Written in Partnership with Amir BakianPsychometrics refers to using certain operating procedures based on psychological theory to determine a quantitative value for a person’s psychological characteristics and behaviors such as ability, personality, and mental health, based on psychological theories and specific operational procedures. Through scientific, objective, and standardized measurement methods, psychometrics analyzes and evaluates specific qualities of individuals and has been widely applied in various fields for different populations. As a seasoned expert in psychological measurement and educational assessment, Jiaqi Zhang has innovatively combined psychometrics and educational evaluation with big data algorithms and artificial intelligence. His work has significantly contributed to the reform of educational evaluation.
Empowering with “Big Data + Algorithms” for Smarter Educational Assessment
In the early 20th century, American psychologists like Thorndike applied the basic principles and methods of psychological statistics and measurement to education, paving the way for the scientific development of psychological measurement and educational assessment. These assessments have played a crucial role in talent selection, personalized teaching, educational evaluation, and research. For over a decade, Jiaqi Zhang has continuously advanced in the field of psychological assessment and educational evaluation by applying big data and algorithms to the education and psychology sectors, effectively bridging academic research with educational practice.
Born in 1988 in a warm family in Chengdu, Jiaqi Zhang developed a keen sensitivity to numbers from a young age. During the summer of his first year in junior high school in 2000, his mother taught him stock trading, marking his first encounter with using data to solve real-world problems. Without understanding market trends or policies, Jiaqi Zhang began to observe and study offline stock exchanges, finding a new indicator for buying and selling stocks based on the foot traffic in stock exchanges. Initially, he bought low and sold high, but after systematically learning mathematics and modeling methodologies in university, he started solving problems and guiding stock investments with big data.
Jiaqi Zhang’s deepening interest in mathematics and data led him to pursue further education, earning master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Cincinnati, USA. His doctoral research focused on psychological measurement and educational assessment, using big data algorithms to objectively and comprehensively evaluate individuals’ abilities, potential, and overall quality, thereby creating talent portfolios. These assessments have played an important role in personal self-assessment, educational quality monitoring, and corporate recruitment.
After obtaining his Ph.D., Jiaqi Zhang continued his research as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Engineering Education at the University of Cincinnati for two years. During this time, he fully utilized various data sources, such as learner, academic, non-academic, consumption, and teacher data, to undertake several important projects and published over thirty academic papers in core journals and conferences.
In 2013, Jiaqi Zhang participated in the “Personal Responsibility Education Program” (PREP) in the United States, aimed at 10-19-year-olds who were homeless, in foster care, living in rural areas, or from areas with high rates of infant birth and among minority youth. The program measured and educated these youth in six areas: healthy relationships, adolescent development, financial literacy, parent-child communication, educational and career success, and healthy life skills. Jiaqi Zhang conducted a four-year longitudinal study of nearly 600 high school students in Ohio, significantly reducing the incidence of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections among these youth. His outstanding performance in this project earned him the “Holmes Scholar” honor from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, and he was further selected as the president of the Holmes Scholar program for two terms from 2019 to 2024, gaining industry-wide recognition.
Remarkable Achievements! Assisting in the Educational Evaluation Reform of Kindergartens, Primary, Middle, and High Schools
After returning to China, Jiaqi Zhang worked in various positions at Hangzhou Hailiang Education Group and Shenzhen SKT Education Group ranging from chief researcher to director of research and development. He has always focused on providing new practical pathways for educational evaluation reform through measurement and evaluation research, achieving rich results across different ages and educational stages.
In the field of preschool education, Jiaqi Zhang led his team to develop the “HEEP Child Observation and Assessment System” (HEEP-COAS), an innovative system that comprehensively monitors various aspects of preschool children’s learning and development by integrating their actual developmental situations. Based on the content of HEEP-COAS and the children’s current status during daily teaching activities, teachers can quickly identify children’s current developmental status and discover their developmental areas. Based on children’s daily activities, the “growth evidence” recorded by teachers can serve as an archive of the children’s development and progress, forming a scientific child development report. This report helps preschool managers and parents understand and grasp the children’s developmental status in a timely manner. Currently, the system has served nearly 40 schools and over 9,000 infants and preschool children, receiving continuous praise from schools and parents.
In the K-12 education stage, Jiaqi Zhang innovatively developed the Basic Education Quality Evaluation System for the K-12 stage. Through the evaluation and data collection of both learning-related and non-learning-related situations of K-12 learners, the system has served nearly 200 schools and over 50,000 K-12 students. It has achieved data visualization for educational and teaching-related parties at all levels, allowing them to understand learners’ periodic and fluctuating situations scientifically and conveniently, effectively helping learners grow in a personalized manner.
In higher education,Jiaqi Zhang established the SASI (Student Attitudinal Success Inventory) scale, monitoring the dropout situation of American undergraduate engineering students in their first year, providing early warnings of potential dropouts, and promptly giving feedback to mentors for improved support. Through this system, several schools have maintained and continuously increased a learner retention rate of over 85% for two consecutive years, laying a crucial foundation for the construction of national STEM talents in the United States.
In 2022, Jiaqi Zhang accepted the invitation from Shenzhen SKT Education Group to lead the research and development department in research-oriented learning activities for international literacy. He led the team to continuously innovate and refine research-oriented learning products from an evaluation perspective, providing consulting and services to nearly 60,000 international education students, achieving a leading position in the industry. With outstanding research achievements in international education and quality education, Jiaqi Zhang was also invited to serve as a judge for numerous professional projects such as NEC, BPA, and HOSA, and received judging certifications from professional organizations such as CEE, BPA, and HOSA.
As a member of the Professional Committee on Psychometrics and Statistics in China and a member of the National Council on Measurement in Education in the United States, Jiaqi Zhang has participated in the professional consultation of multiple educational evaluation projects as a senior expert consultant, providing valuable suggestions for the reform of educational evaluation and laying the foundation for psychological measurement and educational evaluation. It has made important contributions to the high-quality development and continuous progress of the industry.
“In the wave of educational evaluation reform, accurate evaluation data, scientific evaluation systems, appropriate data application, cautious data interpretation, and personalized solutions are important guarantees for the effective role of evaluation as a guiding baton,” said Jiaqi Zhang. Looking to the future, Jiaqi Zhang expressed that he will stay true to his original aspiration, researching and exploring more accurate, comprehensive, and user-friendly evaluation products and services to support educational evaluation reform.
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