Jennifer Randall’s UROP research assistants receive Blue Ribbon Award 

Undergraduates Selina Ma and Marcela Billingslea Durini received a Blue Ribbon Award for their poster Developing Antiracist Scenario-Based Mathematics Assessments at the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program’s (UROP) Annual Spring Research Symposium. Ma and Billingslea Durini’s UROP research mentor was Dunn Family Endowed Professor of Psychometrics and Test Development, Jennifer Randall. Randall notes, “They were both excellent research assistants.”

Ma and Billingslea Durini’s research investigates the extent to which a justice-oriented approach to assessment development can serve as a strategy for mitigating the negative impacts of the erasure and marginalization of racially and ethnically minoritized populations in K-12 educational curriculum. 

“What would an assessment that centered the experiences and needs of Black, Brown, and Indigenous students look like?” was the pair’s guiding question. They worked with mathematics and assessment experts to develop justice-oriented mathematics assessment items. They also provided ChatGPT with specific scenarios and asked it to create additional assessment items based on those scenarios. 

Data was collected through interviews with students, teachers, and item writers. The results led Ma and Billingslea Durini to conclude that “justice-oriented assessments are engaging and support students from marginalized communities in feeling valued, affirmed, and empowered to enact change.”