Student Success in Online Learning
• Developing a K-12 STEM Education Indicator System
• Research on the Use of Khan Academy in Schools

• Bakia, M., Mislevy, J., Heying, E., Patton, C., Singleton, C., & Krumm, E. (2013). Supporting K-12 Students in Online Learning: A Review of Online Algebra I Courses. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.
• Griffiths, R., Mislevy, J., Wang, S., Shear, L., Mitchell, N., Bloom, M., Staisloff, R., Desrochers, D. (2017). Launching OER degree pathways: An early snapshot of Achieving the Dream’s OER degree initiative and emerging lessons. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.
• Means, B., Mislevy, J., Smith, T., Peters, V., & Gerard, S. (2015). Measuring the Monitoring Progress K-12 STEM Education Indicators: A road map. Menlo Park, CA: SRI Education.
• Murphy, R., Gallagher, L., Krumm, A., Mislevy, J., & Hafter, A. (2014). Research on the use of Khan Academy in schools: Implementation report. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.
• Murphy, R., Snow, E., Mislevy, J., Gallagher, L., Krumm, A., & Wei, X. (2014). Blended learning report. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.