In Memoriam: Dr. Mark J. Gierl
It is with profound sadness that I share the news that our colleague and friend, Dr. Mark J. Gierl, passed away on November 2, surrounded by his family. Mark was Professor of Educational Psychology and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Educational Measurement at the University of Alberta, and a valued member of the NCME community for many years. On behalf of the NCME Board and the entire membership, I extend our deepest condolences to Mark’s family, his colleagues and students at the University of Alberta, and all who were fortunate to know him.
Mark joined the University of Alberta in 1997 and, over nearly three decades, became one of the world’s leading scholars in educational and psychological measurement. His work transformed how our field thinks about assessment. He was a pioneer of automatic item generation, a research program that showed how cognitive models and computer technology can be combined to produce high-quality test items at scale. He authored and co-edited influential books on the topic, including Automatic Item Generation: Theory and Practice and Advanced Methods in Automatic Item Generation, and worked with testing organizations and agencies around the world to bring these principles into operational test development. His work on cognitive diagnostic assessment, including the co-edited volume Cognitive Diagnostic Assessment for Education: Theory and Applications and the attribute hierarchy method, helped shape how the field links assessment to models of student thinking. He also made lasting contributions to differential item and bundle functioning, multidimensional item response theory, and psychometric methods for test translation and adaptation. More recently, his research turned to the application of technology and artificial intelligence in assessment, including automated essay scoring, areas that are central to the conversations NCME is leading today.
Mark’s contributions were recognized by his peers throughout his career, including the NCME Annual Award in 2016, honoring his research program on automatic item generation, and the American Educational Research Association Division D Significant Contribution to Educational Measurement and Research Methodology Award in 2009. He was also a generous contributor to NCME’s educational mission. His Instructional Topics in Educational Measurement Series (ITEMS) module on automated item generation, co-authored with Hollis Lai, continues to introduce students and practitioners to the field’s methods. Through his many years as part of the NCME community, Mark helped advance the science and practice of educational measurement and strengthened the connections among our members.
Yet Mark’s legacy extends well beyond his scholarship. He was deeply committed to his students and to developing the next generation of measurement scholars. Through his teaching, supervision, and mentorship, and through his leadership of the Centre for Research in Applied Measurement and Evaluation and the Measurement, Evaluation, and Data Science program area at the University of Alberta, he built a vibrant scholarly community. Many of those he mentored are now making important contributions of their own, and his influence will continue through their work.
On a personal note, I met Mark early in both of our academic careers, and I was fortunate to count him as a collaborator and friend for many years. Together we focused on the comparability of English and French versions of assessments, including our work with colleagues on the sources of incomparability in Canada’s national achievement tests. Our shared interest in fair and valid assessment across languages and cultures kept us in conversation and working together over the years. Mark brought rigor, curiosity, and generosity to every collaboration, and I learned a great deal from working with him.
Mark will be deeply missed. We will remember him with gratitude and admiration for his scholarship, his generosity, and his dedication to our field and to the people in it.
With deepest sympathy,
Kadriye Ercikan
President, National Council on Measurement in Education