Mark Wilson

Mark R. Wilson is a Distinguished Professor of Education in the Berkeley School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Berkeley Evaluation and Assessment Research (BEAR) Center. He is also Professor in the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at the University of Melbourne. Born in Melbourne, Australia, Wilson holds a PhD in Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistical Analysis from the University of Chicago (1984), an MEd in Educational Statistics and Measurement from the University of Melbourne (1981), a Diploma in Education (1976), and a BSc (Honors) in Mathematics (1975) from the same university. His career began as a Grade 5 teacher in Australia (1977-1978) and research officer at the Australian Council for Educational Research (1979-1981, 1984-1985). He joined UC Berkeley as Visiting Assistant Professor in 1986, progressing to Assistant Professor (1989-1993), Associate Professor (1993-1995), Professor (1995-2021), and Distinguished Professor (2022-present). He served as Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Head Graduate Advisor (1994-1996) and Chair of the Faculty (2017-2020).

Wilson's academic interests focus on measurement and applied statistics, spanning the development of new statistical models for measurement data analysis, assessments in science education, patient-reported outcomes, child development, and policy issues in assessment accountability systems. He has authored or edited numerous influential works, including Constructing Measures: An Item Response Modeling Approach (2005; 2nd ed., 2023), Explanatory Item Response Models: A Generalized Linear and Nonlinear Approach (2004, with Paul De Boeck), Towards Coherence Between Classroom Assessment and Accountability (2004), and Measurement Across the Sciences (2nd ed., 2023, with L. Mari and A. Maul). Highly cited publications include his 1997 paper on the multidimensional random coefficients multinomial logit model (over 1,600 citations) and contributions to Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards (2014). With 167 refereed articles, 74 invited chapters, and 15 books, his scholarship has shaped educational measurement practices. Wilson has secured major research grants exceeding $30 million from NSF, IES, and others. His honors include the 2020 NCME Career Contributions Award, 2019 AERA E.F. Lindquist Award, fellowships from AERA and APA, National Academy of Education membership, and presidencies of the Psychometric Society (2011-12) and NCME. He is the founding editor of Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives and has led National Research Council committees on science achievement assessment and value-added methods.

Professional Email: MarkW@berkeley.edu