David Andrich is an

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

academic and assessment specialist. He has made substantial contributions to quantitative social science including seminal work on the Polytomous Rasch model for measurement, which is used in the social sciences, in health and other areas. Andrich is currently a Winthrop Professor at the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

, where he holds the Chapple Chair in Education. He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia in 1990 for contributions to measurement in the social sciences. Andrich also worked with

Georg Rasch Georg William Rasch () (21 September 1901 – 19 October 1980) was a Danish mathematician, statistician, and psychometrician, most famous for the development of a class of measurement models known as Rasch models. He studied with R.A. Fisher an ...

in Denmark and Australia. He is one of the most prominent advocates of Rasch's probabilistic measurement models.

Biography

Education

David Andrich completed his BSc in mathematics and applied mathematics at the

. He briefly taught high school mathematics and worked in the curriculum branch of the Education Department of Western Australia, before being appointed to the Department of Education at The University of Western Australia. Andrich completed his PhD at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

MESA A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge, or hill, bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and standing distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks, such as shales, capped by a ...

program in the School of Education in 1973. His PhD Committee consisted of Benjamin D Wright, R Darrell Bock, and Shelby J. Haberman. In 1977, he spent six months as a fellow of the Danish Institute for Educational Research working with the late Danish mathematician

, and he spent another six months as a research fellow at the University of Chicago working with Benjamin D W. In 1986, he spent a further six months at the University of Chicago.

Career

In 1990 and in 1993 and 1996, Andrich was appointed a visiting professor at the University of Trento in Italy for periods of two months. In 1986, he took up the position of Professor of Education at Murdoch University, where he worked until 2007. During that time, he was the Dean of Education at Murdoch University from 1988-1990 inclusive, and from June 2003 until end May 2005. In 2007, he returned to The University of Western Australia as Chapple Professor of Education. Andrich has been a member of editorial boards for a number of journals including '' Psychometrika'' (1995–2003), '' Applied Psychological Measurement'' (1986-), the '' Journal of Educational Measurement'' (1984–1989) and '' Australian Journal of Education'' (1990–1993). He has written a number of reports for both the state and federal governments, and in 1990 he was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia for his contributions to measurement in the social sciences. He continues to teach educational measurement. He is especially known for his work in

item response theory In psychometrics, item response theory (IRT, also known as latent trait theory, strong true score theory, or modern mental test theory) is a paradigm for the design, analysis, and scoring of Test (student assessment), tests, questionnaires, and sim ...

, with a particular focus on Rasch models for measurement. His research and work ranges from the philosophy of measurement, through model developments, exposition and interpretation, to software development. He has published in Educational, Psychological, Sociological and Statistical journals. He is the author of Rasch Models for Measurement (Sage) and coauthor of the software package Rasch Unidimensional Measurement Models (RUMMLab). He has published extensively in areas ranging from

Rasch model The Rasch model, named after Georg Rasch, is a psychometric model for analyzing categorical data, such as answers to questions on a reading assessment or questionnaire responses, as a function of the trade-off between the respondent's abilities, ...

s to philosophy of science. Some of these publications are listed in articles on the Rasch model and polytomous Rasch model. Andrich has organized a series of conferences on Rasch measurement models hosted in Perth, Western Australia, which have attracted researchers from a wide array of countries. He has held major grants with the Australian Research Council continuously since 1985. As recognition for his works, he was awarded the Susan Colver Rosenberger prize for his research while completing his PhD at the University of Chicago.

Major publications

* Andrich, D. (1988) ''Rasch Models for Measurement''. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Biography

Education

Career

Major publications

References

External links