On September 30, the Department of Educational Psychology kicked off its 2015-2016 Colloquium series with a talk from John Sabatini, Ph.D., “Assessing reading for understanding: A theory-based, developmentally-sensitive approach.” Dr. Sabatini spoke about his work as principal investigator of the Institute for Educational Sciences (IES) funded grant under the Reading for Understanding initiative to develop pre K-12 comprehension assessments.

Dr.  Sabatini is a principal research scientist from the Educational Testing Service’s Global Research Center, Research & Development Division and co-investigator on several other funded projects exploring the reading processes of adolescents, English language learners, and students with reading-based disabilities. His research interests and expertise include: reading literacy development and disabilities, assessment, cognitive psychology, and educational technology. John regularly provides technical and research advice to national and international surveys, including the National Assessments of Adult Literacy (NAAL), Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), and Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PISA).

Sabatini’s talk was the first in a series of four colloquiums hosted in partnership by the Department of Educational Psychology and the Yackel Endowment during the 2015-2016 school year. The next event is scheduled for November 18 and features Carol McDonald Connor, Ph.D. Dr. Connor is a professor at Arizona State University and a senior research scientist at the Institute for the Science of Teaching and Learning. She’ll discuss her projects on Assessment-to-Instruction (A2i) and Content Area Literacy Instruction (CALI) intervention for K-4.