معرفی
Dena Pastor is a Professor of Graduate Psychology and Associate Director for Assessment Operations at James Madison University (JMU). She oversees JMU’s biannual Assessment Days, managing logistics for over 3,700 students and leading the Assessment Day/Data Management Team. Her role includes coordinating civic engagement initiatives as the assessment liaison to the Madison Center for Civic Engagement.
Dr. Pastor holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology/Measurement and Statistics (2001) and a B.A. in Psychology (1995), both from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on low-stakes testing behavior, civic engagement assessment, and advanced statistical methodologies like multilevel modeling and mixture modeling.
Her recent work explores examinee motivation in testing environments, the impact of priming techniques on test engagement, and the evaluation of campus-wide civic programs. She has also developed assessment tools such as the Student Opinion Scale to measure test-taking motivation and analyzed item position effects in low-stakes testing contexts.
Dr. Pastor frequently collaborates with graduate students and institutional teams, emphasizing data-driven approaches to improve educational outcomes and institutional effectiveness. Her contributions span both quantitative research methods and applied assessment strategies in higher education.
