New Book Honors Measurement Visionary
Paul Holland

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Princeton, N.J. (November 2, 2011) —

In the field of educational measurement and research, Paul Holland is an acknowledged pioneer whose ideas influenced everything from social networks to how standardized tests are designed, analyzed, scored and compared. Now, a new book featuring papers by the nation's leading statisticians has been published that provides a historical context for Holland's life work and contributions.

The book, Looking Back–_Proceedings of a Conference in Honor of Paul W. Holland_, has been published by Springer Science + Business Media, the leading publishing partner for researchers and professionals. Most of the 283-page volume, which is edited by Neil J. Dorans and Sandip Sinharay of Educational Testing Service, consists of chapters based on scientific papers delivered at a 2008 conference sponsored by ETS in honor of Holland. More than 100 scientists attended the conference, which highlighted his contributions to applied and theoretical psychometrics and statistics.

The book follows Holland's career from the 1960s into this century. Each chapter is authored by a colleague who worked with Holland during one or more phases of a stellar career that spanned five decades. The book also contains several personal reflections by Holland.

Shelby Haberman, ETS's distinguished statistician, opens the book with a chapter that provides an overview with commentary on some of Paul's major contributions. The first collection of papers appears under the heading Holland the Young Scholar. Two well-known statisticians, Stephen Feinberg and Stanley Wasserman, who worked closely with Paul in the 1970s contributed papers in this collection. As the title Holland Shaping ETS states for the next collection of papers, Paul applied statistical thinking to a broad range of ETS activities in test development, statistical analysis, test security and operations. Chapters are contributed by Donald Rubin, Michael Zieky, Brian Junker and Paul Rosenbaum. Holland left ETS in the early 1990s to become a professor.

The next section, Holland the Berkeley Professor, contains papers from two of his former students, Derek Briggs and Ben Hansen. Paul returned to ETS in 2000 and began to mentor a new set of young ETS professionals. Three of those fortunate individuals, Tim Moses, Sandip Sinharay, and Alina von Davier, contributed chapters to Holland Rebuilding ETS. When Paul returned to ETS, he asked two long-time ETS employees, Henry Braun and Neil Dorans whom he had mentored, to join his group. They contribute chapters to the closing section, Holland: From Mentor to Colleague.

"Throughout his illustrious career Holland made significant contributions to theory and practice in the fields of psychometrics, statistics and social science research," says John Mazzeo, ETS Vice President, Statistical Analysis & Psychometric Research, writing in the foreword to the book. "We all knew from working with him over the years — that he is not only a world-class researcher, but one who is willing to use those gifts in tackling problems of real practical importance."

Table of Contents

Part I Paul Holland's Contributions
The Contributions of Paul Holland, Shelby J. Haberman, ETS

Part II Holland the Young Scholar
Comments on My Social Network Research, Paul W. Holland

Algebraic Statistics for p1 Random Graph Models: Markov Bases and Their Uses Stephen E. Fienberg, Carnegie Mellon University Sonja Petrovic,´ University of Illinois at Chicago, Alessandro Rinaldo, Carnegie Mellon University

Mr. Holland's Networks: A Brief Review of the Importance of Statistical Studies of Local Subgraphs or One Small Tune in a Large Opus, Stanley Wasserman, University of Indiana

Part III Holland Shaping ETS
Some of My Favorite Things About Working at ETS, Paul W. Holland Bayesian Analysis of a Two-Group Randomized Encouragement Design, Donald B. Rubin, Harvard University

The Role of Nonparametric Analysis in Assessment Modeling: Then and Now, Brian W. Junker, Carnegie Mellon University

What Aspects of the Design of an Observational Study Affect Its Sensitivity to Bias from Covariates That Were Not Observed?, Paul R. Rosenbaum, University of Pennsylvania

The Origins of Procedures for Using Differential Item Functioning Statistics at Educational Testing Service, Michael J. Zieky. ETS

Part IV Holland the Berkeley Professor
Why I Left ETS and Returned, Paul W. Holland

Cause or Effect? Validating the Use of Tests for High-Stakes Inferences in Education, Derek C. Briggs, University of Colorado

Propensity Score Matching to Extract Latent Experiments from Nonexperimental Data: A Case Study, Ben B. Hansen, University of Michigan

Part V Holland Rebuilding ETS
Returning to ETS From Berkeley, Paul W. Holland

Log-Linear Models as Smooth Operators: Holland's Statistical Applications and Their Practical Uses, Tim P. Moses, ETS

Chain Equipercentile Equating and Frequency Estimation Equipercentile Equating:
Comparisons Based on Real and Simulated Data, Sandip Sinharay, ETS

An Observed-Score Equating Framework, Alina A. von Davier, ETS

Part VI Holland: From Mentor to Colleague
Great Colleagues Make a Great Institution, Paul W. Holland

An Exploratory Analysis of Charter Schools, Henry I. Braun, Boston College Christina Tang, ETS and Kathleen M. Sheehan, ETS

Holland's Advice for the Fourth Generation of Test Theory: Blood Tests Can Be Contests, Neil J. Dorans, ETS

Copies of the book are available from Springer Science + Business Media
http://www.springer.com/statistics/social+sciences+%26+law/book/978-1-4419-9388-5

About ETS

At ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary, secondary and post-secondary education, as well as conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded as a nonprofit in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL® and TOEIC ® tests, the GRE ® tests and The Praxis Series™ assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. www.ets.org