Frederic Mather Lord (November 12, 1912 – February 5, 2000) was a

psychometrician Psychometrics is a field of study within psychology concerned with the theory and technique of measurement. Psychometrics generally covers specialized fields within psychology and education devoted to testing, measurement, assessment, and rela ...

for

Educational Testing Service Educational Testing Service (ETS), founded in 1947, is the world's largest private educational testing and assessment organization. It is headquartered in Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, Lawrence Township, New Jersey, but has a P ...

. The

SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and Test score, scoring have changed several times. For much of its history, it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test ...

, GRE,

GMAT The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT ( ())) is a computer adaptive test (CAT) intended to assess certain analytical, quantitative, verbal, and data literacy skills for use in admission to a graduate management program, such as a Mast ...

LSAT The Law School Admission Test (LSAT ) is a standardized test administered by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) for prospective law school candidates. It is designed to assess reading comprehension and logical reasoning. The test is ...

and

TOEFL Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL ) is a standardized test to measure the English language ability of non-native speakers wishing to enroll in English-speaking universities. The test is accepted by more than 11,000 universities an ...

are all based on Lord's research.

Early life

Lord was born on November 12, 1912, in Hanover, New Hampshire. His great-great-grandfather, Nathan Lord, served as the sixth president of

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

, from which Lord graduated with a bachelor's degree in Sociology in 1936. He later earned a master's degree in Educational Psychology from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

, followed by a PhD in Psychology from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1951.

Career

Lord first worked for the Carnegie Foundation in 1944. By 1950, he began working for the

(ETS). He was the source of much of the seminal research on

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 ...

, including two important books: ''Statistical Theories of Mental Test Scores'' (1968, with Melvin R. Novick, and two chapters by

Allan Birnbaum Allan Birnbaum (May 27, 1923 – July 1, 1976) was an American statistician who contributed to statistical inference, foundations of statistics, statistical genetics, statistical psychology, and history of statistics. Life and career Birnbaum was ...

), and ''Applications of Item Response Theory to Practical Testing Problems'' (1980). Lord's research shaped the

, GRE,

and the

. Lord was called the "Father of Modern Testing" by the

National Council on Measurement in Education The National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) is a U.S. based professional organization for assessment, evaluation, testing, and other aspects of educational measurement. NCME was launched in 1938 and previously operated under the name Na ...

Personal life and death

Lord was married twice. He had three sons with his first wife. His second wife was Muriel Kendall. Lord died on February 5, 2000, in

Naples, Florida Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 19,115, down from 19,539 at the 2010 census. Naples is a principal city of the Collier County, Florida, Naples–Marc ...

, at 87.

References

1912 births 2000 deaths People from Hanover, New Hampshire Dartmouth College alumni University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development alumni Princeton University alumni 20th-century American mathematicians Psychometricians Fellows of the American Statistical Association APA Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology recipients {{US-statistician-stub