David Baum is a senior strategic advisor in the Assessment & Learning Technology & Development group at ETS. His current responsibilities center on optimization of the proprietary ETS technology used for item banking and other assessment development activities as well as related staff skills and processes.
He began work at ETS as an assessment specialist in 1996. During his tenure at ETS, he has worked on the development of Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and English as a second language tests for the College Board as well as a pilot foreign language assessment for National Assessment of Educational Progress and other language assessments. His test development experience comprises a variety of programs and tasks, including designing test specifications for paper- and computer-delivered language testing programs, coordinating reliability and standard-setting studies, conducting validity research, and designing curriculum surveys. He has had primary responsibility for creating multiple-choice items and constructed-response tasks and for directing constructed-response scoring.
Prior to ETS, he had 4 years of teaching experience, primarily in the fields of Spanish and English as a foreign language, in the United States and Uzbekistan. He is proficient in English and Spanish. In addition, he has studied Uzbek and Russian.