Jessica Andrews Todd is a managing senior research scientist in the Research division at ETS. She joined the organization in 2014 after completing her Ph.D. in learning sciences at Northwestern University. During her doctoral studies, she conducted research examining the cognitive processes underlying collaborative learning, focusing particularly on how people acquire accurate and inaccurate information as a function of their collaborative experiences. She explored how social (e.g., partner competence or group membership) and contextual factors (e.g., performance pressure) influence the extent to which individuals learn from others.
She has leveraged her graduate work, including knowledge of theories in the learning sciences and cognitive sciences, to support her work at ETS. Her research at ETS explores the use of digital environments in supporting student learning. Her work further focuses on developing and applying approaches for identifying the measurable components of complex constructs such as collaborative problem solving and reasoning up from learner behaviors in fine-grained log data from games and simulations to inferences about high-level proficiencies.
Andrews Todd’s work has been funded by the National Science Foundation (DUE 1535224, DUE 1400545), the Institute of Education Sciences (R305A170432, R305B160008), and the Gordon Commission/MacArthur Foundation. She is also a member of multiple assessment and learning organizations, including the American Educational Research Association, the International Society of the Learning Sciences, and the National Council on Measurement in Education. She has served as a reviewer for several publication venues, such as Computers in Human Behavior, International Journal of Testing, Journal of Educational Measurement, Discourse Processes, and International Journal of STEM Education.