50th Celebration Keynote Speaker

Celebrating 50 Years

Keynote Speaker Biography | W. James "Jim" Popham, Ed.D.

Emeritus Professor in the Graduate School of Education
at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

W. JAMES POPHAM, Ed.D. (BA, MEd University of Portland, Ed.D. Indiana University), is one of the country's foremost authorities on educational assessment, teaching, and leading. As a University of Portland student, he was active across campus as chairman of the inter-club council, KDUP, president of Upsilon Omega Chi, Blue Key national service society, International Relations Club, editor of the yearbook, Rally Squad, and the cheerleading Yell Kings. He began his career in education as a teacher in a small eastern Oregon high school where he taught English and social studies while serving as yearbook advisor, class sponsor, and tennis coach. He was a professor in the UCLA Graduate School of Education for 30 years, teaching prospective teachers about testing and how to use testing as a means toward more effective classroom instruction.

He is the author of more than 20 books and 300 articles and papers, primarily on educational testing. His most recent books are Classroom Assessment: What Teachers Need to Know, 6th Ed. (2010) and Assessment for Educational Leaders (2006), Allyn & Bacon; The Truth About Testing (2001), Test Better, Teach Better (2003), Transformative Assessment (2008) and Instruction that Measures Up (2009) ASCD; America's "Failing" Schools (2005) and Mastering Assessment (2006), Routledge; and Unlearned Lessons (2009) Harvard Education Press. In 1968, Dr. Popham established IOX Assessment Associates, a Los Angeles test-development and evaluation agency that has created statewide student achievement tests for a dozen states. In addition, he is a former president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the founding editor of its quarterly journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy.