Don Klinger

Associate Professor, Graduate Faculty

Contact Information

Room: A206

Phone: 613-533-3028

Email: klingerd@queensu.ca

Website: donklinger.info/default.aspx

 

Curriculum Vitae

 

 

Research Interests
 

• Program evaluation
• Quantitative research methods
• Psychometrics and policy issues of large-scale assessments
• Measures of school effectiveness
• Building connections amongst the research and professional communities in education

Biography

Don Klinger is one of the founding members of the Assessment and Evaluation Group at Queen's University. Currently, he is also a member of the Psychometric Expert Panel for the Education Quality and Accountability Office in Ontario (responsible for provincial testing of students) and was a member of the Ontario Educational Research Panel. He was part of the writing team for the second edition of the Personnel Evaluation Standards, and he is now the co-chair of the writing team revising the Student Evaluation Standards for the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation.

His research focuses on issues in measurement, assessment and evaluation. His primary research centers on the methods we use to measure educational outcomes and the resulting decisions that we make based on these results. He is particularly interested in classroom and large-scale assessment from a practical and policy perspective. He also conducts program evaluations that focus on educational issues in public and higher education. As a methodologist, he uses a variety of research methods to pursue measurement and assessment issues, including item response theory, generalizability theory, and hierarchical linear modeling. Increasingly, his work focuses on models of dissemination and communication of research for the wider audience of professionals and educators. He works to build connections amongst the research and professional communities in education, sharing his expertise and questions with professional organizations in order to better promote and facilitate the use of research in education. His previous experiences as a high-school teacher and district coordinator of assessment and evaluation have been invaluable in helping him build the connections between research and practice while also recognizing the ongoing barriers both researchers and professionals face in the field of assessment and evaluation.

Recent Publications

Klinger, D. A., Volante, L., & DeLuca, C. (In Press). Building teacher capacity within the evolving assessment culture in Canadian education. Policy Futures in Education,Special Edition: Developing Sustainable Assessment Cultures in School Learning Organisations.

Klinger, D. A., & Rogers, W. T. (2011). Teachers’ perceptions of large-scale assessment programs within low-stakes accountability frameworks. International Journal of Testing, 11, 122-143.

Klinger, D. A., Maggi, S., & D’Angiulli A. (2011). School accountability and assessment: Should we put the roof up first. The Educational Forum, 75(2), 114-128.

Klinger, D. A. (Spring/Summer 2011). Education Letter: Queen’s University of Education. Guest editor.

Klinger, D. A., Shulha, L. M., Wade-Woolley, L., Kutsyuruba, B., Boulé, S., Heggie, L., Luu, K., Chapman, A. E. A., Brathwaite-Sturgeon, G., Mills, A., & Cooke-Brown, K. (2011). An evaluation of the state, changes, and impact of the LNS school effectiveness framework initiative.Technical report published for the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, Toronto: ON.

Klinger, D. A., & Luu, K., & Chapman, A., & Mills, A. (2011). Impact review of the elementary teachers’ federation 2010 classroom assessment workshop series. Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario. Toronto, ON. 

Klinger, D. A., & McAdie, P. (2011). The Knowledge to Practice Gap in Classroom Assessment. Knowledge Network for Applied Education Research (KNAER).

Pickett, W., Freeman, J. G., Craig, W., Elgar, F., Janssen, I., & Klinger, D. A., (2009). Health behaviour in school-aged children [HBSC]: Data collection and dissemination. Public Health Agency of Canada. ($1,200,000 for 4 years).

Klinger, D. A., McDivitt, P., & Howard, B. (2011, September). National hearing for the classroom assessment standards.National Hearing conducted at the National Evaluation Institute, Sept. 29- Oct. 1, Oxford, MI.

Klinger, D. A., & Shulha, L. M. (2011, April). From student to professional: Engaging preservice teachers in a professional exploration of classroom assessment. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Research Association, April 9 - 13, New Orleans, LA.

Current Ph.D Students

• Gerard Brathwaite-Sturgeon
• King Luu (SSHRC Graduate Fellowship)
• Alison Chapman (Ontario Graduate Student Scholarship)
• Stefanie Sebok (Ontario Graduate Student Scholarship)

Current M.Ed Students

• Adam Mills
• Ingrid DeVries
• Elizabeth Pero