Chad Buckendahl, Ph.D.
Founding Partner
Chad has more than two decades of experience designing, evaluating, and working with certification, licensure, professional credentialing, and educational assessment programs. He specializes in evaluation and quality assurance at the intersection of psychometrics, policy, and practice.
He received his Ph.D. in Quantitative and Qualitative Methods in Education from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL) and a Master of Legal Studies from UNL’s College of Law. Chad’s training prepared him for the role of co-principal investigator on an evaluation of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), leading alignment and standard setting studies for credentialing and education assessment programs, designing and developing credentialing programs, and serving as an expert witness in testing-related legal challenges. He also held executive level positions in academia and a testing solutions organization before co-founding ACS Ventures in 2016.
Chad’s research interests include assessment evaluation, program design, standard setting, and legal issues. He appreciates opportunities to collaborate with assessment program groups on creative and pragmatic solutions that bridge theory and practice.
Committed to professional volunteer work, Chad has served on a variety of accreditation, credentialing, professional associations, and task forces, such as: Mission Fund and Budget and Finance for the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), editorial boards for Educational Measurement: Issues & Practice, International Journal of Testing, and Frontiers in Education, Conference and program chair for the Association of Test Publishers (ATP. He also served as a psychometric reviewed and chaired the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA), and the Accreditation Services Council, and other technical advisory committees for national and international education and credentialing programs.
Chad contributes to professional publications promoting research and evidence-based industry practices. He co-edited Testing in the Professions, a volume on credentialing sponsored by NCME that is available through open source. He mentors emerging professionals in the psychometric field both within the ACS and beyond.
An avid music fan, you will find Chad looking for concert opportunities while also maintaining his fan status of the Celtics, Orioles, Vegas Golden Knights, and Husker football and volleyball teams. He likes to start his day with a run and enjoys reading biographies and almost anything related to value investing when he travels for work within the U.S. and internationally.
Dr. Buckendahl’s Selected Scholarly Research
Selected Publications/Presentations
Wiley, A. & Buckendahl, C. (2020). Your guess is as good as ours. Educational measurement: Issues and practice, 39(3), 49-52.
Buckendahl, C. W. (2017). Understanding credentialing’s role in workforce development. In S. Davis-Becker & C. Buckendahl (Eds.). Testing in the professions: Credentialing policies and practice. (pp. 1-20). New York, NY: Routledge.
Buckendahl, C. (2017). Clarifying the blurred lines between credentialing and education exams. Clear Exam Review, XXVI(2), 23-27.
Buckendahl, C. & Gerrow, J. (2016). Evaluating the impact of releasing an item pool on a test’s empirical characteristics. Journal of Dental Education, 80(10), 1253-1260.
Buckendahl, C. W. (2016). Public perceptions of educational assessment. In G. Brown & L. Irvin (Eds.), Handbook of social and human conditions in assessment. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Davis-Becker, S. L. & Buckendahl, C. W. (2013). A proposed framework for evaluating alignment studies. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 31(1), 23-33.
Buckendahl, C. & Davis-Becker, S. (2012). Setting passing standards for credentialing examinations. In G. J. Cizek (Ed.), Setting performance standards: Foundations, methods, and innovations (2nd ed., pp. 485-502). New York, NY: Routledge.
Davis-Becker, S., Buckendahl, C., & Gerrow, J. (2011). Implications of random ordering on the bookmark standard setting method. International Journal of Testing, 11(1), 24-37.
Buckendahl, C., Ferdous, A. & Gerrow, J. (2010). Recommending cut scores with a subset of items: An empirical illustration. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 15(6).
Buckendahl, C. & Plake, B. (2006). Evaluating Tests. In S. Downing & T. Haladyna (Eds.), Handbook of Test Development (pp. 725-738). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Selected Recent Presentations
Henderson, J., Buckendahl, C. Carroll, S., & Franco, M. (November, 2021). Integrating innovation in your credentialing program: Implications for your validity argument. Presentation at the annual meeting of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence. Nashville, TN.
Buckendahl, C., Roschewski, P. Middlestead, A., Pinsonneault, L., & Loving-Ryder, S. (June, 2019). Equity: The “dance” between practice, policy, and politics. Presentation at the annual National Conference on Student Assessment. Orlando, FL.
Buckendahl, C., Kavanaugh, J., & Barnhill, G. (November, 2018). Cut to the core: Strategies for practice analysis. A presentation at the annual meeting of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence. Austin, TX.
Buckendahl, C., Forte, E., & Donahue, B. (September, 2018). Assessment literacy for policymakers. A presentation at the annual meeting of the European Association of Test Publishers. Athens, Greece.
Buckendahl, C. (April, 2018). Standard setting studies: Exploring frameworks, timelines, and methodologies. Invited presentation at the annual meeting of the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Philadelphia, PA.
Buckendahl, C. (April, 2017). Applying the Standards to Gulino: An expert witness perspective. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education. San Antonio, TX.