Jesse R. Sparks is a managing senior research scientist leading the Personalization Innovation Research Program within the ETS Research Institute and director of the NAEP Survey Assessment Innovations Laboratory (SAIL) research initiative. She completed her Ph.D. in Learning Sciences with a certificate in Cognitive Science at Northwestern University. Her research at ETS has focused on applying theory and research in the cognitive and learning sciences—especially areas of multiple source comprehension, discourse processing, social contexts of learning, and design of learning environments—toward the evidence-centered design of digital assessments for literacy, science, and social science domains. This includes scenario-based tasks that provide an overarching purpose, narrative, and virtual characters, game-based assessments that support student engagement, and adaptive assessments that capture and respond to students’ background characteristics and dynamic solution processes.
Jesse R. Sparks | LinkedIn
Last updated: 1/3/2025