Howard Wainer
Encyclopedia
Early life
Howard Wainer was born Howard Charles Goldhaber in BrooklynBrooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
on October 26, 1943. In 1948 his father Meyer Goldhaber, an anatomist by education and a dentist by profession, died of complications from a bleeding ulcer at the age of 35. Howard, his brother and his mother moved in with his mother's parents. After two years his mother married Sam Wainer, a local businessman, and the family relocated to Long Island. Howard was formally adopted by his mother's new husband and took the surname Wainer.
Education
Early on Wainer showed an aptitude for science and mathematics. In 1960, at the end of his junior year in high school, he was accepted into a National Science Foundation honors program at Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. He spent two hours traveling on subway and bus each way to and from Columbia, learning about Markov chains and number theory in the morning and working on the IBM 650 computer in the afternoon.
Wainer's experiences at Columbia motivated him to continue his studies along similar lines. He matriculated at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's...
in 1961 to study mathematics. It was at R.P.I. that Wainer first encountered psychometrics. There, Professor George Boguslavsky was so impressed with his abilities and enthusiasm that he recommended Wainer for a Psychometric Fellowship at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
under Harold Gulliksen. Wainer received his B.S. from R.P.I. in mathematics in 1965 and a Ph.D. from Princeton in psychometrics in 1968.
Career
Howard Wainer began his teaching career at Temple UniversityTemple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
in 1968, staying on as an Assistant Professor until 1970. After Temple he taught at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, as a member of the Committee on Methodology in the department of Behavioral Sciences until 1977. Wainer then moved to Washington DC to join the Bureau of Social Science Research, a nonprofit organization that focused on policy research. During his time in DC Wainer also joined with Richard Roistacher and Barbara Noble in founding Multiple Technical Services, a small firm that provided statistical and computational advice to the DC research community. In 1980 he moved to Princeton NJ to become a Principal Research Scientist at the Educational Testing Service
Educational Testing Service
Educational Testing Service , founded in 1947, is the world's largest private nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization...
, a position he held for 21 years. In 2001 he assumed his current position as Distinguished Research Scientist at the National Board of Medical Examiners
National Board of Medical Examiners
The National Board of Medical Examiners , founded in 1915, is a United States examination board which sets state recognised examinations for medical students. The NBME is an independent, not-for-profit organization and is headquartered on and adjacent to the University City Science Center research...
. Wainer is also an adjunct Professor of Statistics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Contributions to statistics
Since 1974 when he published his first article on statistical graphics, an empirical verification of the efficacy of the suspended rootogram, Howard Wainer has been a tireless advocate for the efficacy of graphics for communicating quantitative phenomena. He is one of the principals responsible for the renewed importance of graphics in statistics. In addition to the three books he authored on graphical methods, he was also responsible for the English translation of two of the masterworks in the field by the French semiologist Jacques BertinJacques Bertin
Jacques Bertin was a French cartographer and theorist, known from his book Semiologie Graphique , edited in 1967...
.
Wainer’s approach to the study of graphics has always shown a deep respect for the work of those who had preceded him. In 2007 he arranged for the publication of replica volumes of William Playfair's
William Playfair
William Playfair was a Scottish engineer and political economist, the founder of graphical methods of statistics....
Atlas as well as his Statistical Breviary, the first books on the subject. In them he collaborated with Ian Spence on an extended introduction to Playfair and a biography of him.
Wainer has done extensive work on problems in psychometrics
Psychometrics
Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement...
. He has authored, co-authored or edited the principal texts in five of the major areas of the subject: test scoring, test validity
Test validity
Test validity concerns the test and assessment procedures used in psychological and educational testing, and the extent to which these measure what they purport to measure...
, computerized adaptive testing, test fairness, and, most recently, on a theory of testlets.
Wainer has published more than 350 articles, chapters and books. His latest book Uneducated Guesses debunks a number of currently popular but deeply flawed ideas on educational policy. Wainer has, for the past 20 years, written the popular column “Visual Revelations” for Chance magazine. Wainer edited the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics from 2002 through 2004 as well as being an associate editor of a handful of statistical and psychometric journals. He is currently on the Board of Editors of Significance, the new joint publication of the American Statistical Association and the Royal Statistical Society.
He has also served on the front lines of educational practice by working for many years as a consultant for teachers’ unions, with a five-year hiatus when he served on the Princeton Board of Education. He has also served, in many capacities, as a consultant and advisor to government and industry.
Awards and honors
Howard Wainer is the recipient of numerous awards and honors: He is a Fellow of the American Statistical AssociationAmerican Statistical Association
The American Statistical Association , is the main professional US organization for statisticians and related professions. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest, continuously operating professional society in the United States...
and the American Educational Research Association. He was given a Career Achievement Award for Contributions to Educational Measurement by the National Council on Measurement in Education in 2007 and the Samuel J. Messick Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions from Division 5 of the American Psychological Association in 2009. His work on testlets was recognized when he received the Award for Scientific Contribution to a Field of Educational Measurement from the National Council on Measurement in Education in 2006. His book Graphic Discovery was named by Choice as the “Best Math book of 2005”. He was a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, and the American College Testing organization. He also received the Educational Testing Service’s Senior Scientist Award in 1990.
See also
- Computerized adaptive testing
- Differential item functioningDifferential item functioningDifferential item functioning occurs when people from different groups with the same latent trait have a different probability of giving a certain response on a questionnaire or test. DIF analysis provides an indication of unexpected behavior by item on a test...
- Test validityTest validityTest validity concerns the test and assessment procedures used in psychological and educational testing, and the extent to which these measure what they purport to measure...