Rate My Professor Stephen Dunbar

Stephen Dunbar serves as the Hieronymus-Feldt Professor of Educational Measurement and Professor in Educational Measurement and Statistics within the Department of Psychological and Quantitative Foundations at the University of Iowa College of Education. With over 38 years of teaching at the institution, he holds the position of co-director of the Iowa Testing Programs, a center that develops learning assessment and prediction tools utilized around the world. Dunbar is recognized as the lead author of the most widely used achievement battery in the United States and maintains active involvement with the Iowa Department of Education to advance cutting-edge educational assessment practices. His research initiatives have generated approximately $26 million in grant funding and contracts. He consistently receives high ratings from students and has served on comprehensive examination committees for more than 100 graduate students. Dunbar is a member of professional organizations including the American Educational Research Association, the National Council on Measurement in Education, and the Iowa Educational Research and Evaluation Association, and he contributes as a reviewer for peer-reviewed journals.

In 2019, Dunbar was honored with the Regents Faculty and Staff Excellence Award for his extraordinary contributions and sustained record of excellence. As certificate coordinator, he designed the University of Iowa's new undergraduate certificate in education data analytics, set to launch in Spring 2026, aimed at building educators' data literacy for analyzing classroom data and digital learning tools to inform instructional decisions. His research specializations encompass psychometric issues such as item response theory, differential item functioning, performance-based assessment, high-stakes testing validity, and structural equation modeling. Key publications include 'Quality Control in the Development and Use of Performance Assessments' (1991), 'Complex, Performance-Based Assessment: Expectations and Validation Criteria' (1991), 'Issues in the Design and Reporting of the National Assessment of Educational Progress' (1992), 'A Comparison of Item Fit Statistics for Mixed IRT Models' (2010), and 'Response Time for English Learners on Large-Scale Writing Assessments' (2025, co-authored with Catherine Welch). Dunbar's influential work has shaped national and international standards in educational measurement and assessment.