HumRRO is proud to announce Lu Liu as the recipient of the newly established HumRRO Fellowship in Educational Measurement and Evaluation. Liu is a doctoral candidate in Measurement and Statistics at Florida State University and is expected to defend her dissertation in May 2025.
The new HumRRO fellowship recognizes a doctoral student who “demonstrates exceptional research skills, academic achievement, and professional productivity” in the areas of educational measurement and evaluation, and is in addition to the newly renamed HumRRO Fellowship in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, which has been awarded since 1998. (Read about the 2024 HumRRO I-O Fellowship winner, Ashley Sylvara.)
Becoming the first Educational Fellowship award winner is “a tremendous honor,” said Liu. “This award is meaningful to me, and I appreciate the valuable support from HumRRO.”
2024 has been a banner year for Liu: She was honored with the FSU Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems Dissertation Award, the Graduate School Dissertation Research Grant, and the FSU Congress of Graduate Students’ Conference Presentation Grant. Liu also impressed the Fellowship selection committee with her published work in six refereed publications with four more in progress.
The fellowship grants a non-renewable stipend of $18,000, which Liu plans to cover her dissertation research-related expenses. “The award not only financially supports me—allowing me more time on my research—it also psychologically supports me by acknowledging what I have achieved and what I plan to study and contribute to the field,” said Liu.
“One of the most rewarding things we do at HumRRO is recognizing upcoming, talented researchers, and now we get to do it twice by rewarding two scholars who will be making a difference in their respective fields,” said President and CEO, Suzanne Tsacoumis, Ph.D. “We are thrilled that Lu is the inaugural recipient of the HumRRO Fellowship in Educational Measurement and Evaluation and look forward to her accomplishments in the future.”
Liu’s dissertation, “An Investigation of Impacts of Measurement Non-Invariance on Classification Based on Test Scores,” investigates the impacts of measurement non-invariance when test scores are used to classify individuals into categories (e.g., pass vs. fail). She was inspired by collaborating with researchers in substantive areas and consultant work to help students with statistical analysis, measurement, and research design.
“In my contact with applied researchers and practitioners, I felt that they often cared more about whether measurement non-invariance impacts the usefulness of a test in terms of practical purposes (e.g., classification), in comparison to whether measurement non-invariance exists,” Liu explained. “This inspired me to systematically investigate practical consequences of measurement non-invariance, giving rise to my dissertation topic.”
Liu would also like to thank her advisor, Yanyun Yang, Ph.D., professor of Measurement and Statistics in the Department of Educational Psychology & Learning Systems, for her “helpful and thought-provoking mentoring.”
Applications for next year’s HumRRO Fellowship in Educational Measurement and Evaluation will open on April 1, 2025.
